By Gbenga Abulude
Former Nigeria’s Finance Minister and International Development Expert, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has become a citizen of the United States of America.
This is according to a report by Bloomberg News, which said, Okonjo-Iweala obtained US citizenship in 2019 after having a long career path with the World Bank and having been a resident in Washington DC for decades.
Her decision to become a US citizen might not be unconnected to her ambition of becoming the next Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Nigeria, in June, had nominated Okonjo-Iweala, an economist who twice served as Nigeria’s finance minister and briefly acted as foreign minister, for the post of WTO director-general.
She also had a 25-year career at the World Bank, including as a managing director.
Former DG of WTO, Mr Roberto Azevedo officially stepped down on Monday, and eight candidates are shortlisted for the top job including Okonjo-Iweala.
Candidates competing with her, include Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh (Egypt), Amina Mohamed (Kenya), Jesús Kuri (Mexico), Tudor Ulianovschi (Moldova), Yoo Myung-hee (Korea), Mohammad Al-Tuwaijri (Saudi Arabia), and Liam Fox (UK).
Okonjo-Iweala’s US Citizenship does make sense. The report, quoting a publicist of Okonjo-Iweala said, it’s not uncommon for international civil servants who spend long stretches working abroad to take a second citizenship, especially when their families have been living overseas with them.
In July, eight candidates presented themselves to the 164 states that comprise the WTO. But the four deputy DGs remain in office pending when a decision is made on the next director-general.
Presently, the WTO is caught in between US and China due to the
rising tensions between Washington and Beijing.
The United States, which has threatened to leave the WTO, has blocked the organisation’s dispute settlement appeal system since December and wanted China moved up from the developing economies category.
The trade war has negatively affected both economies and has paralysed some vital activities within the WTO.
Okonjo-Iweala, who is Chair of the Board of Gavi and also sits on the Board of Twitter, assured that she can be the catalyst that will make the US and China to find common ground in the WTO.
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has stated in an exclusive interview with CNBC Africa, that settling the ongoing face-off between the United States and China will be a tough job.
“Well, this is not going to be easy, if it was easy, it could have been done a long time since. So it would be very challenging but it is not an impossible job. It is very clear that both the US and China have been helped and benefitted from the multilateral trading system in the past. Hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty. They have experienced shared prosperity in the economies and their countries’’ she pontificated.
International trade experts rooting for Okonjo-Iweala have said the former World Bank chief is a great choice for the WTO DG as she seeks to become the first African and first woman to occupy the seat since the establishment of the trade organisation in 1995.
