Isabel Allende, a famous Chilean writer and author of novels such as The House of the Spirits and City of the Beasts, once said, “a memoir is an invitation into another person’s privacy.”
Memoirs have the capacity to wake a sleeping dog and bring even unwilling people in conflicts with memoir writers. From former President Obasanjo’s ‘My Watch’, Nasir El-Rufai’s ‘Accidental Public Servant’ to Olusegun Adeniyi’s ‘Power, Politics and Death’, writing a memoir is a trade in controversy and stirring the hornet nest.
And all the aforementioned books among others have not come and gone without leaving on their trails outbursts, rebuttals, deep-seated animosities, accusations and counter-accusations. The rank and file of punchy memoir authors got swelled up with the release few days of Ngozi-Okonjo Iweala’s latest memoir, ‘Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines’. With a page of the book, the drowsy presidential ambition of former Governor of Cross Rivers State, Donald Duke, has been sent to sleep.
Okonjo-Iweala narrated the account of how Donald Duke had been sent to her by a faceless cabal and attempted to intimidate her from accepting then President Jonathan’s invitation to her to be his Finance Minister. According to her, Duke visited her in her Washington office and told her that some vested interests did not want her to take up Jonathan’s offer so as not to “give Jonathan and his government credibility” and increase the chances of his government success.
Okonjo-Iweala discountenanced Duke’s counsel as she did not only join Jonathan’s government from inception, she went ahead to head the government’s economic team, and for the first time in Nigeria, an expanded portfolio of ‘Coordinating Minister for the Economy’ was created and headed by her, to underscore her massive influence. Okonjo-Iweala further wrote that coordinated cyber attacks on her person became resounding and recurring as Sahara Reporters took the frontal seat in these attacks which might not be unconnected with Duke’s visit and ‘counsel’.
This revelation, no doubt, jolted the Donald Duke camp. For a man who has been travelling the length and breath of Nigeria, positioning himself for the land’s number one seat, few things could be as damaging to his aspiration as the former minister’s. Donald Duke released a terse statement, which he shared via his twitter handle, alluding to the fact that he truly met Okonjo-Iweala as “friends” do but that he only cautioned her to weigh her options since her last sojourn in Obasanjo’s government left a sour taste as a result of her dismissal.
According to him, “It was “two friends” discussing careers. It ended there and she subsequently made her choice which I respected. However, I think it is in poor taste and demeaning of her to report a private conversation in whatever self laundering attempt she may be up to. With hindsight, I was vindicated, Ngozi, as Minister of Finance and Economy, despite massive revenue receipts, left Nigeria poorer than she met it.”
There is no gainsaying the fact that Okonjo-Iweala has punched a ‘friend’ below the belt with a devasting blow. In a country where ethnicity plays pivotally in its politics, Donald Duke could be perceived as betrayer since he comes from the same Niger-Delta and party as Goodluck Jonathan. Comments from certain social media handles and accounts believed to be of PDP and Niger-Delta extractions show that Duke might have an arduous task on his hand if he has to be considered as an option at all.
