Okonjo-Iweala sets release date for her explosive book ‘ Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous’

Nigeria’s former minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s much anticipated book  ” Fighting Corruption Is Dangerous” will be released by MIT press on April 12, in Washington, DC, Per Second News gathered Wednesday.

Drawing on her experience as Nigeria’s finance minister and that of her team, she describes dangers, pitfalls, and successes in fighting corruption. She provides practical lessons learned and tells how anti-corruption advocates need to equip themselves.

Okonjo-Iweala details the numerous ways in which corruption can divert resources away from development, rewarding the unscrupulous and depriving poor people of services.

Her publisher, MIT Press,  said the book is a primer for those working to root out corruption and disrupt vested interests.

Okonjo-Iweala discovered just how dangerous fighting corruption could be when her 83-year-old mother was kidnapped in 2012 by forces who objected to some of the government’s efforts at reforms led by her — in particular a crackdown on fraudulent claims for oil subsidy payments, a huge drain on the country’s finances. The kidnappers’ first demand was that Okonjo-Iweala resign from her position on live television and leave the country. Okonjo-Iweala did not resign, her mother escaped, and the program of economic reforms continued.

“Telling my story is risky,” Okonjo-Iweala writes. “But not telling it is also dangerous.” Her book ultimately leaves us with hope, showing that victories are possible in the fight against corruption.

The book according to Stella Igwe Adesoga,  Per Second News  associate editor is “unusually intimate reckoning from a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.”