Kemi Adeosun made me proud yesterday.-By Kelechi Deca.

I sincerely believe that our harsh criticisms are working. And Madam Adeosun is fast coming into realisation that she is the Minister of Finance of Nigeria, with full awareness of the responsibility and expectations of that office. We criticise out of love not hatred. We want her to be better at her job, because if she gets better, Nigeria will get better for all of us.

Yesterday, I was at the Jack Morton Auditorium of George Washington University, Washington D.C, where she held her own, and creditably well, during one of the flagship seminars on better infrastructure for developing countries.

It is not often times leaders from developing countries ( read, poor nations), look their counterparts from the highly developed countries in the eye, in the midst of all the representatives of the powers that be in this world, and utter the inconvenient truth to their hearing.

She is not an Obasanjo or Mbeki, or Kofi Annan or Julius Malema who can be having dinner in your house while pointing out your weaknesses to you. But she succinctly reechoed a line Obasanjo highlighted in Lusaka Zambia four months ago. 

Hear her: “I think it is hypocritical for countries whose industrial revolution was powered by Coal, and who still use Coal in varied degrees to meet their insatiable energy needs,and who have been polluting this ‘our world’ over the last 200 years.And have been enjoying from the advantage that pollution gave them, to continue to preach to Africa against the use of Coal, so as to protect ‘our’ environment. And also go to great, at times clandestine length to block Africa from accessing affordable technology towards the exploitation of their abundant Coal resources. With such excuses that Africa needs to join the train in promoting green growth, but at the same time refuses to help Africa access the very expensive finance needed to pursue green growth”.

You dont want us to use Coal. And you dont want to help us access cheap finance to explore other renewable energy sources like Solar, Wind and Hydro….haba….

I have had causes to criticise this woman in the past.Often times harshly. I am very happy to acknowledge that she has also merited my praise.Her confidence is growing, her carriage and poise more elegant and graceful. And as I advised after the Spring Meetings of the IMF/World Bank here in April, she has started dressing in African prints at international fora instead of those British petty coats.

Have you found out that when people start dancing the kind of music you expect of them, you start noticing the little details like which foot they put forward first, and how beautiful their toe nails are.Interestingly, for the very first time, it dawned on me that Madam Adeosun is quite good looking too…………(you see how our brains are wired)

For that very show of courage. Much respect Ma’am!