Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala sat down with me to discuss politics, petroleum and perseverance. A video and transcript of our conversation follows.
Steve Forbes: Madame Minister, thank you for coming by.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: Thank you, Mr. Forbes.
Forbes: Leadership is often defined as a character. Can you share with us the story of how you saved your sister during the civil war, Biafran War, in the late 1960s.
Okonjo-Iweala: Well, thank you, Mr. Forbes. I think that's a very personal and a very difficult story for me because it brings back really tough memories. You know but, during the war, which the Nigeria Biafra War, which was 1967 to 1970, my father was a brigadier in the Biafran army. My mother and I worked for a while, you know, in kitchens that prepared dry food packs for soldiers. You know, at a point in time we lost everything. We were running from place to place just like many people in Biafra at the time. And we ended up in a village called Isiekenesi on the Biafran side at that time. My father was in the army compound. We were, my mother was with us, alone. And she was very ill. And my sister was also very ill with terribly high temperature. And there was no doctor nearby.
Forbes: Your sister was only three.
Okonjo-Iweala: She was just three. And, you know, I was about 14, 15. And there was no doctor. It was clear she had malaria and if we didn't get treatment my mother said she probably wouldn't make it. And then we heard that about five or six kilometers away there was a physician who had come in somehow and was treating people in the surrounding villages. And my mother was ill, there was no one else, so I had to put her on my back and walk all that long distance to try and get to see this physician. But what it was, I remember walking, it was a very long walk and the sun was really hot. And I kept feeling that if I didn't make it somehow, you know, my sister's life was dependent on me.
So we made it to this center. It was actually in a church where this woman, you know, physician was seeing patients for free. You know, she was just doing this because there was no doctor for miles around. But there were what seemed to me like a thousand people just packed, jam-packed, around this church, all trying to get in with one ailment or the other.
And I looked. I didn't know how I was going to get in. And I was crying, you know. And then I saw people crowding near the window because the door was absolutely, the church door was jam-packed. And there were windows. People were climbing in through the windows.
And I just thought to myself, "How will I do this?" And I said, "Well, they're all trying to get in. If I just creep in through their legs and try to reach to the window, maybe I can get my sister in." She was still strapped on my back.
So that's what I, so I went on my knees and through people's legs. And just crept up all the way up to the window. And then I took my sister off my back and, you know, thrust her in. You know, just over these people. And then I clambered in after her and I was crying all this while. It was really crazy.
But we got in. And, you know, the window, the doctor was standing right near that window. So when I threw my sister, they caught her. And she couldn't believe, you know. So I was crying and I was saying, "My sister is ill." She had temperature. I don't know what it was but it was so bad. They gave her an injection right away, which must have been chloroquine, I figure now. And a few other things.
Forbes: Stop the dehydration.
Okonjo-Iweala: Yes.
Forbes: Yeah.
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