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Quest Means Business
Nigeria Kidnapping Outrage; Nigeria Unrest; Nigerian Finance Minister on Kidnapping, WEF, Nigerian Economy; Target CEO Resigns; Bumpy Day for Dow Ends 17 Points Up; EU Growth Forecasts; Europe's Economic Recovery
Aired May 05, 2014 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE CLOSING BELL)
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Start of a new week, the Dow is up just marginally, having been down for most of the session. When all was said and done -- hit it! Ooh. That's a good way to start the week. It is Monday, it is May the 5th.
Tonight, abducted and up for sale. Nigerian militants claim to hold the fate of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls. The kidnapping three weeks old. In a few moments, I'll be asking the finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, what the government is doing about it.
And the head of Oxfam tells me Africa must address income and gender inequality.
I'm Richard Quest. I mean business.
Good evening. The abduction of hundreds of girls by extremists in Nigeria has taken an appalling, perverted new twist. Today, the kidnappers made an outrageous new threat in a repugnant hour-long video. Islamist militants belonging to the group Boko Haram say they are behind the mass abduction.
The United States says it has links to an al Qaeda affiliate in West Africa. The man claiming to be its leader boasted he will sell the girls because he believes it's Allah's will.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABUBAKKAR SHEKAU, BOKO HARAM LEADER (through translator): I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah. There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: The girls were kidnapped three weeks ago because of their so-called "crime" of going to school, which is against Boko Haram's laws, if you will. Now, global outrage is gathering pace at the government's apparent ineptitude in finding them.
The country risks becoming an international embarrassment as it prepares to host the World Economic Forum. Yesterday, Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, vowed to find the girls.
Instability is spreading across Nigeria. In the northern state of Borno, hundreds have died at the hands of Boko Haram in attacks on churches and other symbols of authority. According to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, they're targeting Christians, Islamic figures who criticize them, and anyone thought to be engaged in, well, in their view, un-Islamic behavior.
In the oil-producing Niger delta area, we saw more kidnappings this weekend. Gunmen snatched three people who were thought to be Dutch nationals. Kidnappings in the region are rife.
And in the capital, Abuja, it's been bombed twice in the last three weeks. The most recent attack was just last week when a bus station packed with workers going home for the May Day holiday, 18 people died. On April the 14th, 71 people died in a similar attack nearby, for which Boko Haram has claimed responsibility.
So, the country's security forces are now on high alert ahead of the World Economic Forum, which starts on Wednesday. Fearing another attack, schools and government buildings have been closed.
We're joined tonight by the Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is also one of the leading, not only academics, but finance ministers in the world at the moment. Minister, thank you for joining us this evening. Firstly and bluntly, the world is saying clearly, Minister, not enough is being done to find these girls.
NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA, NIGERIAN FINANCE MINISTER: Richard, let me tell you that the plight of our girls is of no -- is of the greatest concern to the government, and nobody can be more saddened than the people in government and Nigerians as a whole.
Personally, as a mother of four, I can't -- of which one is a daughter, I can't even begin to imagine what it means for the parents that their daughters are missing. This is what we have been living under for these past weeks.
As the president explained last night, it's taken every lead that has been mentioned and tried to come both from aerial survey and other means to try and find the girls. They haven't found them yet, but we are not giving up.
QUEST: Right.
OKONJO-IWEALA: And this will continue, he has pledged that the security forces will find the girls, and this is -- they're going to do that.
QUEST: Do you think it is acceptable, Minister, that the first words from the president publicly, internationally, are three weeks after such a major kidnapping?
OKONJO-IWEALA: No, I think the president spoke yesterday, and he made clear how he himself personally, he's someone who came up, who didn't have an education. Everything -- education means everything to him. The education of these girls means everything to us. That's the top priority of government at the moment and has been.
Have we communicated it, what has been done, properly? The answer is no. The people did not have enough information. And the idea at the way of looking for the girls is also very delicate, because we are dealing with people that you don't know. And you don't know what their capability or what they might do to these girls. So, communicating every detail is also very tricky.
But yes, there should have been more communication. But the president has explained that the country -- the security forces --
QUEST: Right.
OKONJO-IWEALA: -- have been looking for these girls. And we also have to support our security forces, who are working in a dangerous environment, and we'll give them all the support so that they can help us find these girls. That is our top priority.
QUEST: Right. But --
OKONJO-IWEALA: We must also deal with the underlying issues, which --
QUEST: We'll come to those in just one second, Minister.
OKONJO-IWEALA: Yes.
QUEST: I want to talk about the security situation in Nigeria at the moment. Is it spiraling out of control? We've had two bomb blasts in the capital. We've had multiple other events. Now you have this event. The world wonders what is going on.
OKONJO-IWEALA: Richard, it is not spiraling out of control. And the schools and the city was not closed down because we fear another attack. They were closed down just like in any other country where you have a major event.
There's a lot of traffic, and you have a lot of people moving around. I think not long ago, when president met in the Hague on the nuclear summit, they gave two days holidays to everybody in the city so that there could be free movement and citizens would not be inconvenienced.
And this is the same case here. We have a large city, and I think it is appropriate that two days holiday in order for the event to take place has been given. There's nothing extraordinary. It's not because we fear danger. It is not spiraling out of control.
We're here in Abuja. You also have you're crew here. And you have other people, you have delegates who are arriving. And yes, security has been stepped up and every hotel has been secured and the whole place.
I'm not a security specialist. But I have to go on what our security forces and the president has said, which is that they stepped up security for the delegates. Many of them have arrived, by the way, and sessions, three WEF have started, and they're going about their business.
QUEST: Right. On this issue of the economy, the -- the country has now pretty much taken on the mantle as the largest economy, or will be the largest economy. You are the fastest-growing economy. You are 21 percent of the entire African economy now in Nigeria. So, Minister, what now needs to be done in the Nigerian economy to make the thing operate for the benefit of all?
OKONJO-IWEALA: Yes, the Nigerian economy after redesign is $510 billion in GDP as of 2013. And as you said, it's 21 percent of Africa's GDP. But we face, despite being the fastest-growing economy, or one of the fastest on the continent and in the world, we face the same challenges that other countries in Africa and, indeed, the world face.
Which is challenges of growth with inequality and without the adequate subsistence for those at the bottom end of the ladder so that they, too, can benefit from the growth. That is what this conference, the World Economic Forum, came here to discuss.
How can we, working with the private sector and civil society, be able to create more jobs? How can we improve the quality of our growth so that government can deliver better for our young people in particular. And also at the same time --
QUEST: Right.
OKONJO-IWEALA: -- build a safety net to protect those at the bottom of the ladder. These issues are also linked to the issues of the girls. We must create a better future for these girls and for our young people by tackling these two --
QUEST: Right, but -- but --
OKONJO-IWEALA: -- challenges that are in front of us. Richard, you yourself talked about the book, "Capitalism in the 21st Century," where this author has shown that in the developed economies, inequality --
QUEST: All right.
OKONJO-IWEALA: -- is the problem. Jobs is the problem. And it is a challenge facing all of us, and that's what we want to solve. That's the way we are going to make growth in Nigeria better.
QUEST: The issue, though, here is -- and this is your difficulty, Minister -- you are trying to attract investment, you're trying to restructure the economy, but you have these very serious security issues, and you have, for example, the kidnapping crisis at the moment, which drives away further investment. So, how do you break that cycle?
OKONJO-IWEALA: Richard, let me tell you one thing that we are finding. First of all, the incidents here are very regrettable, and we must do the utmost to improve security in the country, and we are doing that. The president has pledged strongly to do that. And our armed forces, we must support them, and our police, so that they can do better.
But here's one thing. Investors are looking at the underlying strength of the Nigerian economy, and they are not shying away. We have over 1,029 delegates ready set for this conference, and most of them are investors and business people. We have new investments coming in. We also have domestic investors, by the way. Just a few --
QUEST: Right.
OKONJO-IWEALA: -- months ago, one of our large domestic investors has put in $9 billion into the economy. So, what we are doing is -- we are encouraging people --
QUEST: All right.
OKONJO-IWEALA: -- at what helps drive this economy longterm, knowing that Nigeria is facing problems, like elsewhere.
Just yesterday or two days ago, you had the bombings in Kenya. You had the Boston bombing. Remember that the UK for decades had the Irish Republican Army and bombings there. People did not give up on the UK and say we will not invest, we will not visit. They continued for decades this -- UK had these problems.
QUEST: Right, but --
OKONJO-IWEALA: And they solved them through dialogue, the same thing we are doing here. We will use every instrument at our disposal, and we will overcome this problem.
QUEST: All right. I want to end on a positive note, Minister. So tell me what it is that you as the finance minister, as a mother, as a minister, what is it you can now do to promote the equality of women, to promote equal -- to put an end, if you like, or to reduce the levels of inequality in Nigeria at the moment?
OKONJO-IWEALA: Well, I think that most people know that for all my life, I've been working on issues of women and empowerment of girls and women. And that is why in particular this incident is of real concern and saddens me the most.
Because girls and women are the center of our economy. They are the center of the African economy. And what we are doing is this: first of all, in my country, we know we need to get more children and more girls into school. That is why this incident is disheartening.
But we will not let it keep us back. We have a program where we are using conditional cash transfers to get girls --
QUEST: Right.
OKONJO-IWEALA: -- into school in one of our states, in Kano. And enrollment of girls is up 40 percent.
We are also putting special incentives in the budget -- we've already done it -- to get women to work in the Ministry of Public Works programs, in agriculture, and health. And using communications technology by giving the ministries additional budgetary incentives to create jobs for women, working with the private sector. And this succeeding. As a matter of fact, this is succeeding so well --
QUEST: All right.
OKONJO-IWEALA: -- that with the World Bank, we've created a community of practice, of finance ministers, to help promote this approach.
QUEST: Right. Finally, Minister, it's always good to see you, and I do come back -- we've talked the economy -- I come back to these girls, these kidnapped girls. Again, Minister, can you give us the assurance that just everything is being done, will continue to be done, long after the WEF has gone?
OKONJO-IWEALA: You know, Richard, I almost find that question or what you have just said very difficult to bear. We are not doing things because of the World Economic Forum. We are doing things because we are Nigerians, and we have to solve our own problems.
These are our daughters. It's like it's my daughter missing. Every single one of those girls is my daughter. I wake up in the morning depressed when I know that they have not been brought back home. The president wakes up depressed because he came from a poor family, and without education, he would never have been where he is today.
This is our problem. It has not to do with WEF. It has to do with us. And we will do everything possible -- the president has pledged everything possible, you heard him. Every -- and every country, any country, anyone who can help us with support to find these girls, we don't mind. They should help us.
Our first priority in the country is not about WEF, it's about our girls. We must bring them back. So we are seeking for help. Any international organization --
QUEST: Right.
OKONJO-IWEALA: -- any country that has different technology ways of detecting, please let them come and help us to get these girls back.
WEF is good because it discusses the longer-term issues that has led to the kind of position that we see. Although with this kidnapping, it's ideological, as you can see from the video.
But if we can keep our young people employed, which is what has been discussed here in WEF, then that makes it easier to get them off and not have them engage in such activity. However, our girls are key.
QUEST: Right.
OKONJO-IWEALA: And it is about that that we wake up worrying every day, and we will not relent.
QUEST: Minister --
OKONJO-IWEALA: Long after the limelight and long after CNN has ceased to cover the issue, we will continue to look for them.
QUEST: Minister, you have elegantly and eloquently, as always, answered the criticism that some people are suggesting out there. And as always, I thank you, Minister, for taking the time to come and talk to me. Good to see you, ma'am. Good to see you, as always.
Now, when we come back, we'll turn to corporate matters in America. QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, good evening.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: The Target data breach has claimed another victim. Target's chief executive, Gregg Steinhafel, has resigned after 35 years with the company. Last year, hackers broke into the retailer's computers. They stole credit and debit card data.
The breach exposed the personal information of up to 110 million shoppers. Sales fell, Target's credit rating was downgraded. Paul La Monica is assistant managing editor for CNN Money. Joins me now.
PAUL LA MONICA, CNN MONEY ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Thank you very much.
QUEST: Why is he gone?
LA MONICA: I think he had to fall on his sword. And you also have to wonder, their quarter just ended, they'll be announcing results on May 21st. You have to think they're not going to be very good.
QUEST: I think that's an understatement from -- bearing in mind --
(CROSSTALK)
LA MONICA: Yes, it probably is.
QUEST: -- bearing in mind what they've been through. But is it a case of he steadied the ship, he did what was needed to be done, and now he's done all that, let him go?
LA MONICA: You could argue that, but I'm not so sure he steadied the ship just yet. Like I said, we're going to see just how bad, if that's the case, their first quarter results were in a few weeks.
This isn't the only problem that he's faced recently. Obviously, the data breach gets all the attention, but I've talked to a lot of people who've said that Target has expanded into Canada, and that's been a disaster. It's really hurt their financial results. So, this might be just one of a few things that led to his departure, not just the data breach.
QUEST: Right. Because I was always concerned with the data breach that Target was just the unlucky victim. It could have happened elsewhere, but it happened at Target.
LA MONICA: Right. In some respects, they were, I guess, a target for this because they are so big. But this didn't happen at Walmart, and they have underperformed Walmart, the stock has lagged the broader market as well. And you know as well as I, when that happens for an extended stretch, it's a sin incorporate America to lag your competitors.
QUEST: And not only is it a -- the original sin, the man at the top or woman at the top eventually has to go.
(CROSSTALK)
LA MONICA: That is definitely true.
QUEST: They have -- the buck stops there.
LA MONICA: Exactly. So, we're going to see now what's next. The interim CEO is the current CFO. I can't imagine a scenario where he gets bumped up permanently. So, does the company go and try and find another high-profile retail exec? I've wondered -- Alan Mulally, if he's looking for --
QUEST: Ah!
(LAUGHTER)
LA MONICA: -- one final challenge. There was all the talk about going to Microsoft. Target's a bigger reclamation project than Microsoft. So, who knows? He's a free agent, if you will, in a few weeks.
QUEST: I hadn't thought of that. That's an interesting prospect.
LA MONICA: I doubt it's going to happen, but you're going to hear chatter just because he's the most --
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: That really would --
LA MONICA: -- high-profile guy out there.
QUEST: That really would be good.
LA MONICA: Thank you.
QUEST: Thank you very much, indeed. Now, Target's announcement contributed to a rough morning on Wall Street. Stocks bounced back from early losses. JPMorgan shares dipped. Look at that. It was down, and then things just perked up a bit towards the end. The Dow was up 17 points at the end, just up a fraction or so.
When we come back after the break, the European Union's announced growth forecasts, the spring forecasts. Well, was it showers or sunshine ahead? The winners and losers.
(RINGS BELL)
QUEST: Next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: The recovery has now taken hold. That's the message from the European Commission today as it released its growth forecast for 2014. This is how the commission --
(COUGHS)
QUEST: -- excuse me -- expects EU economies to grow. It's going to be roughly in 2014 1.6 percent and 2 percent next year. That's after no growth at all in 2013.
The story within some member countries is not nearly so rosy. If that's the overall picture, over here you'll see the best and the worst.
If you look at which is the worst, well, no doubt the worst is -- the worst growth in 2014 is Cyprus, which will be down 4.8 percent. It's still in a bailout, along with Greece, but obviously, Cyprus is much newer in the bailout.
Croatia is off half a percent, and Finland, interestingly, is going to be just a fraction as well. So --
(COUGHS)
QUEST: -- excuse me about that.
(COUGHS)
QUEST: Beg your pardon. Finland will be up just a fraction. But it's interesting from the south -- from the southern-most point all the way to the northern-most point, you see the worst, those involved.
As for the best growth countries, they are very firmly in the middle area. And if you look here, Latvia will grow by 3.8 percent. Of course, having had some terrible economic difficulties. Lithuania, 3.3 percent. Poland is 3.2 percent. The other major countries all come in at around 2, 2.5 percent.
Carsten Brzeski is the senior economist with ING, joins me now from -- appropriately enough, bearing in mind we've just had the numbers from Brussels -- from Brussels himself. What do you make of this growth forecast? It's a steady-as-she-goes, it's a picking up of steam. But it's not sufficient to bring down unemployment.
CARSTEN BRZESKI, SENIOR ECONOMIST, ING: Oh, obviously. I think it is springtime. It comes after a very, very long economic winter. The recovery is gaining some momentum.
But as you said, I think the big problem is that the eurozone will continue carrying this big weight, this weight of high unemployment, still high government debt, along for the coming years. I think it will take until 2016, 17, before really all the damage of the crisis has been cleaned up.
QUEST: And within the eurozone and within the EU, you've got Finland at the top barely growing, Cyprus at the bottom that's in recession, and everybody else sort of muddling along. Not acceptable.
BRZESKI: Yes, I think that is what we see. Don't forget --
QUEST: Sorry, go ahead.
BRZESKI: Not acceptable, I think it's part of the prescription to manage the crisis. We do have the core countries, Germany, which is powering ahead very strongly. And then on the positive side, we do see that a couple of other Southern European countries -- Spain, Portugal -- they are coming out of the recession, they're improving, and they clearly are gaining momentum.
Obviously, these are no growth numbers that are enough that are sufficient to really significantly reduce the unemployment numbers.
QUEST: The bailout programs that have since gone. Now, of course, Portugal is just on its way out and will be out quite soon. Spain, the banking bailout has come out. Ireland is out.
But we still have Greece, and we still have Cyprus. And there's the possibility of Slovenia, who might need some form of assistance before all is said and done. So, if you had to now categorize the eurozone crisis, what would it be?
BRZESKI: I think the existential crisis is over. We've had, now, three clean exits from the bailout packages, which is clearly positive. We still have, as you said, yes, we do have Cyprus, we still have Greece. This will continue for a couple of years.
But the existential crisis of the eurozone is over. Now, the big test case, in my view, will be France. We have to see whether actually the reforms can come from inside the country. Reforms and authority can come from inside a country and not oppressed, put upon by Brussels, Berlin, or any other capital. So, this will be the big stress test for, I think, the eurozone economy in the coming years.
QUEST: We'll talk more about that. Thank you, sir, for joining us from Brussels tonight. It has been a very busy program already, as you can tell. We'll return to the issue of Nigeria, the world's attention sharply focused on Nigeria's kidnapped schoolgirls. More on the efforts to improve the lives of women in Africa, who suffer the blight of inequality and poverty in the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WINNIE BYANYIMA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OXFAM INTERNATIONAL: Nigeria has recently been declared the richest country in Africa. But this means nothing to the 40 percent of the people who live below the poverty line.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. There is more "Quest Means Business" in a moment. This is CNN and on this network the news always comes first. Nigeria's finance minister says everything is being done to find more than 200 school girls kidnapped by an extremist group in Nigeria. The leader of Boko Haram says he wants to sell his captives. The case is drawing international attention. It's been three weeks since the girls were snatched from their beds. Speaking on this program, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala denied claims of Nigerian government ineptitude.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA, NIGERIAN FINANCE MINISTER: He made clear how he himself personally is someone who came up who didn't have an education. Everything - education means everything to him. The education of these girls means everything to us. That's the top priority of government at the moment and has been. Have we communicated it - what is being done - properly? The answer is no, the people did not have enough information. And the idea of - the way of - looking for the girls is also very delicate because you're dealing with people that you don't know and you don't know what their capabilities or what they might do to these girls.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: The Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams has denied any involvement in the 1972 killing of a mother of ten by the Irish Republican Army. Adams spoke exclusively to Christiane Amanpour a day after he was released from police custody without charge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GERRY ADAMS, PRESIDENT, SINN FEIN: I reject absolutely any allegation made against me. I am innocent of any involvement whatsoever and any conspiracy or in any of the events, including the abduction, the killing or the burial of Mrs. Jean McConville. And incidentally, I went voluntarily to the PSNI, and furthermore when this became a matter of public speculation ten months ago, I contacted the PSNI through my solicitor and said I was available to talk to them because there has been a sustained vicious, untruthful and sinister, malicious campaign against me going back some considerable time, so I wanted to confront these issues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Russia is accusing Ukraine of waging war on its own people after new violence in the rebellious city of Slavansk. Kiev officials say four people were killed and dozens more have been wounded in fierce clashes between troops and pro-Russia separatists.
Three people remain in critical condition in hospital after a group of women acrobats fell from an aerial platform for a circus in the U.S. state of Rhode Island on Sunday. Eight acrobats plummeted to 40 feet when the scaffolding structure holding them collapsed.
So, the top story tonight - the kidnapping of over 200 school girls in Nigeria. Isha Sesay is in the capital. Isha, the - look, the minister fair/fare (ph) bristled) you may have been there when Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was speaking. She fair/fare (ph) bristled at the suggestion that the arrival of WEF in Abuja had - if you like - brought attention to this, and that the government had been working hard on this kidnapping case before that.
ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes indeed. The finance minister spoke very strongly in disagreeing with that point, Richard, saying the Nigerian government itself are committed to this issue, that they don't really need to be pushed by outsiders to take this issue seriously.
But one thing I will say, the one thing I was struck by as I listened to the finance minister speak, was how movingly she spoke on the plight of these girls and how it has personally affected and personally touched her. And I think if the president had expressed that level of sentiment earlier on in this situation, it would've gone a long way with members of the public and I think that the comments made by the finance minister this evening will indeed make up for some of that because I think that is what people had wanted to hear. They wanted to hear from the government more comprehensively, more fully, that they are there with them in this time of pain and this time of suffering, in this time when they are afraid and do not know what has happened to these girls.
So, yes, I was present, I saw her physically bristle, but I think that the overall takeaway will be from that conversation you had with her just how movingly and comprehensively she spoke about situation and what it meant to her and the government as a whole, Richard.
QUEST: All right, but here's the real issue it seems. It is inconceivable in many places that 200 school girls - and I know you've followed this case very closely and you've been looking at it very - in great detail -
SESAY: Yes.
QUEST: -- but 200 school girls are abducted - 253 originally - 50 or 53 got away, managed to escape - and the president only now makes his first major comments. Could you imagine David Cameron, Tony Abbott, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Francois Hollande, Angela Merkel waiting three - well let's about it - let's think about the ferry disaster --
SESAY: No.
QUEST: -- President Park was speaking within 24 hours.
SESAY: Yes, absolutely. I think - and that is the point that is being made here on the ground in Nigeria. And I've spoken to Nigerians who've said, you know, President Barack Obama - if this kind of thing had happened - he would've been out in front of it instantly, in a matter of you know, a matter of days after the Boston bombing, the president was there on the ground. Yes, optics do matter - being out in front of it does matter. And, yes, many people are questioning, myself included. Why did it take so long for the president to come out and speak on camera? Now, the government has acknowledged and we heard from the finance minister this evening has acknowledged that they could've done better, they could've managed the flow of information better. But the bottom line is the fact that they didn't has created this environment where people are asking the question - what have you been doing for three weeks? Why have you not come out before now? And has raised the situation where there is doubt, there are people questioning the government's commitment and really, you know, skeptical about the efforts being made even though the government has said and the president said yesterday on television they're doing everything -
QUEST: Right.
SESAY: -- they can to find these girls.
QUEST: Isha, thank you very much. You're there all week. We look forward to talking to you more about this. Thank you. Now the unfolding of events in Nigeria highlighting the country's struggle with inequality - the minister made that clear in our interview at the top of the program. It's something Oxfam International's been battling to improve. The charity's executive director told me the kidnapping is an appalling tragedy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WINNIE BYANYIMA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OXFAM INTERNATIONAL: The abduction of more than 200 girls in Nigeria is a tragedy for those girls, their families and their communities. Oxfam condemns this abduction. It is a violation of the rights of girls and women, and Oxfam will continue fighting for the rights of girls and women in Nigeria and all over the world. But we must scratch under the surface and see crimes of this kind of a result of social exclusion.
When a few people - very wealthy people - hold the power, and millions of people live in poverty and don't enjoy rights, you get a breakdown of democracy, of rule of law, of social cohesion. Nigeria has recently been declared the richest country in Africa. It's the committal link up. But this means nothing to the 45 percent of the people - millions of them - who live below the poverty line. So, it's so important to address the multiple axis of inequality, including income inequality, gender inequality and other forms of inequality.
QUEST: Do you think Nigeria has lost its way?
BYANYIMA: No, I don't think Nigeria has lost its way, but this tragedy has - actually is a moment for reflection to reflect on questions of how to address inequality, how to reduce poverty, how to make the wealth of Nigeria, the huge wealth of Nigeria, more shared, broadly shared by the people of Nigeria. I think that is a very important question for reflection for not just Nigeria -- all the countries of Africa that are earning a lot of money from natural resources but where this money is not becoming - is not being shared and is not benefitting the lives of the majority.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: When we come back after the break, one very wealthy man who has certainly aimed to help the lives of the less fortunate - Warren Buffett - gave away his fortune. He's still one of the world's richest men and he's talking to Poppy Harlow (RINGS BELL) after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: A statistic that'll give pause for thought and a pause for a drink. By the time this day is over, Coca-Cola will have sold about 1.8 billion drink servings, possibly the well-known brand in the world. Maybe after a certain three letters. Even in some of the most remote places, this has immediate recognition. Nina Dos Santos spoke to the head of Coke's creative team to find out how he makes such a familiar product feel fresh and exciting. He's this week's "Executive Innovator."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GUY DUNCAN, GLOBAL CONTENT DIRECTOR, THE COCA-COLA CO.: We are a 127-year- old brand. Part of our challenge is to make ourselves relevant to the next generation every single time.
NINA DOS SANTOS, NEWS ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT BASED IN LONDON FOR CNN INTERNATIONAL: It's a battle born out of innovation.
DUNCAN: A hundred years ago we put out a brief to do a new bottle. Because there were so many bottles looking the same, and we wanted a unique bottle. And so we put a brief out there to say, you know, we need something that you could recognize in the dark and also you could recognize smashed on the floor. So that's a wonder story in itself. I'm Guy Duncan, I global group content director here in Atlanta for Coca-Cola.
DOS SANTOS: For Guy Duncan innovating at Coca-Cola is all about telling a story.
DUNCAN: If we're not innovative around the promotion and telling stories around those kind of promotions, then we're not working to the best of our ability to tell those stories. Because technology has evolved our brains, we've had to evolve our story-telling techniques. And so that's the way in which we've lent into different ways of telling stories of Coke, because we've had to, because our consumers are hardwired to look at stories in a very different way. They look at screens, they look at two-screen technology, they look at stories on phones and we have to adapt our story- telling style to involve them in a more participatory way.
DOS SANTOS: In 2008, Coke's research revealed an opportunity in the area of digital marketing. For the beverage giant whose daily sales hover around 1.8 billion servings, marketing is key. Duncan took this as an opportunity to experiment beyond a traditional media campaign. And in a world of million dollar marketing campaigns, his concepts had a price tag of around $60,000. We would do this surprise element of a vending machine in a school campus that would deliver Cokes or reward Cokes to people who came up to the vending machine.
Just surprise people, that was it. Very, very, very simple, very genuine. But it was totally unscripted, and for Coke, that was unbelievable. We would never, ever do that. Every single person needs to look at the story board. Look at it, research it to death, come back and figure out how it worked. This is a totally unscripted piece of film, a totally unscripted piece of storytelling. That $60,000 project became a worldwide hit, a global hit. We put it onto YouTube, it went viral. It surprised us. And so what was a stunt became a contagious piece of creativity for our system.
DOS SANTOS: For every viral hit, there is a miss.
DUNCAN: Part of innovation is the permission to fail which is a very different culture to the one Coke it is used to and knows about, and part of thinking about the new and the next is having that permission to know that actually what you're about to do, you've got to learn from. And if that is the fact that actually you're not going to succeed on something, that's as valuable to us as succeeding every single time. Because if we succeed every single time, we're probably not pushing the boundaries.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Warren Buffett says he doesn't want to go to war with Coca-Cola over its pay packages for executives. Mr. Buffett's called the new compensation plan excessive because it includes large stock options. Berkshire Hathaway abstained from a vote on the matter, despite being Coke's largest shareholder. Poppy Harlow caught up with the billionaire investor at the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting at the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Corporations save billions by awarding stock options rather than cash to executives. It's not something that Berkshire does, but companies are able to write it off their taxes. I'm wondering if companies should be allowed to do this.
WARREN BUFFETT, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: Well, if it's a form of compensation and the employee pays taxes on the compensation, it's not unreasonable that the company itself a deduction for a comp - amount comparable to what the -what the employee reports.
HARLOW: So you think the way it's working right now is completely fair?
BUFFETT: Well I think - I think from a taxation standpoint, if it's - as long as it's symmetrical, I think it's fair.
HARLOW: You've talked a lot especially in recent weeks about boards and said that, look, you've been on 19 boards over 55 years and they just don't vote against compensation packages. That it's like belching at the dinner table, you said. But I wonder you will also talk about the income divide and how concerned you are about that. Is that adding to income inequality in this country?
BUFFETT: Well, it's probably adding a small amount, but it's not the big reason. I mean, executive compensation is an important item, but if you're talking about 315 million people and the bottom 20 percent living on $22,000 or so less per family, it's not a big factor in that.
HARLOW: When we sat down a few weeks ago and talked about minimum wage in this country, you said you're unsure whether federal minimum wage should be raised but you really would like a closer look at raising the earned income tax credit. I wonder though, wouldn't that fall on the federal government and state governments and can they afford it right now?
BUFFETT: Well, it would fall on the federal government, and it would be a - it would be a form of taxation relief or a distribution in effect to people at the very low end, but I think that's very appropriate in this society.
HARLOW: Can the federal government afford it at this point?
BUFFETT: Sure it can. If it can afford a $600 billion deficit, they probably can afford a $620 billion deficit, but it can get it in other places.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: I do love it when men like Warren Buffett bandy around the billions of dollars. Tom Sater's at the World Weather Center. Good evening, sir.
TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And good evening to you, Richard.
QUEST: Now, we are - we are looking and traveling. It is a bank holiday in certain parts of Europe -
SATER: Yes.
QUEST: -- we have - those of us who are traveling over the next week. What can we look forward to?
SATER: You know, there's plenty of sunshine across many countries. Get ready for the advertisements to come out from various countries promoting their tourism, already starting for the Northern Hemisphere countries and cities. Vienna's 10 degrees currently, Bucharest 9, some rain into parts of Turkey, Athens 15, we had flooding rains in Italy - strong rains and winds. Those Bora winds of Croatia - 130 kilometers per hour over the weekend. Here's a vigorous cold front spreading some rain into parts of the U.K. Ahead of the front warming up nicely in Paris although into the teens now. But our storm system - take a look at this satellite picture. What a weekend this was. Comma shape, Mediterranean cyclone if you will, dropping easily 129/151 millimeters of rainfall. Really the only wet weather pattern right now is across the northwest from parts of Liverpool up toward York, and we're going to watch that move into the North Sea.
Not a real powerful cold front as far as any severe weather. But as far as your possible delays as we get into Tuesday, notice Dublin - that's with that same system though. But we're going to look more down toward the east and the areas of the southeast I should say. When we look at Ankara, this is the rainfall - that same weather system dissipating. It's losing its punch, but these two areas of low pressure - one to the northwest, one to the northeast -- is where we'll find slightly cooler temperatures. And the temperature trend shows the darker colors of blue. Notice southern Portugal into Spain nice warm up due to the plenty of sunshine they will have for the next couple of days. Unsettled weather pattern moves into central areas of Europe.
Many of the tourist spots you're going to start hearing about, here such as this beach in northwestern France or the Old Town Square in Prague. They're starting to really unveil what you can do as you make your plans with your family. It looks like Tuesday's high temperature 18 in Bucharest, Vienna 21. In the U.S., the only storm system really is moving out across the Canadian Maritimes. You can see it spinning just off to the northeast. That's it. We've got a cold front that'll be moving into the middle of the country, but the Jetstream, unseasonably far north is really warming thing up.
I mean, we've seen a temperature yesterday - get this - in Wichita 39 - that's 102 degrees Fahrenheit, the first time we've seen it that early in the season, and of course with the dry conditions, there's forest fire problems they want to be watching in the U.S. But again, tourism a big thing, Richard. Here it is - the Grand Canyon in Arizona waiting for your arrival as well. Safe travels.
QUEST: I've been to the Canyon and I'm looking forward - I haven't hiked down there but I'm looking forward to doing it again. Tom Sater, at the World Weather Center. Thank you, Tom. Good to see you. Maybe over the course of the summer. Well, look at this. Now this is Mexican wrestling which this year turns 80, and despite a real - oh, I feel a twinge in the back. We'll have more in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: It's flashy, it's rowdy and it's as popular as ever. Lucha Libre wrestling turns 80 this year. The Mexican sport shows no sign of slowing down. Seconds away, (RINGS BELL) round one.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK PARKER, CNN.COM CONTRIBUTOR: It's a show of top rope acrobatics, masked warriors and a crowd whipped into a frenzy. It's Friday night in Mexico City, and for many loud fans here, that means Lucha Libre. It's become a cultural icon of Mexico, now celebrating its 80th anniversary. Shocker or 1,000 Percent Handsome as he is also known, is one of the sport's biggest stars. He was unmasked a few years ago.
SHOCKER, LUCHADOR: Mexican people are used to the mask because of our first wrestlers used to wear masks to come in the ring. They wanted to give the kids their mystic, their 'who's behind the mask?' We started getting bigger and popular because of the high-flying that we do.
PARKER: Lucha Libre or Free Fight rose to national prominence under promoters CMLL. They say a lot has changed in 80 years.
SANDRA GRANADOS, CONSEJO MUNDIAL DE LUCHA LIBRE, VIA TRANSLATOR: CMLL signed a contract with Warner Brothers to manage all the marketing of each fighter. It made several TV shows. So now we're broadcasting to countries like England, France and some places in the Middle East.
PARKER: Warner Brothers, owned by Time Warner, CNN's parent company, is by no means the only media company looking at expanding the sport. Film director Robert Rodriguez has launched El Rey, a new channel aimed at a growing Latino English-speaking market in the United States. The channel aimed at a growing Latino/English-speaking market in the United States. The channel has struck a deal with another Lucha Libre promoter to cash in on what they say is a billion dollar U.S. wrestling industry.
JOHN FOGELMAN, CO-FOUNDER, EL REY: This has got nostalgia for a lot of people who grew up with it from earlier generations. The second thing that it has, it has the makings of great storytelling between having good and evil.
PARKER: Shocker is a "rudo" or bad guy - I asked him to go through the basics of what people needed to know about being a Luchador.
SHOCKER: You have to have a good entrance. You can either go over the ropes or you can come in between the ropes, you know?
PARKER: Things quickly took a turn for the worse. What does that mean, lock up?
SHOCKER: Lock up is the tie up, you know.
PARKER: OK.
SHOCKER: And here this will measure our strength. You know, you push - no, you got to push hard and you twist their arm, you know.
PARKER: Oh, yes, you twist the arm. Yes.
SHOCKER: Puts a lot of pressure on the shoulders.
PARKER: Yes, has a little pinch to it.
SHOCKER: All you got to do is sit there.
PARKER: It was definitely time to leave. Nick Parker, CNN Mexico City.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: He's laughing. I've got twinges in me back just thinking about it. (RINGS BELL). "Profitable Moment" next.
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QUEST: Tonight's "Profitable Moment." We talk about Nigeria whatever the ineptitude and lack of communication perhaps by the president of the country, on this program tonight you certainly heard passion and importance from the country's finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. She made it quite clear that accusations that the government is only doing what it's doing now because WEF is there is simply wrong. Can there be any doubt, having heard the passion from the minister tonight that the government is doing whatever it can. And the call and the honesty that any other country that can help, their assistance would be welcomed.
And that's "Quest Means Business" for tonight. I'm Richard Quest in New York. Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, (RINGS BELL) hope it's profitable. I'll see you tomorrow.
END
