Okonjo-Iweala: A Win for Nigeria, Africa and Multilateralism

By Simbo Olorunfemi

When on June 4, 2020, President Buhari announced the withdrawal of the candidacy of Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah, Deputy Director-General and Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for the position of Director-General for the organisation, replacing him with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, quite a few feathers were ruffled, at home and abroad. At home, some could not find justification for taking out a man with such depth of experience on international trade and the WTO in particular, having been with the organisation since 2005, when he was appointed Nigeria’s Ambassador to the WTO, serving as chair of the WTO’s General Council in 2011, among other notable positions.

From abroad came stiffer opposition to this replacement. For some reason, Egypt strongly felt it amounted to pulling the rug under its feet and that Nigeria was only sneaking behind to re-open the shop when the window for nomination, as mutually agreed on within the African Union (AU), had closed. Indeed, Egypt was right to the extent that the process set in motion by the AU for coming up with an ‘African Candidate’ had lapsed before Nigeria pulled out what appeared to be a joker from her pack. Having taken the position at its summit in Niamey in July 2019 that the AU should do everything to ensure that the next Director General of the WTO is African, it was agreed that interested countries should present their candidates to the African Union by the end of November 2019.

The African Union, at its Executive Council’s 36th Ordinary Session held in February, had endorsed the candidates from Benin, Egypt and Nigeria “as the short list for the African candidates to the post of Director General of WTO and REQUESTS the Ministerial Committee on African Candidatures within the International System to consider the matter and report to the Executive Council’s 37th Ordinary session with a view to agreeing on a single African candidate.” The candidates were: Dr. Agah (Nigeria), Éloi Laourou (Benin) and Abdel Hamid Mamdouh (Egypt). But then, on account of COVID-19, the AU Summit that had been scheduled to hold in Chad in July, at which a final decision would have been ratified, had to be cancelled.

Also, whereas the selection process for the next DG of WTO had been expected to start in December 2020, as a result of the sudden decision in May 2020 by the Brazilian career diplomat, Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo to step down on August 31, 2020, a year before the expiry of his mandate as WTO Director-General, the General Council had to immediately launch the selection process for a new Director-General for the WTO in June, thus kick-starting a frenzy towards the emergence of a new DG, which by convention had to come through consensus among the 164 member-states.

How that development led to the decision by Nigeria to have a change of candidates, with Okonjo-Iweala, who years back had been linked to the same WTO, coming into the picture, is unknown. The point, however, remains that Nigeria had not before then and could not have even made a formal presentation of the Agah candidacy to the WTO. Rather, what was done was a participation in the process set up by the AU, which, as earlier explained, had not reached conclusion. But understandably, Egypt, perhaps seeing itself as the favourite, buoyed by the rich resume of its candidate, a trade lawyer, with extensive experience in international trade and the WTO, having worked in different capacities within the WTO, especially within the Secretariat since joining the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the predecessor to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), in 1990, was quite miffed at the hand played by Nigeria.

But her request to the “Ministerial Committees on Candidatures to officially inform the African Group in Geneva that candidature of Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has been withdrawn and disqualified, and that Mr. Abdulhameed Mamdouh of the Arab Republic of Egypt and Mr. Eloi Laourou of the Republic of Benin are currently the only two endorsed African candidates” was quite an over-reach. She cited a legal opinion by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), purportedly given during the Ambassadorial level Ministerial Committee on Candidatures meeting, which she said was held on June 4, “regarding Nigeria’s nomination of a new candidate to the post of WTO-DG, in which the OLC clearly highlighted that – from a legal point of view – such a nomination is not in conformity with the Executive Council decision EX.CL/Dec.1090(XXXVI), since the council’s decision has specifically endorsed the three names of candidates as submitted by the Ministerial Committee’s report after thoroughly examining the qualifications and professional experience of each of the three above mentioned candidates.”

I made the case at the time for a strategic alliance involving some key countries to enable Nigeria sail through at the AfDB and WTO. For Nigeria to tread with caution over these two irons in the fire at the same time. She has to be cautious with her approach, ensuring not to operate with a zero-sum mindset, but incorporating a give-and-take strategy…

But even if that was the opinion of the Counsel, apart from it just being another advice with no binding effect, the position canvassed and the premise upon which it stands clearly have no evidential basis in the document that Egypt makes reference to. Nothing in the Executive Council decision EX.CL/Dec.1090 (XXXVI) cited by Egypt makes mention of candidates by their names or infers that the endorsement decision was only on the basis of the qualifications and experience of these candidates. Rather, the Council simply endorsed “the candidates from Benin, Egypt and Nigeria as the short list for the African candidates to the post of Director General of WTO.” Also, the matter had only been referred to the “Ministerial Committee on African Candidatures within the International System to consider the matter and report to the Executive Council’s 37th Ordinary session with a view to agreeing on a single African candidate,” which, as widely reported, had not yet taken place. Indeed, Egypt had pushed the envelope further than it could have legitimately done, as the AU process was quite distinct from that of the WTO. As witnessed in the case of Kenya, non-participation in the process set up by the AU or not abiding by the procedure could not legitimately stop a country from directly participating in the process set up by the WTO. In as much as it would have been the best for Africa to line up behind a single candidate, emerging through the process set up by the AU, it is doubtful if the reading by Egypt or a legal opinion purportedly offered at an Ambassadorial level meeting, if it had been allowed to prevail, would have best served the interest of Africa in what eventually turned out to be a demanding process in which unusual factors bubbled to the top in the campaign. Yet, even though the process as set out by the AU did not quite deliver as expected, it still speaks to the possibilities that can come through the deft deployment of consensus as a tool of decision-making in international relations, as the WTO best exemplifies.

For Nigeria, the timing of the row with Egypt over the selection of a new Director-General for the WTO could not have been more inauspicious. At the time, Nigeria was in a titanic battle over the re-election of Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina as the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), instigated at the instance of the United States of America, over which the support of Egypt, with 5.649 per cent shareholding in AfDB, the second largest after Nigeria, among African countries, was critical. Apart from that, Egypt is highly influential across the North of Africa. So, Nigeria had to tactfully navigate the diplomatic waters.

I made the case at the time for a strategic alliance involving some key countries to enable Nigeria sail through at the AfDB and WTO. For Nigeria to tread with caution over these two irons in the fire at the same time. She has to be cautious with her approach, ensuring not to operate with a zero-sum mindset, but incorporating a give-and-take strategy, with gains assured for other parties in the process. The extent to which that played out, we might not know, even if the withdrawal of the candidacy by Benin Republic and endorsement of Nigeria’s Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is left to interpretation. Obviously, Nigeria recognised and appreciated the intersection and successfully managed the process.

But only few would have known that the fight by Egypt and the indirect face-off between the U.S. and Nigeria at the AfDB was only to foreshadow what would eventually play out at the WTO, with respect to the candidacy of Dr. Okonjo-Iweala for the position of the Director General. At the close of nomination, eight candidates had been nominated by their respective governments, following which a special General Council meeting held for three days in July, during which the candidates met with WTO members to make presentations and respond to questions from members.

At the end of the first round, there were five candidates left in the race, which was pruned to two after the second round. On October 28, 2020, the three facilitators of the selection process – Ambassador Walker, Dacio Castillo and Harald Aspelund announced at the Heads of Delegation meeting that, “based on their consultations with all delegations, the candidate best poised to attain consensus and become the 7th Director-General was Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria.”

While many had thought that the consultation process had finally yielded a consensus, the United States of America injected another round of uncertainty into the process, rejecting the consensus choice of Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian candidate, as the new DG of the WTO. The U.S. Trade Representative’s office released a statement officially backing South Korean trade minister, Yoo Myung-hee, the only other remaining candidate, arguing that at a “very difficult time”, the WTO “must be led by someone with real, hands-on experience in the field,” playing to the orchestrated criticism of the Nigerian candidate of having limited experience with respect to multilateral trade.

That Nigeria succeeded in securing a second term for Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina at the AfDB and is now on the verge of having Dr. Okonjo-Iweala confirmed as the new Director General of the WTO, with the General Council set to take a final decision at a special meeting scheduled to hold on February 15, is a huge and unprecedented diplomatic win for the country.

Soon, it had become obvious that the consultation process was not leading anywhere, with the American elections around the corner. On November 6, 2020, Ambassador Walker announced that the General Council meeting which had been scheduled for November 9, 2020 had to be postponed “during which time he would continue undertaking consultations with delegations.” That temporarily aborted the process that would have culminated in the formal announcement of Nigeria’s Dr. Okonjo-Iweala as the new DG of the WTO.

That would not be the first time America, under President Donald Trump, would stand in the way of multilateral consensus. That would not be the first time America would take a stand, seeking to block a Nigerian candidate for a top international position. At the AfDB, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina had, by consensus, received the backing of the shareholders for a second term as the President of the institution, only waiting for a formal affirmation at the Annual General Meeting. Then came allegations of wrongdoing from anonymous whistleblowers. However, following investigation by the Ethics Committee, he was cleared of the allegations. But the U.S., being the second largest shareholder in AfDB, after Nigeria, would not have it. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin questioned the integrity of the committee, insisting on an external, independent probe into the allegations. At its meeting of June 4, 2020, the AfDB Board of Governors reached a “compromise” decision for an “independent review” of the Ethics Committee report, which had exonerated Dr. Adesina on all grounds by a committee made up by members, who deemed him “a neutral, high-caliber individual with unquestionable experience, high international reputation and integrity.” This was AfDB bending backwards to please the U.S., yet at the end of the day, Dr. Adesina was exonerated by the “high-level panel.”

Africa was essentially off the radar for Donald Trump in his four years in the White House. His presence loomed large in the continent for his loud absence. He could not muster a single visit to the continent for the whole term. Whereas, like his predecessors, there was some signature project around which an African policy was anchored, his “Prosper Africa” was more pronounced for the absence of the signature of the person supposedly behind it. Safe to say, there was effectively no place for Africa on the table and that was quite understandable. On occasions that Nigeria featured in Trump’s frame of reference, she was either qualified with words from his repertoire of the ribald or forcefully inserted into a discriminatory immigration policy, which restricted entry into the United States for a category of Nigerian immigrants, a decision the current President of the U.S., Joseph Biden referred to, at the time, as a “disgrace”. Whereas Trump was unable to give fillip to his African policy, his administration, by some coincidence, at critical points, found a way to undermine African leadership in African Development Bank; the World Health Organisation under the Ethiopian, Dr Tedros Adhanom; and not surprisingly, the Okonjo-Iweala candidacy for the Director-General of the WTO.

That Nigeria succeeded in securing a second term for Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina at the AfDB and is now on the verge of having Dr. Okonjo-Iweala confirmed as the new Director General of the WTO, with the General Council set to take a final decision at a special meeting scheduled to hold on February 15, is a huge and unprecedented diplomatic win for the country. It is to the credit of President Buhari and his foreign policy team under the leadership of Geoffrey Onyeama. It was heart-warming to see Dr. Adesina flown home, even when borders around the world were on lockdown, to be assured of support for a renewal of his tenure. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala came calling in October, to thank President Buhari and his team, following up by asking the President to “make one final push within the week to beat the Koreans and bring this to Nigeria by sending a few letters and placing telephone calls to some world leaders, and also thank others for their support”. It is gratifying to see the final push pay off.

President Joe Biden says “America is back”. It is good to see America back, re-embracing multilateralism. The country is back in the World Health Organisation. It has made a return to the Paris Climate Accord. It has given its backing to the candidacy of Nigeria’s Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as Director-General of the WTO, affirming the consensus arrived at by other members of the organisation, paving the way for the first African and woman as head of the institution. It is a historic win for Nigeria and Africa as well as a reassuring return of a more embracing form of multilateralism on the world stage.

Simbo Olorunfemi works for Hoofbeatdotcom, a Nigerian Communications Consultancy and publisher of Africa Enterprise. Twitter: @simboolorunfemi

Biography of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (as seen on WTO’s website)

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a global finance expert, an economist and international development professional with over 30 years of experience working in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America and North America. Currently, Dr Okonjo-Iweala is Chair of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Since its creation in 2000, Gavi has immunized 760 million children globally and saved thirteen million lives. She sits on the Boards of Standard Chartered PLC and Twitter Inc. She was recently appointed as African Union (AU) Special Envoy to mobilise international financial support for the fight against COVID-19 and WHO Special Envoy for Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator. She is a skilled negotiator and has brokered numerous agreements which have produced win-win outcomes in negotiations. She is regarded as an effective consensus builder and an honest broker enjoying the trust and confidence of governments and other stakeholders.

Previously, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala twice served as Nigeria’s Finance Minister (2003-2006 and 2011-2015) and briefly acted as Foreign Minister in 2006, the first woman to hold both positions. She distinguished herself by carrying out major reforms which improved the effectiveness of these two Ministries and the functioning of the government machinery. She had a 25-year career at the World Bank as a development economist, rising to the No. 2 position of Managing Director, Operations. As a development economist and Finance Minister, Dr Okonjo-Iweala steered her country through various reforms ranging from macroeconomic to trade, financial and real sector issues.

She is a firm believer in the power of trade to lift developing countries out of poverty and assist them to achieve robust economic growth and sustainable development. As Finance Minister, she was involved in trade negotiations with other West African countries and contributed to the overhaul of Nigeria’s trade policy enabling it to enhance its competitiveness. She has closely followed developments at the WTO, as she believes that a strengthened multilateral trading system is in the interests of all countries, particularly least developed and African countries.

She is renowned as the first female and African candidate to contest for the presidency of the World Bank Group in 2012, backed by Africa and major developing countries in the first truly contestable race for the world’s highest development finance post. As 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. Dr Okonjo-Iweala spearheaded several World Bank initiatives to assist low-income countries during the 2008-2009 food crisis and later during the financial crisis. In 2010, she was Chair of 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 Minister of Finance in Nigeria, she spearheaded negotiations with the Paris Club of Creditors that led to the wiping out of $30 billion of Nigeria’s debt, including the outright cancellation of $18 billion. In her second term as Finance Minister, Dr Okonjo-Iweala was responsible for leading reform that enhanced transparency of government accounts and strengthened institutions against corruption, including the implementation of the GIFMS (Government Integrated Financial Management System), the IPPMS (Integrated Personnel and Payroll Management System), and the TSA (Treasury Single Accounts).

Dr Okonjo-Iweala has been listed as Minister of the Decade, People’s Choice Award by Nigeria’s This Day newspaper (2020), one of Transparency International’s 8 Female Anti-Corruption Fighters Who Inspire (2019), one of the 50 Greatest World Leaders (Fortune, 2015), the Top 100 Most Influential People in the World (TIME, 2014), the Top 100 Global Thinkers (Foreign Policy, 2011 and 2012), the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World (Forbes, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014), the Top 3 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.

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) for President of South Africa His Excellency Cyril Ramaphosa. 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 is also the recipient of Nigeria’s third highest National Honors Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR). In addition, Dr Okonjo-Iweala has 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), and the Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award (2010). She is also the recipient of the TIME Magazine’s European Heroes Award in 2004, 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 currently also Chair of the Board of the African Union’s African Risk Capacity (ARC), an innovative weather-based insurance mechanism for African countries; and co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate with Lord Nicholas Stern and Mr Paul Polman. She is also Chair of the Board of the Nelson Mandela Institution, an umbrella body for the African Institutes of Science and Technology, and Chair of the Board of the African University of Science and Technology, Abuja. Dr Okonjo-Iweala is a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She presently serves on the following advisory boards or groups — the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Harvard University International Advisory Board, the Oxford University Martin School Advisory Council, Mercy Corps International Advisory Board, Women’s World Banking Africa Advisory Board, the International Commission on Financing Global Education (Chaired by Gordon Brown), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Advisory Board, Tsinghua University Beijing — School of Public Policy and Management Global Advisory Board, the CARICOM (Caribbean) Commission on the Economy, the Bloomberg Task Force on Fiscal Policy for Health, and Tax Inspectors Without Borders of the OECD among others. She is a member of the B Team of Business and Civic Leaders cofounded by Sir Richard Branson, a board member of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Foundation, and also co-chair and board member of Lumos, an Africa focused renewable energy company.

Previously, she was also a Senior Adviser at Lazard (2015-2019) and she served as the co-Chair of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation with UK Secretary Justine Greening, and Chair of the World Bank’s Development Committee (2004). She was also a member of the International Monetary and Finance Committee of the IMF (2003-2006 and 2011-2015), the United Nations’ Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, the Danish Government-led Commission on Africa, the World Economic Forum Global Leadership Council on Transparency and Corruption, and the Commission on World Growth (led by Nobel Prize winner Professor Michael Spence). She served for a decade on the Rockefeller Foundation Board and the World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders. Dr Okonjo-Iweala has also served on the advisory board of the ONE Campaign, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Global Development Network, and the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government.

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 also at the Brookings Institution, premier Washington D.C. think tanks.

Dr Okonjo-Iweala graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. in Economics from Harvard University (1976) and earned a Ph.D. in Regional Economics and Development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, 1981). She has received honorary degrees from 15 universities worldwide, including from: Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Trinity College (University of Dublin), Amherst College, Colby College, Tel Aviv University, and Northern Caribbean University, Jamaica. She also has honorary doctorate degrees from 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 numerous articles and several books, including Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons co-authored with Julia Gillard (Penguin Random House, July 2020), Finding A Vaccine is Only the First Step (Foreign Affairs, April 2020), Fighting Corruption is Dangerous: The Story Behind the Headlines (MIT Press, 2018), Reforming the UnReformable: Lessons from Nigeria, (MIT Press, 2012), 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), 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).

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is married to neurosurgeon Dr. Ikemba Iweala. They have four children and three grandchildren.