Obiageli Ezekwesili

Obiageli Ezekwesili
Federal Minister of Solid Minerals, Nigeria
In office June 2005 – June 2006
Preceded by	Odion Ugbesia
Federal Minister of Education, Nigeria
In office June 2006 – April 2007
Preceded by	Chinwe Obaji
Succeeded by	Abba Sayyadi Ruma
Personal details
Born	April 28, 1963
Profession	Chartered accountant, economic policy

Obiageli Ezekwesili is a Nigerian chartered accountant. She was a co-founder of Transparency International, serving as one of the pioneer directors of the global anti-corruption body based in Berlin, Germany. She served as Federal Minister of Solid Minerals and then as Federal Minister of Education during the second-term presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo. Since then, she served as the Vice-President of the World Bank's Africa division from May 2007 to May 2012, she was replaced by Makhtar Diop.

Education

Ezekwesili holds a Master's degree in International Law and Diplomacy from the University of Lagos, as well as a Master of Public Administration degree from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She trained with the firm of Deloitte and Touche and qualified as a chartered accountant.

Prior to working for the Government of Nigeria, Ezekwesiili was working with Professor Jeffrey Sachs at the Center for International Development at Harvard.

Obasanjo government

Ezekwesili started off in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration as the Pioneer head of the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (aka Due Process Unit). It was in this position that she earned the sobriquet of "Madam Due Process" for the outstanding work she led a team of professionals to do in sanitising public procurement or contracting at the Federal level in Nigeria. She was the architect of the Bureau for Public Procurement legislation, the NEITI legislation and the new Minerals and Mining legislation during her six and a half years stint in government.

She was appointed Minister of Solid Minerals (Mines and Steel) in June 2005 during which time she led a vibrant reform program that led to Nigeria's global recognition as a credible mining investment destination. She was also the Chairperson of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and led the first ever national implementation of the global standards and principles of transparency in the oil, gas and mining sector.

In June 2006, Ezekwesili was appointed the Federal Minister of Education, holding this post until she took up her World Bank appointment in May 2007.

Later career

In March 2007, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz announced the appointment of Ezekwesili as Vice-President for the Africa Region starting on 1 May 2007. This year, she successfully completed her stint as the World Bank Vice-President Africa Division, a position to which she was appointed in 2007. As vice-president she was in charge of the bank's operations in 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and supervised a lending portfolio of over $40 billion.

Since leaving the World bank she has established herself in the Nigerian and international speaking circuits.

She was a co-founder of Transparency International and served as one of its pioneer directors. As a senior economic advisor for Open Society, a group founded by billionaire George Soros, she advises nine reform-committed African heads of state including Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia.

On 1 October 2012, one of the world's leading telecommunications firm, Bharti Airtel, with operations in 20 countries, named Ezekwesili as a director on its board. She is also on the boards of World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the School of Public Policy of Central European University, The Harold Hartog School of Government and Policy, New African magazine, The Center for Global Leadership @ Tufts University.

In May 2012, Ezekwesili was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science (DSC) degree by the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta in Nigeria.

Advocacy and #BringBackOurGirls campaign

In March 2014, she delivered a keynote speech at the national summit of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the leading opposition party in Nigeria. She criticised the many migrating governors and urged the party to " a conversation deeper than how you're going to chase (the ruling)PDP out of power".

In the aftermath of the nearly 300 mainly Christian girls were abducted from Chibok by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram., Ezekwesili was instrumental to the start of the viral #BringBackOurGirls campaign on social media, which trended internationally. She had on 23 April, at the opening ceremony for a UNESCO event honouring the city of Port Harcourt as the 2014 World Book Capital city]], urged Nigerians to not just tweet but actively participate in efforts to "bring back our girls".

As she prepared to board a British Airways flight to London to appear on the BBC programme Hard Talk in July 2014, she was detained by Nigeria's secret service, the SSS, who also seized her passport. She was later released that morning, making it just in time to the plane.

Some of the personalities who have supported the clamouring for the release of the abducted schoolgirls and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign include: Michelle Obama, Chris Brown and others.

External links

• Interview with Obiageli Ezekwesili, Vice President for the World Bank Africa Region. The World Bank, November–December 2007