Dr Nigel Clarke: From boarding school banker to IMF leader

The atmosphere was heavy with a palpable sadness early last Tuesday morning as Dr Nigel Clarke, Jamaica's former finance minister, faced his last day in office.

Just 48 hours before he was set to step into his role as deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he had one final parliamentary appearance ahead as he sat with The Sunday Gleaner.

In his new post, Clarke will occupy a unique role as the highest-ranking non-European citizen within the IMF, an institution serving 190 countries worldwide. At 53, he stands on the brink of a global stage, ready to embark on a new journey.

As we prepared for our conversation, we caught glimpses of his final moments in the office where he had dedicated six and a half years. Exhaustion and sleep deprivation were evident in his eyes, accompanied by a sense of loneliness. He sat with slightly slumped shoulders, his voice soft yet authoritative.

While scrolling through messages on his phone, he gazed out of the expansive windows, taking in the city views one last time. The fatigue was palpable, and by the time our interview began, the weight of sadness lingered in his expression. Yet, he engaged thoughtfully with our questions, guiding us through a journey that would reach its climax hours later.

A young Nigel Clarke learned to manage money while boarding at Munro College in St Elizabeth, where he was chosen to be the 'banker' for his peers whenever their relatives gave them money. He implemented fiscal rules to help his friends save as they navigated the challenges of boyhood desires that often exceeded their means. In this small ecosystem, he emphasised the importance of saving for rainy days.

Reflecting on this formative experience at Munro College, Clarke shared how his financial system developed organically.

“I think it started when I was in second form or third form, and it's, you know, Munro is a city on a hill, it's its own ecosystem that is away from everything else, and you are sent there by your parents, and you're not going to see them for several weeks. Some people were lucky to see them in four weeks. For others, you don't see them for the entire term or for the half term. And you are given an amount of money to last you through the term, and invariably, some people finished it very quickly. And so that system just evolved as a way of making sure that if you are inclined to 'run wid it' early in the term, this was a way of making sure that you didn't,” he explained.

The system evolved with him keeping copious notes in a little diary, with an eye on every man's dollar. He had found some consolation at Munro College as he recalled crying his heart out when he was told he would be going to boarding school.

Boarding school was the punishment for the wayward child in families.

With an impeccable academic record and admirable conduct at St Richard's Primary, Clarke was dismayed at the prospect, but was made to understand that enrolling him at Munro was not a result of any waywardness, but because his parents relocated to Westmoreland. His dad, the late Justice Neville Clarke, was transferred to that parish and it was impossible for the young boy to travel daily.

He buried himself in school life at Munro, but it wasn't all in books. He demonstrated expertise in paper football and money football played with fudge sticks, where scoring goals was the optimum.

VALUABLE LIFE SKILLS

His boarding school experience imparted invaluable lessons in camaraderie and conflict resolution, skills that would later serve him well in public life.

“ ... What I came away from that experience with is just learning to get on with a wide variety of people because there's no escape; you're stuck there. You have a fight, you have a quarrel, you can't [run], there's nowhere to run. You can't run home in the evening and come back the next day. You're living in that environment. And for me, that inculcated an ability to get on with a lot of people, a lot of different kinds of people,” explained Clarke.

He would go on to become a Rhodes Scholar after graduating from The University of the West Indies (UWI) with high honours. He earned a Doctorate of Philosophy in Numerical Analysis from Oxford University in 1997 and returned to Jamaica to begin service to his country in the business sector and simultaneously cofounding TEDx Jamaica with his wife, UWI Professor Thejani (Rupika) Delgoda, whom he met while studying overseas.

With the aim of bringing together big ideas that sparked conversation, deepening understanding, and driving meaningful change, TEDx Jamaica brought individuals who were the best in their craft from around the world to the island to share ideas.

Throughout his career, Clarke has tackled the broader challenges facing Jamaica, voicing concerns over systemic failures and the slow wheels of justice and getting things done, such as the unresolved collapse of Stocks & Securities Limited, which affected many, including renowned athlete Usain Bolt.

A MOMENT THAT FELT LIKE SINKING IN DEEP WATER

His tenure as finance minister was marked by unprecedented challenges, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which devastated Jamaica's economy. Clarke vividly recalled the moment he realised the airports would close, a moment that felt like sinking in deep water. The halt of tourism, Jamaica's primary source of foreign exchange, was a crisis he confronted directly, navigating macroeconomic pressures while prioritising the country's recovery.

“Nobody thought we could ever survive the closure of the tourism industry. That's where all our foreign exchange comes from. And that is what I just recall, the macro pressures of that time were absolutely significant. There's US$4 billion of tourism inflows that come in every year. Four billion US dollars which dried up,” he said.

“So, you have your fiscal side, which is your revenues and expenditure. Then you have your external side, which is your foreign exchange coming in and ... going out. And both of those were seriously impaired. And then, a tinge of sadness for me because, on a macro side, I'm talking about here, clearly a tinge of sadness because of all of the human suffering and the death. It had terrible human costs … ,” he reflected.

COVID-19 shattered the macroeconomic plans he and the Government had mapped out for economic development with tourism's billions, monies raised from the Wigton IPO, and reserves.

“Macro-economically speaking, I had some amazing plans, and that was the sadness. Because remember that we were harvesting resources. I had done the largest IPO in Jamaica's history. It was Wigton. And through Wigton, we were able to reap a lot of resources. We sold the shares. Wigton had a US$50 million loan from PetroCaribe. ... It had to be privatised. So, Wigton raised money from banks and paid back PetroCaribe, which is the Government, so that was US$50 million on top of the equity that we sold, and on top of other flows, so huge inflows coming in … ,” Clarke said.

Three years of public investment in capital programmes were lost and policy had to be diverted to COVID recovery and that's where most of the Cabinet time was focussed, Clarke stated.

“Nobody's going to remember that. But simple examples would be, we'd have had the hundred garbage trucks two years earlier. We would have had the 300 [Jamaica Urban Transit Company] buses three years earlier or two years earlier,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.

PUBLIC LIFE, SACRIFICE, AND CHANGING POLITICAL CULTURE

He credited his late father with teaching him the essence of hard work and takes his responsibilities as a father very seriously. His children's testimonials about his efforts are best heard from them, he told The Sunday Gleaner, admitting that the demands of political life take a toll on families.

But he noted that it is critical for Jamaican fathers to provide guidance and support for their children.

“Yes. It's well documented that solving disputes amicably is something that we have a societal problem with. And the only way to address that, I believe, is by having children be introduced to ways of winning and losing without descending into acrimony. And, that's why education has to be much more than ABC and your times table. Education involves the full socio-cultural, emotional, and psychological development of children. And that component of education is garnered mostly through co-curricular or extracurricular activities. Those are not necessarily as easily developed in the classroom … ,” Clarke explained.

“And that's why participation in sports, in music, in endeavours in a structured way is so important. And that's the real differentiator, if you think about it, between uptown and downtown. Uptown, broadly speaking, the school day does not end at 2 o'clock. Between 2 o'clock and when parents get home at 6, kids are fully involved in a range of activities, whether it is swimming or dancing or soccer or chess or table tennis or lawn tennis. And, it is through those activities, winning and losing, starting and stopping, being unfairly treated, somebody giving a point that shouldn't have been given, working together in a team, individual excellence towards a team goal, etc. It is participation in those range of activities that fully develops the human being,” he further reasoned.

It was clear that Clarke, a workaholic, experienced the harshness of time commitments on family time. Work commitments and demands were harsh on families and he was not sure if many understood the sacrifice many were making.

“The time commitments are harsh. You are working all the time. In our system, in ministries, you have two jobs really. Even if you're at home, you're constantly on the phone, constantly on your text, email, WhatsApp. And then even if you're not on those devices, your mind is still there. So one can't be successful in this domain without a hugely supportive spouse. It's impossible. And you definitely give something up,” he said with sad finality.

Clarke returned to a Jamaica whose institutions, including traditional media, that influenced culture and behaviour were seeing strong competition from global platforms without barriers. He is worried that the deficits in education, comprehension and civil discourse will have serious consequences on belief systems.

“Something that we have in common with the rest of the world is that democratic politics has not adjusted to the reality of social media. ... It has resulted in a multiplicity of media outlets, for want of a better phrase, with less reliability and accuracy, and there's no more arbiter of truth. And traditional media, they themselves don't know how to respond, and some have responded by trying to sort of compete. And all of this, I think, has presented tremendous challenges to democracies around the world. And you can see the large countries struggling with it. Jamaica, as well, is struggling, too,” he said, noting that the platforms have been more dividing than uniting forces.

However, he sees benefits to the connectivity provided, and hopes that systems will be provided to prevent falsehoods from taking root.

Without those guardrails, Clarke believes trouble is not too far away.

“Theodore Roosevelt made the point that in a democracy, it is the average citizen who counts. In a totalitarian system, or the opposite of democracy, that is used as a broad category, you just need the leaders to be benevolent and all-wise, and society's trajectory will be positive. In a democracy, we depend on each individual to be consuming information and to be making decisions. So if people don't have access to accurate information, and it's the people who make decisions – and here I'm going beyond just electoral decisions, but just decisions on a daily basis – then that country's trajectory is going to be suboptimal,” he noted.

The world, he said, must get back to knowing, or having a way of discerning truth from fiction.

He believes there is a need for more substantive political discourse and for political parties to be more engaged in the development of policy as there is a large scope for growth in those areas.

Clarke has been involved in a range of activities aimed at uplifting Jamaicans, including co-founding the National Youth Orchestra of Jamaica in 2009. He led the non-profit until his foray into representational politics in 2018. It continued its life after he stepped down, but took a hit during the pandemic and has not resumed, “but I'm confident that it will”, Clarke said.

Now a pescatarian, he may struggle to find the steamed snapper and ochras he loves so much in Washington, DC. Dancehall and reggae music may also not be as popular. Though he has a Kindle, he has not developed the appetite for reading books on a screen. He much prefers reaching for one of the many books on his night table, including biographies.

As colleagues in the House of Representatives paid tribute in his final sitting, Dr Nigel Clarke was gracious in response and he left the chamber to applause and ovation.

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com