New Telegraph

WTO: An amazon shatters the glass ceiling

On March 1, 2021, Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, would be the first female to lead the World Trade Organisation (WTO). She would be on a firstfour year tenure that will last till August 31 2025. With a little luck on her side, she crashed through the glass ceilings to make history as the first woman to win the director general post.

It is only natural for her to feel a burden not to disappoint women across the world. She had prepared for years for this moment. From the streets of Harvard to the murky waters of Nigerian politics, where she was a finance minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, the new Director General of the World Trade Organisation, is a woman made of steel.

At the announcement of her consensus appointment by the WTO, she could only utter: “I am honoured to have been selected by WTO members as WTO Director-General.” “A strong WTO is vital if we are to recover fully and rapidly from the devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. I look forward to working with members to shape and implement the policy responses we need to get the global economy going again. Our organization faces a great many challenges but working together we can collectively make the WTO stronger, more agile and better adapted to the realities of today.”

Okonjo-Iweala emerged the WTO DG amidst a keen contest that finally narrowed down to her and the South Korean counterpart- Yoo Mhung-Hee, the current Minister of Trade in South Korea During the tenure of the immediate past president of the United States, Donald Trump, a US trade representative had said that the world power put its weight behind South Korea’s Yoo Mhung- Hee, whom it referred to as a bona fide trade expert.

“Minister Yoo is a bona fide trade expert who has distinguished herself during a 25- year career as a successful trade negotiator and trade policymaker. She has all the skills necessary to be an effective leader of the organization,” he said.

The representative added that, Okonjo-Iweala had garnered the support of 162 countries out of the total 164 states that make up the WTO but at the decision-making meeting, the US said the WTO is in dire need of reform and must be “led by someone with real, handson experience in the field.” That was before the November election in the US, which Trump lost. He had ordered his trade envoy Robert Lighthizer, to block her appointment – despite her winning support from more than 90% of the WTO members. But the table turned after Trump himself lost the election to President Joe Biden.

That loss threw Trump’s position out of the window as the Biden government, regarded as more broad minded did not see any reasons to block her. Thus, when the signals came that the U.S would not block her, the only opponent, Yoo Mhung- Hee, decided to pull out of the race. Speaking at her first press briefing as the incoming WTO DG, Okonjo-Iweala said she had two interviews with the Trump administration and there was no indication of opposition. “I think I was quite surprised when that came at the decision-making meeting because there had been no indication previously that there was any problem with the US,” Okonjo-Iweala said.

Eventually, the former minister of finance in Nigeria got the nod from the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris administration. “It was absolutely wonderful when the Biden-Harris administration came in and broke that logjam, joined the consensus, and gave me such a strong endorsement,” she said. Okonjo-Iweala has by virtue of her indelible imprints became too phenomenal to be forgotten. History would forever remember her name as a voice that represented many; a voice that brought joy to women and Africans worldwide. On February 15, the news that Dr. Iweala would become the first person of African descent and woman to head the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was everywhere.

Nigerians particularly were not going to allow the beautiful moment elude them. There was jubilation across Nigeria following her declaration. In fact, a social media challenge hashtagged “Dress like Ngozi Challenge” trended across Africa in celebration of her stupendous landmark. But like most successful people, her success was not overnight. Some people are born great, some others have greatness bestowed on them but only an atomic minority rewrites the stars by making a mark that cannot be erased. And such is the case of Okonjo-Iweala.

Born in 1954, Dr. Iweala had a 25-year career at the World Bank in Washington DC as a development economist, rising to the second position as a Managing Director where she had oversight responsibility for the World Bank’s $81 billion operational portfolio in Africa, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia. She initially started as an intern in World Bank Group but upon graduation, she returned to World Bank Group and worked for many years as a development economist. She fronted several World Bank initiatives to support low-income states throughout the 2008–2009 food crises, and later during the financial crisis.

Following the massive success she recorded at the World Bank, she was appointed by the former President Olusegun Obasanjo led administration as the minister of finance and then Goodluck Jonathan’s administration but with portfolio of the coordinating Minister of the Economy. She recorded numerous successes during her two terms as a minister.

In fact, The World Bank declared her Growing Girls and Women in Nigeria Programme (GWIN); a gender-responsive budgeting system, and the highly acclaimed Youth Enterprise with Innovation programme (YouWIN) as one of the most effective of its kind globally.

Under her watch as a minister, she also improved macroeconomics management of Nigeria including implementation of an oil-price based fiscal rule, initiated the practice of publishing Federal Government’s monthly allocation of each state in newspapers and spearheaded the negotiation that closed a deal with the Paris Club wiping out US$30billion Nigerian’s debt. As an entrepreneur, she founded Nigeria’s first indigenous opinion-research organization, NOI-Polls. NOI-Polls offers welltimed and significant information on public opinion on various social and economic issues, focusing on governance issues, market trends, and performance of government and private institutions.

Together with Gallup, U.S.A., NOI-Polls developed opinion research in Nigeria. Okonjo-Iweala has led many reputable organisations, holding many important positions as well. Since 2019, she has been part of UNESCO’s International Commission on the Futures of Education, chaired by Sahel-Work Zewde.

Also since 2019, she has been serving on the High-Level Council on Leadership and Management for Development of the Aspen Management Partnership for Health (AMP Health). In 2020, the International Monetary Fund’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva appointed her to an external advisory group to provide input on policy challenges. In 2020, she was appointed by the African Union (AU) as special envoy to solicit international support to help the continent deal with the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As an award winning public speaker; she has delivered powerful speeches at various events including 2015 Global Landscapes Forum, TED Talk, African Development Bank Group Annual Meetings and 2016 SIPA’s Graduation. She has been listed as 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 Guardian, 2011), the Top 150 Women in the World (Newsweek, 2011), the Top 100 most inspiring people in the World Delivering for Girls and Women (Women Deliver, 2011). She would resume office on March 1, 2021 as the Director General, WTO.

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