How Nigeria secured $30bn Paris Club debt relief — Okonjo-Iweala

By Abubakar Yunus

The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Wednesday recounted how a deliberate communication strategy helped Nigeria secure the landmark $30 billion Paris Club debt relief during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Okonjo-Iweala spoke in Abuja at the public presentation of The Pain and the Promise, a new book by communications expert and public affairs analyst, Paul Nwabuikwu.

Reflecting on her time as Minister of Finance, Okonjo-Iweala said she was brought in from the World Bank in 2003 to help restore Nigeria’s public finances, including negotiating the elimination of the country’s estimated $30 billion debt owed to the Paris Club of creditors.

She said the ambitious reform agenda required Nigerians to understand and support difficult economic policies.

“I had been brought in from the World Bank to help straighten up and strengthen Nigeria’s weak finances, including getting rid of the $30 billion of the country’s debt owed to the Paris Club. To do this work, I knew Nigeria would have to undertake serious economic reforms of the type that would demand understanding and sacrifices from Nigerians,” she said.

According to her, one of the key pillars of the reform programme was effective public communication, which informed her decision to recruit Nwabuikwu into the economic team.

“One important component in my mind then was that we would need a crack communications person or team to help us reach Nigerians, to explain all of this in simple language. That is where Paul came in,” she said.

Okonjo-Iweala described Nwabuikwu as “smart, articulate, compassionate, a terrific writer and communicator,” adding that his communication strategy played a significant role in the success of the reform agenda.

“I can say without fear of contradiction that we wouldn’t have had as much success with the reform programme if we had not had a masterful steering of communications from Paul,” she said.

She explained that Nwabuikwu understood that reforms in a democracy required more than policy implementation.

“Reform is not just about writing new laws and enforcing new policies. It’s about persuading people, explaining trade-offs and building enough trust that governments can keep pushing through obstacles,” she added.

The WTO chief also lamented that Nigeria’s persistent ethnic, religious and regional divisions continue to slow national development.

She said the country would struggle to achieve sustainable prosperity unless Nigerians forged a common national consensus that transcended sectional interests.

“Until Nigerians can overcome the ethnic, religious and regional divides embedded in our society to forge a social compact that agrees key directions for the nation, directions that remain steady no matter who is in government, I think Nigeria will find it difficult to move forward at the pace required to create enduring prosperity for our people,” she said.

She stressed that talent existed across every part of the country and urged Nigerians to prioritise competence over ethnic or regional considerations.

“I believe in talent from every corner of Nigeria. There’s no place in Nigeria that doesn’t have talented people. I don’t care what part of the country you come from. I just wanted you to do your job and do it professionally,” she said.

Reviewing the book, Okonjo-Iweala described The Pain and the Promise as a compelling reflection on Nigeria’s political, economic and social evolution over the past 35 years.

She said the 300-page publication combined public commentary, personal memories and historical reflections to present what she called “a portrait of a generation in the life of the most interesting, if the most chaotic, country in the world.”

She recommended the book, particularly to young Nigerians, saying it would help them better understand the country’s history and contemporary challenges.

In 2005, Nigeria secured an unprecedented $18 billion debt relief deal from the Paris Club, wiping out about 60% of its roughly $30 billion total bilateral debt.

The historic agreement was finalized under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration and completed on April 21, 2006.

Also speaking, former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, said Nigeria needs critics who understand implementation, public officials who respect criticism and citizens willing to bridge the gap between both worlds.

“There is pain, and I must say we all know that much of it is self-inflicted and not necessarily prolonged, but there is also promise in our people, in our creativity, and in the possibility of that thoughtful engagement,” he said.

Drawing a distinction between the everyday reality of Nigerian life and the machinery of the Nigerian state, Chidoka pointed to examples of ordinary citizens and the private sector transcending ethnic divisions, from widows and orphans who are cared for without regard to tribe to entrepreneurs building industries without asking where their partners are from.