The Showcase Of Power Daily... Continuation of my Previous Blog

I phoned the Inspector General of Police. A friend suggested t catt the Chief of Army Staff, General Azubuike lhejirika, to see if he could offer some help. I made all the phone calls. At the same time, my brothers contacted Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta state, where Ogwashi-Ukwu is located, to seck his help and the help of the state security officials. All the security agencies we contacted had already heard the news, and all promised to do their best to assist.

There was no sleep that night. My father and I spent the night by our phones, waiting for the all-important call. Across the country, in south Africa and in America, the rest of my six siblings were waiting their phones because we did not know to whom the ransom demand would come or with whom the kidnappers would make contact. It was not until 11 a.m. on Monday, the second day, that my brother Onyema called from Ogwashi-Ukwu to say that the kidnappers had contacted him by calling my mother's phone, which she had left in the family room of the house. The kidnappers had asked to speak to me, but Onyema told them that I could not come to the phone and he would be negotiating on behalf of the family. My brother immediately informed the security services, and they set up a system to listen in to the discussion, assigning a lead agent, Mr. Maxson Opede, to handle this. Back in Abuja, I felt paralyzed with dread and gave no thought So of going back to work. Following the initial contact, we heard nothing for hours. Then the kidnappers called my brother back on Monday evening, and the serious discussions began. Their demand? This was where my brother and those listening in were stunned. It was not about money! They asked my brother to tell me to announce on national television and radio that I was resigning from my job as Finance Minister and leaving the country to go back to the United States, from where I came. So my brother called to tell me what the kidnappers wanted-for me to resign publicly before the whole country.

I was stunned to find that my mother had been seized as a means of blackmailing me into leaving government The first question was, Who could be behind this? I knew that the largest vested interest that I had recently offended in my anticorruption work was an unscrupulous subset of the country's oil marketers. With the President's support, I had convened a task force that audited their fiscal accounts, detecting fraudulent claims for oil subsidy payments that I, with President Goodluick Jonathan's backing, had refused to pay.

NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA