# Oby Ezekwesili

Obiageli "Oby" Ezekwesili (born 28 April 1963) is an economic policy expert, an advocate for transparency, accountability, good governance and human capital development, a humanitarian and activist. She is a former vice president for the World Bank (Africa region), co-founder and founding director of Transparency International, co-founder of the #BringBackOurGirls movement and has served twice as federal Minister in Nigeria.

## Quotes

* Nigeria needs to be rescued urgently. What we see in our country is massive failure of our leaders.
** Oby Ezekwesili's reaction to 2019 Debate.
* To reduce opportunities for corruption, you do things like structural changes in the economy.
** Oby Ezekwesili's reply to question during 2019 presidential debate.
* Anyone who wants to tackle corruption must be willing to go all the way. There are no shortcuts.
** Talks on Corruption and Transparency International.
* How can the cost of education be the cost of life? It is unacceptable; it is reprehensible that we have allowed it to fester.
** [Talking about what education has become in Nigeria]
* When there is no consequences for criminality, it mushrooms.
** Quote during 2019 Presidential Debate
* The way out for our youths is jobs, jobs, jobs.
* Education has always been known as the pathway to progress. The early child education will be integrated.
INTERVIEW: 2019: Why I decided to run for President (II)– Ezekwesili byEbuka Onyeji December 9, 2018
* That week that you heard me declare. I got to the point listening to ‘these people’ carrying on as if we are in an ‘okay’ place. We only have an Atiku and Buhari, who are candidates of the BUTIKU family. It was very clear that we were back again in a situation where citizens have to say, we have to choose of between a lesser evil in the two men.
** When did you decide to run?
* I am here to change that dirty Nigerian politics. If you are waiting for me to give you money, I will not give you, I don’t have and even if I have, I will not give anybody money. You should ask your self a question: why will a person give you money to go and serve you? How does that make sense? The only explanation is that the person is not going to serve you.
** As you said, you are a pastor’s wife and we believe you are also a pastor? How do you think you can involve yourself in Nigerian politics as they say politics is a dirty game?
* What is the definition of structure? What these politicians call structure is a captive audience of Nigerians who come out when they need them to come out. You think the structure is that they build story building? No. It is that there is a captive audience of Nigerians who have bought into their message, who when they say to them, there is a meeting at the village square, they all come out.
** How do you hope to win with a party that does not have structures across the nation. In the 2015 election, your party only won few councilor seats in Osun?
* That is the point I am making, I am saying to you that the structure is the individual Nigerians, so the question you should be asking is that, do we now have people in each of these places that have bought into the message of the ACPN of today? I am here to say to you, yes we do.
** But you will need persons to represent you at all the polling units in the states.
* There is no way the movement can be abandoned. Have you not noticed how frequently we change leadership? It is a model for how to run institutions in Africa. This is a movement that has been on the basis of the sweat of Nigerians. We told ourselves from the very beginning that we will not take a dime from anybody.
** You resigned from the BBOG to take up this gauntlet. Has the movement been abandoned?
* It’s part of the 436 reforms. It’s only one out of 436 reforms. People forget that we had to do ORASS, Operation Reach All Secondary Schools. We grilled secondary school inspectors and gave them the tools and they went to every secondary school in this land and on the basis of what they did, we were able to design what is called the Nigerian Education Management Information System.
** As Minister of Education, you once tried to reposition the unity schools. Did it work?
* But education is the heartbeat of human capital development. When we say human development, we are talking of education and health. We need healthy human beings who you then give education. That is human development. The programme that we have is very interesting. Number one matter for us in the education reform programmw is to completely change the position of the teachers in our education system because research has showed us that almost 60 per cent of learning outcome is determined by the quality of the teacher in the class room.
** So how do you intend matching education with human development (if elected) which is what you are now preaching?
* Prevention! A lot of institutional structures will take care of it. For example, systemic change. During the public procurement reforms, you saw how that reduced public contracting corruption. We are going to do process change to improve service delivery. The big banana is the deregulation of the economy.
** What is your plan on corruption?
* I think the endorsement of the Nigerian people is what I’m working so hard to get right now and that is why I want all Nigerian people to get ready to vote for me. All these years, what did you get in voting in almost 20 years of our democracy? Have you not been wasting your votes? A vote for Ezekwesili gets you good governance
** How much do you value Obasanjo’s endorsement given your closeness to him, If you value it highly, have you gone to get it?