Okonjo Iweala’s chances to become the director general of the World Trade Organisation, WTO has been boosted following her endorsement by the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.
The former Finance Minister is in a fierce contest with Egypt’s nominee, Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh, and one of them is expected to emerge Africa’s candidate for the election.
In a statement on Monday ECOWAS leaders said they “acknowledged the strong academic and professional background of Dr Okonjo-Iweala and her very large experience in national affairs as Nigeria’s Finance Minister (2003-2006 and 2011-2015) and Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister briefly in 2006,” and therefore, supported her to land the WTO top job.
The endorsement, analysts say, has now dampened initial suggestion that the former Nigeria’s Minister of Finance will drop out of the race, after she was disqualified by the African Union has now fizzle out.
Few days ago, AU said it will not support the former minister decribing her nomination as faulty.
The Union says the nomination of Okonjo-Iweala violates Rule (11), 1, 2 and 3, Rule 12 and Rule 15(3) of the rules of procedure of the committee on candidatures within the International System of the AU as well as Council’s Decisions Ex CI 1072 (XXXV), Ec CI Dec 1090 (XXXVI) and Assembly Dec 795 (XXXIII).
The ex-minister is Nigeria’s candidate for the position, after President Muhammadu Buhari withdrew the nomination of Fedrick Agah.
The magazine was informed that the federal government reached out to ECOWAS leaders to support Okonjo-Iweala as the block’s consensus candidate for the position.
The ECOWAS heads of state, in the statement signed by President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger said the former Coordinating Minister of the Economy under the Goodluck Jonathan administration possess a robust, untainted public service record to qualify her for WTO director General.
Their endorsement, the leaders stated, is due to her academic background and over 30 years of experience as a Development Economist.
ECOWAS has urged African and non-African States to support the former minister to land the job.
Apart from Okonjo-iweala, other nominees for the post so far, include Jesús Seade Kuri of Mexico and Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh of Egypt
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, a world-renowned economist and international development expert, currently sits on the boards of Standard Chartered Bank, Twitter, Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, and the African Risk Capacity.
President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa has recently appointed her a member of his Economic Team.
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