By Banji Ojewale
In politics if
you want anything said ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman – Margret
Hilda Thatcher, ex-British Prime Minister
Last year the government in Romania heeded this counsel from
the late British leader, Baroness Thatcher. The authorities, gravely worried by
high profile corruption slowly killing the country, appointed a woman, Laura
Codruta Kovesi, to man the nation’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA).
Within a very short time this 41-year-old 1995 law graduate has turned the formerly
quiescent agency into a viable attack dog mauling down those who had
themselves been bringing down the economy and politics of Romania with
their corrupt practices.
*Laura Codruta Kovesi
She has become the most feared public office holder on account of her
exploits in an attempt to do what was thought to be impossible: battling graft
in high places to a standstill and arresting its spread. Although as in Nigeria , she is
horrified that the citizens have expressed
distaste for corruption, they still keep voting for politicians
suspected or convicted of larceny. “ It
is extremely difficult to explain this contrast,” Kovesi laments.
But according to an international news magazine report last week, this
depressing situation has not discouraged
the woman. A New York Times writer, Andrew Higgins, says: “Since Ms. Kovesi
took over D.N.A last year, what was a trickle of high-profile arrests and
prosecutions has become a flood. Nearly all have ended in convictions, with her
prosecutors recording a success rate of over 90 percent.