Clearing The Coast For Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

It was cheering news for Africa and Nigeria that Nigeria’s Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, current Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), has emerged as the sole candidate to occupy the position for second term.

While Okonjo-Iweala who became the 7th Director-General of the WTO still has her first term running from March 2021 to August 2025, she has gotten the green light to retain the seat for another four years.

 

With over 40 years working experiences in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America, Okonjo-Iweala  is a global finance expert, an economist and international development professional.

 

Among the positions she occupied included Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and was on the Boards of Standard Chartered PLC and Twitter Inc.

 

Okonjo-Iweala was also appointed as African Union (AU) Special Envoy to mobilise international financial support for the fight against COVID-19 and World Health Organization Special Envoy for Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator.

 

She had a 25-year career at the World Bank as a development economist, rising to the second top position of Managing Director, Operations.

 

Okonjo-Iweala had the record of been the first female and African candidate to contest for the Presidency of the World Bank Group in 2012, supported by Africa and major developing countries in the race for the world's highest development finance post.

 

While as the Managing Director of the World Bank, she had oversight responsibility for the World Bank's $81 billion operational portfolio in Africa, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia and spearheaded many World Bank initiatives helping low-income countries during the 2008-2009 food crisis and later during the financial crisis.

 

She also in 2010 Chair the World Bank's successful drive to raise $49.3 billion in grants and low interest credit for the poorest countries in the world.

 

As a consensus builder and broker, Okonjo-Iweala’s skills have made her brokered numerous agreements, leading to impressive win-win outcomes in many negotiations over the years.

 

These virtues have contributed immensely to her getting the trust and supports of stakeholders and now giving her a clean bill to continue as the WTO Director General for another term. 

 

Announcing Okonjo-Iweala’s sole candidacy for second term of WTO top job, WTO said in a statement last week Saturday “Nominations for Director-General closed; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala confirmed as sole candidate,

 

“Ambassador Petter Ølberg of Norway, Chair of the General Council, informed WTO members on 9 November that no further nominations for the position of Director-General had been received by the deadline of 8 November and that the incumbent Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is therefore the only candidate for the role.

 

“Director-General Okonjo-Iweala confirmed her willingness to serve a second four-year term in the role in a letter to the Chair on 16 September. 

 

"On 8 October, the WTO formally commenced the process for appointing its next Director-General, with members given until 8 November to submit nominations.”

 

The WTO said the chair of the General Council will communicate the next steps in this process in the coming days.

 

“The process was led by the General Council Chair in accordance with the WTO’s “Procedures for the Appointment of Directors-General,” the organisation stated.

 

To advance the process for selecting the next Director-General, WTO in a statement by Chair of the General Council, Ambassador Petter Ølberg of Norway, on Tuesday, said that a meeting of its General Council has been fixed for November 28-29, 2024 .

 

Apart from breaking record as the first woman and first African to occupy the topmost WTO seat and spearheading new records in other international organizations, record breaking, no doubt, has been in the genes of OkonjoIweala as she had also broken records at home, Nigeria.

 

A trailblazer, Okonjo-Iweala was twice the Minister of Finance in Nigeria. She was so appointed under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration between 2003 and 2006, and was also the first female Minister of Foreign Affairs for about two months in the year 2006.

 

She again became the Minister of Finance between 2011 and 2015 under former President Goodluck Jonathan.

 

Recognizing her roles, Dr Okonjo-Iweala has been listed in the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World (Forbes, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2022 and 2023), as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the World (TIME, 2014 and 2021), one of the 25 most influential women (Financial Times, 2021), Minister of the Decade, People's Choice Award by Nigeria's This Day newspaper (2020), one of Transparency International's Eight Female Anti-Corruption Fighters Who Inspire (2019), one of the 50 Greatest World Leaders (Fortune, 2015), the Top 100 Global Thinkers (Foreign Policy, 2011 and 2012), the Top Three Most Powerful Women in Africa (Forbes, 2012), the Top 10 Most Influential Women in Africa (Forbes, 2011), the Top 100 Women in the World (The UK Guardian, 2011), the Top 150 Women in the World (Newsweek, 2011), and the Top 100 most inspiring people in the World Delivering for Girls and Women (Women Deliver, 2011). She has also been listed among 73 “brilliant” business influencers in the world by Condé Nast International.

 

She was also awarded in 2023 the Lord Byron International Prize from the Society for Hellenism and Philhellenism, the Global Economy Prize from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, and the 2022 Laureate Prize of Ambassadors from the International Organisation of La Francophonie.

 

In 2022, she obtained the Global Leadership Award by the American Academy of Achievement. In 2021, she received a Global Leadership Award from the United Nations Foundation as a “Champion for Global Change”. In 2020, she became an Angelopoulos Global Public Leader at Harvard University Kennedy School.

 

She was also appointed to the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) by President of South Africa His Excellency Cyril Ramaphosa in 2020.

 

In 2019, Dr Okonjo-Iweala was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2017, she received the Madeleine K. Albright Global Development Award from the Aspen Institute, the Women's Economic Empowerment Award from WEConnect International, and the Vanguard Award from Howard University. In 2016, she received the Power with Purpose Award from the Devex Development Communications Network and the Global Fairness Award from the Global Fairness Initiative in recognition of her contribution to sustainable development.

 

She was also conferred High National Honours from the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire and the Republic of Liberia. She was also the recipient of Nigeria's second highest national honour Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON, 2022) and Nigeria's third highest National Honors Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR). In 2023, she received the Grand Cross of the Order of Rio Branco from the Federative Republic of Brazil.

 

Dr Okonjo-Iweala has also been awarded the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award (2014), the President of the Italian Republic Gold Medal by the Pia Manzu Centre (2011), the Global Leadership Award by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (2011), the Global Leadership Award by the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (2010), the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award (2010), the Humanitarian Award for a Lifetime of Public Service and Advocacy of Sustainable International Development of the United Nations Association of New York (2022), and the Alumnae Recognition Award from the American Association of University Women (2022).

 

She was named Finance Minister of the Year (Africa Investor Magazine, 2014), Finance Minister of the Year for Africa and the Middle East (THE BANKER, 2004), Global Finance Minister of the Year (EUROMONEY, 2005), Finance Minister of the Year for Africa and the Middle East (Emerging Markets Magazine, 2005), and Minister of the Year (THISDAY, Newspaper 2004 and 2005).

 

Dr Okonjo-Iweala is the founder of Nigeria's first ever indigenous opinion-research organization, NOI-Polls. She also founded the Center for the Study of Economies of Africa (C-SEA), a development research think tank based in Abuja, Nigeria. She is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development, and at the Brookings Institution, premier Washington D.C. think tanks.

 

Dr Okonjo-Iweala graduated with an A.B. in Economics from Harvard University (class of 1977) and earned a Ph.D. in Regional Economics and Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, 1981).

 

She has received honorary degrees from 21 universities worldwide, including from: Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Trinity College (University of Dublin), Amherst College, Colby College, Tel Aviv University, Northern Caribbean University, Jamaica, University of Amsterdam, American University, Nyenrode Business University, London School of Economics and Political Science, and a host of Nigerian universities including Abia State University, Delta State University, Oduduwa University, Babcock University, and the Universities of Port Harcourt, Calabar, and Ife (Obafemi Awolowo).

 

She is the author of several books, including Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons co-authored with Julia Gillard (Penguin Random House, July 2020), Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines (MIT Press, 2018), Reforming the UnReformable: Lessons from Nigeria, (MIT Press, 2012), and The Debt Trap in Nigeria: Towards a Sustainable Debt Strategy (Africa World Press, 2003). She also co-authored with Tijan Sallah the book Chinua Achebe: Teacher of Light (Africa World Press, 2003). She has also published numerous articles including, Finding A Vaccine is Only the First Step (Foreign Affairs, April 2020), Mobilizing Finance for Education in the Commonwealth (Commonwealth Education Report 2019), Shine a Light on the Gaps — an essay on financial inclusion for African Small Holder Farmers (Foreign Affairs, 2015), Funding the SDGs: Licit and Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries (Horizons Magazine, 2016).

 

With so much honours and recognitions globally, coupled with Okonjo-Iweala’s qualifications and experiences, it is high time Nigeria and Nigerians should set aside sentiments, take advantage of her experiences and allow her break another record in Nigeria.

 

Problems and backwardness of Nigeria over the years cannot be dissected from corruption and leaders at the helm of affairs lacking capacity to churn out implementable and positively-impacting policies.

 

Although Okonjo-Iweala refuted fake news and declared that she had no presidential ambition to contest and lead Nigeria in the 2023 Presidential election, but if Nigeria is still not out of the woods by the time her second term ends at the World Trade Organization by 2029, God sparing her life in sound health, she should be made to come back home and start thinking of how to contribute more to the development and reshaping of Nigeria at the topmost political office in the land, Presidency.

 

While leading Nigeria since independence has been male-dominated, the coast should be cleared for her to run for election and lead Nigeria in the year 2031

Even though the record has already been broken in African countries by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Ivy Matsepe Cassaburi of South Africa, Joyce Hilda Banda of Malawi, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim of Mauritius, Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia, and other women in acting capacity, Okonjo-Iweala's touch at the helm of affairs could be what is needed to transform Nigeria to a truly developed nation.

 

Everything must be done to salvage Nigeria because God Himself has done more than enough by blessing Nigeria with great natural resources.