WTO Panel Recommends Nigeria’s Candidate for Top Post

 

Nigeria’s former Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala received a key endorsement Wednesday from the World Trade Organization’s selection committee, moving her a step closer to becoming the WTO’s first female director-general, people familiar with the matter said.

The panel of three senior WTO ambassadors told Okonjo-Iweala that she had a wide margin of support and is best poised to command a consensus from the organization’s 164 members, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the discussions are confidential.

The recommendation helps Okonjo-Iweala clear one of the final hurdles in a complex and lengthy process aimed at naming the next leader of the WTO during the most turbulent period of its 25-year existence.

Okonjo-Iweala, 66, twice served as Nigeria’s finance minister and has experience working at international governance bodies as a former managing director of the World Bank and as a chair at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.

Okonjo-Iweala campaigned as a WTO outsider and a reformer who said she plans to bring a “fresh set of eyes” to a deeply dysfunctional organization.

“I’m known as a strong reformer,“ she said in an interview Bloomberg. “My whole career at the World Bank has been involved with reforms in countries that have been beneficial.”

Who will finally wear the WTO crown?

Okonjo-Iweala is lobbying to succeed current WTO head Roberto Azevêdo. As reported by AFP, the Brazilian career diplomat announced in May that he was stepping down a year before the end of his tenure for “personal” reasons.

From the original eight candidates, the race was narrowed down to five and finally two -- Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee.

However, no winner has yet been announced. 

“The race for the WTO director-general is still very much on,” reads a statement released by Okonjo-Iweala’s media aide, Paul Nwabuikwu. “Contrary to inaccurate information released online by an unidentified source, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has not yet been declared the winner. The winner should be announced in two to three weeks.” 

The remaining two contenders for the WTO top position will advance to the third and final round of consultations which will commence on October 19 and run until October 27, according to the WTO.

We will do all that we can to ensure that you emerge as the DG of WTO--- President Buhari

 

President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Monday assured Okonjo-Iweala, that he would do all within his power to ensure that she became the first woman and first African DG of the global trade organisation.

“I assure you that we will do all that we can to ensure that you emerge as the Director-General of WTO, not only because you are a Nigerian, but because you are a hardworking Nigerian. You deserve this,” the President had said while receiving the former World Bank director at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The WTO had last Thursday disclosed that Okonjo-Iweala and Yoo Myung-hee of the Republic of Korea advanced to the final round of consultations which will determine the next WTO DG.

The spokesperson said Okonjo-Iweala has made tremendous progress in the WTO DG race, noting that the chance of her becoming the next boss of the global trade organisation is “50/50”.

Nwabuikwu said, “She started out as Nigeria’s candidate and then she became the West African candidate and from there she became the African candidate.

“It is very significant that the European Union backed the candidacy of Dr Okonjo-Iweala even over the former British Secretary of State for International Trade, Dr Liam Fox. It gives an idea of how much progress she has made and I think it is something to be happy about.

“The prospect is 50/50 because we have two people left but I suspect that it is even better than that because she got the very support of the European Union. Having got to this point, she has a very good chance of emerging the DG of the World Trade Organisation. But it is not over until it is over.”