In the short time that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was Nigeria’s finance
minister, she not only transformed the government’s finances but also the entire
economy. And she’s great at communicating the opportunities facing Africa as
a whole: find yourself 20 minutes and check out her powerful, unscripted TED
talk from March.
By contrast, what is Robert Zoellick famous for, in terms
of Africa? Getting a signed peace agreement in Darfur. And we all know how that
turned out.
If you want to see a video of what Zoellick is like in person, Slate
has a video of him in a panel discussion with Richard Holbrooke
last month. Let’s just say that he can’t exactly compete with Okonjo-Iweala
on the charisma front.