I’ve Been Turning Down Ministerial Appointments Since 2007 – Oby Ezekwesili

Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, a former Minister of Education, said she had been adamant since 2007 not to consider another ministerial post.

Yesterday, Ezekwesili stated this in a series of tweets, adding that she had previously refused ministerial appointments.

President Muhammadu Buhari was supposed to nominate Ezekwesili as a minister in 2015, according to her former protégé, Japheth Omojuwa, who said in an open letter that Ezekwesili was expected to be named.

Ezekwesili, who is also the Co-Convener of the Bring Back Our Girls Group, said she found becoming a minister uninteresting, and that her appointment by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the early 2000s placed a strain on her family.

“I keep wondering what it is about being a minister that these folks find so interesting, given the misery my previous service to Nigeria, even as a minister, cost my family and me?” the former Vice-President of the World Bank Africa Division tweeted.

“Finally, I got it. Such an attack is by all those who see public office as a meal. After 2007, I made a decision to never again accept any ministerial appointment in this country. Facts are all around that every time I was offered to be a minister since 2007, I swiftly turned down the offer. I know it kills some of you to accept this but it is what it is.”