THE AIG IDEA FOR PUBLIC SECTOR

The selection of Ifueko Omoigui Okauru as visiting fellow at Blavatnik School of Government is well- deserved, writes Olusegun Adeniyi

The recent confirmation of the former Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service of Nigeria (FIRS), Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui Okauru as the 2019-2020 Africa Initiative for Governance (AIG) Visiting Fellow of Practice at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, was one of the easiest decisions taken by the Advisory Board. The annual Fellowship is awarded to an individual from either Nigeria or Ghana who has demonstrated evidence of outstanding contribution to public good, through exemplary leadership.

Omoigui Okauru comes highly recommended as a public official who does her job with professionalism and integrity and that stood her out in the course of the selection process led by our Advisory Board Chairman, former President Olusegun Obasanjo. “Our partnership with AIG continues to bring inspiring individuals to the Blavatnik School and to the wider Oxford community,” said Professor Ngaire Woods, Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government, in accepting the recommendation. “We look forward to welcoming Mrs Okauru as the new AIG Fellow, and to learning from her invaluable experience of reforming and increasing the capacity of Nigeria’s tax authority.”

Past recipients of the AIG Fellowship are former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega and the immediate past (and first female) Chief Justice of Ghana, Justice (Mrs) Georgina Wood. “AIG Fellows are selected on the basis that they have a record of professional excellence in public service,” said Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, AIG founder and chairman, who added: “Our Fellowships are not just a reward for good service; they provide an opportunity for Fellows to think through the work they have done and to use the knowledge they gain at the Blavatnik School to explore other ways of adding value to public service in West Africa”.

Mrs Okauru currently serves on the boards of several reputable public and private organisations in several states in the country. During her time at the Blavatnik School, she is expected to serve as a mentor to the AIG Scholars at Oxford and to deliver a public lecture at the University. “The AIG Fellowship is, first of all, recognition of one’s work and the need for that work to be replicated,” said Mrs Okauru, “It is also a challenge to continue building on what one has done in the past, examine what others elsewhere have done and, ultimately, to be part of a coalition of people who develop solutions which will change the African continent in a meaningful, practical way”.

It has been exciting serving on the AIG Advisory Board alongside Dr Enase Okonedo, Dean of the Lagos Business School (LBS); Alhaji Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA); Mrs Yemisi Ayeni, a former finance director of the Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company; Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister of Ghana and Mr Ernest Ebi, Chairman of Fidelity Bank Plc and a former CBN Deputy-Governor. Even with former President Obasanjo as our chairman, the driving force has been Aig-Imoukhuede, the founder and promoter who remains a study in tenacity.

Taking up the goal to reform Nigeria’s public service by providing scholarships for some brilliant and career-driven young men and women as well as Fellowships for accomplished professionals is no doubt noble. However, to expect that you can create a tiny pool that would serve as a catalyst for change in a vast sea of rot is a big ask. But Aig-Imoukhuede is always looking at the positives. If we give in to discouragement, he keeps emphasising at every of our meetings, that can only hamper vision and the attainment of goal. Rather, he argues that we should target

AS AIG-IMOUKHUEDE IS WONT TO ARGUE, THE VALUE THAT A PUBLIC SERVANT PROVIDES, THROUGH THEIR KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS, IS DEPENDENT ON THE LEVEL OF INVESTMENT YOU MAKE ON THEM

incremental change. “It doesn’t matter if the big change we envisage does not happen in our lifetimes, what is important is for us to set the process in motion.”

That precisely is what Aig-Imoukhuede has been doing. Every year since 2017, AIG has awarded fully funded Scholarships to no fewer than five young, outstanding men and women from all backgrounds who are passionate about the public sector, to pursue the Master of Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government. After their study at Oxford, it is expected of every AIG Scholar to return to their home country and apply their learning experience in the public sector. The 2019/2020 AIG Scholarship recipients are Babafemi Adebola (Nigeria), Onyekachukwu Erobu (Nigeria), Nasir Mohammed (Nigeria), Kwame Sarpong (Ghana) and Hakeem Onasanya (Nigeria).

If there is any joy I derive from the annual selection process (which involves round-robin interviews and informal interactions with the prequalified candidates), it is the fact that we have several brilliant young men and women in Nigeria who are passionate about making a difference in the public sector. “I felt an overwhelming sense of joy and relief to have met the exceptionally high standards set by AIG for the prestigious Scholarship”, said Nasir Mohammed, a Mechanical Engineering graduate of King’s College, London and a member of the 2019 cohorts. “Being selected as an AIG Scholar is a vote of confidence in my latent abilities which I intend to nurture during my time at the Blavatnik School, in preparation for my contribution to public service. I intend to use this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop myself both personally and professionally,” he added.

To develop as a nation, we must improve on the human capital in the public service. Yet, as Aig-Imoukhuede is wont to argue, the value that a public servant provides, through their knowledge and skills, is dependent on the level of investment you make on them. It would appear from our experience that Ghana appreciates this point better than Nigeria, given the way their authorities have embraced the scheme. The AIG Scholarship, according to Sarpong, one the recipients from Ghana for the current session who holds degrees in Administration and Law, “is a stamp of recognition of my academic abilities and leadership potential, which not only humbles me, but also spurs me to do more for the benefit of humanity.”

Despite all the challenges, the disposition of Aig-Imoukhuede reminds me of a story I once shared in one of my ‘Platform Nigeria’ lectures of a young girl who was walking with her parents along a beach upon which thousands of fish had been washed up after a terrible storm. When she came to each fish, the girl would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. Her parents and all the people watched her with amusement. She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You cannot save all these fishes. What you are doing won’t make a difference!”

For a while, the girl kept quiet, thoroughly deflated. But in her innocence, after a few moment, she bent down, picked up another fish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man with a smile of satisfaction and said, “Well, I made a difference to that one!”

That is the spirit with which Aig-Imoukhuede nurtures AIG. To change this society, that precisely is the attitude we need. Adeniyi is Chairman, THISDAY Editorial Board