SUPERMOM SPECIAL: HERO OF THE MONTH Obiageli Ezekwesili
Obiageli
Ezekwesili popularly known as Oby Ezekwesili hails from Anambra State of
Nigeria.
She obtained her Master's degree in International Law and
Diplomacy from
the University of Lagos. She
later traveled to the Unite States where she enrolled in the Kennedy School of
Government, Harvard University and obtained her Masters Degree in Public
administration. She also trained in the Accountancy firm of Deloitte and Touche and became a chartered accountant.
Ezekwesili worked with Professor Jeffrey
Sachs at the Center for International
Development at Harvard.
Obiageli
Ezekwesili co-founded Transparency
International, an anti-corruption body based in Berlin, Germany. There, she
was one of the pioneer directors. She later came back to Nigeria and served as
the Federal Minister of Solid Minerals and later as Federal Minister of
Education during the second-term of president OlusegunObasanjo. Oby Ezekwesili was once
the Vice-President of the World Bank's
Africa division, a position she held from May 2007 to May 2012.
During
the regime of president Olusegun Obasanjo Obiageli Ezekwesili
held the position of the Pioneer head of the Budget Monitoring and Price
Intelligence Unit (nick-named Due Process Unit). It was at that time
that she was given the sobriquet of "Madam Due Process" owing to the
outstanding work she led a team of professionals to do
in sanitation of the public procurement or contract award at
the Federal level in Nigeria. The Nigerian Bureau for Public Procurement
legislation can be described as her brainchild. Other legislation she
engineered include the NEITI legislation and the new Minerals and Mining
legislation.
Apart from holding positions as the Minister of Solid Minerals
(Mines and Steel) in June 2005 during which period she led a vibrant reform program
that led to Nigeria being globally recognized as a credible mining investment
destination. She was also the Chairperson of the Nigeria Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative (NEITI). It was at this period that she led the first
ever national implementation of the global standards and principles of
transparency in the oil, gas and mining sector.
Oby Ezekwesili was appointed the Federal
Minister of Education in June 2006, a position she held until she went for an
appointment in the World Bank in May 2007. Her appointment as Vice-President
for the Africa Region at the world bank was actually announced in March 2007, by President Paul
Wolfowitz.
On October 1, 2012, Bharti Airtel, one of the world's leading
telecommunications firm having operations in 20 countries, named Obiageli
Ezekwesili as a director on its board. Oby is also one of the board members of World
Wildlife Fund (WWF), The Harold Hartog School of Government and Policy,
the School of Public Policy of Central European
University, New African magazine
and The Center for Global Leadership of Tufts University.
In May 2012, the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria,
awarded Ezekwesili an honorary Doctor of Science (DSC) degree.
After nearly 300 girls were abducted from
Chibok by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram., Oby Ezekwesili
co-founded the viral #BringBackOurGirls campaign
on social media, which urges action to bring the girls back. Some international
personalities including Michelle Obama, Alicia Keys, Chris Brown and
others have identified with the clamor for the release of the
abducted schoolgirls and the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.
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