Local response in Nigeria to the resignation of one of the country’s highest profile reformers last month was ambiguous. News that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s influential former finance minister and then foreign minister, had left office was greeted with a mixture of wary surprise and weary resignation. Widely perceived to have been forced out, suspicions were aroused about why one of Nigeria’s most hard-working and effective reformers had been sidelined. But there was resignation too that, not for the first time, the interests of the country appeared to have come second to a political agenda.
The first outward sign that Ms Okonjo-Iweala was out of favour was a cabinet reshuffle on June 21. The shake-up saw the addition of new ministers to the cabinet, some dropped to pursue personal political ambitions, one axed and others shuffled around. Most conspicuous was the redeployment of Ms Okonjo-Iweala out of the finance ministry to foreign affairs, a move that caught almost everyone on the hop, not least Ms Okonjo-Iweala herself.
