‘My Life Is At Stake Because I Refused To Sign $500 Million Loan’ – Minister of Women Affairs lament

Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, the embattled Minister of Women Affairs, believes that she is being targeted by certain government cabals because she refused to sign a $500 million World Bank loan request.

Recall that on July 10, 2024, Kennedy-Ohanenye narrowly avoided a near-physical confrontation with the House of Representatives Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development in Abuja’s National Assembly Complex.

Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, the embattled Minister of Women Affairs, believes that she is being targeted by certain government cabals because she refused to sign a $500 million World Bank loan request.

Recall that on July 10, 2024, Kennedy-Ohanenye narrowly avoided a near-physical confrontation with the House of Representatives Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development in Abuja’s National Assembly Complex.

The minister attempted to address claims that N1.5 billion allocated for contractor payments had been diverted instead.

In a phone interview with THISDAY, Minister Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye disclosed that she refused to sign a $500 million loan and a prior $100 million loan, stating that the loans included a 40% kickback for World Bank workers in Nigeria disguised as consultation fees.

She claimed that her life is in danger as a result of her denial, and that these financial activities are one of the reasons she is being pursued by the National Assembly and other institutions.

Kennedy-Ohanenye decried the squandering of such vast funds for petty objectives, emphasizing her willingness to develop measures that actually serve the people.

The minister said, “A $500 million loan was supposed to be signed by me, but I refused to sign. There was apparently an earlier lawsuit involving $100 million. Find out what it was intended for.

“All the loans they collect, including World Bank loans, etc, are you aware that the same World Bank staff in Nigeria takes back 40 per cent and calls it consultation fees?

“These are the things you should look into. “You people should focus on where the problem is and leave me alone.”

She continued, “Now my life is at stake because I refused to sign the $500 million loan. Let me tell you, if I sign that loan today, I am entitled to five per cent of the money, but I refused to sign it. It is part of why the National Assembly and all of them are after me.

“And that 40 per cent they take is a secret, I found it out. Why should anybody give us a loan and you still direct us how to use the loan, and you take 40 per cent and provide us with a consultant that will take it, and they will take it?

“I told them $100 million is too much to use to teach our women how to save money, we can teach them, let them bring the $100 million and give it to those women and use it to know what to do with their lives.

“Let me do things that would impact lives of the people. I made sure that the action plan.