I know what it means to go to the stream to fetch water... what it means when people are poor and don't have enough to eat. It's not enough to say you know about poverty. You have to live it.
Interpretation
Experiencing poverty firsthand is essential to truly understanding it.
This quote emphasizes that theoretical knowledge about poverty is insufficient; one must experience it personally to grasp its full impact. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala stresses the importance of empathy and understanding in addressing social issues, as those who have lived through hardships can offer valuable perspectives on effective solutions.
In practice
During a speech about social justice, one might say, 'As Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala points out, understanding poverty requires living it, not just reading about it.'
When I became finance minister, they called me Okonjo-Wahala - or 'Trouble Woman.' It means 'I give you hell.' But I don't care what names they call me. I'm a fighter; I'm very focused on what I'm doing, and relentless in what I want to achieve, almost to a fault. If you get in my way, you get kicked.
I'm trying to tell you that there's a new wave on the continent. A new wave of openness and democratization in which, since 2000, more than two-thirds of African countries have had multi-party democratic elections. Not all of them have been perfect, or will be, but the trend is very clear.
The best way to help Africans today is to help them to stand on their own feet. And the best way to do that is by helping create jobs.
When you save the life of anyone, a farmer, a teacher, a mother, they are contributing productively into the economy.
Investing in women is smart economics, and investing in girls, catching them upstream, is even smarter economics.
I felt Nigeria didn't have to succumb to the image of being a corrupt country; we didn't have to let the economy stagnate.
You can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future.
I've always felt that a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.
The shortest and surest way of arriving at real knowledge is to unlearn the lessons we have been taught, to mount the first principles, and take nobody's word about them.
The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.
We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow. Our wiser sons, no doubt will think us so.
I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.
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