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In an interesting twist of events, the United States had reportedly opposed the confirmation of Nigeria’s candidate, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the new Director-General of the World Trade Organization.
BlackBox Nigeria earlier reported that the former Nigerian Minister for Finance emerged victorious after leading her South Korean rival, Ms Yoo Myung-he, by a wide margin.
Okonjo-Iweala was poised to become the first woman, and the first African to lead the Geneva-based institution.
The announcement of her emergence as the WTO’s new boss was expected to be made at a meeting of the heads of delegation by 3pm today. However, the meeting didn’t reach a consensus. The decisions of the WTO are made by a consensus of all members; 164 in number.
According to _Bloomberg_, the United States representative expressed the country’s opposition to the consensus candidature of Okonjo-Iweala, despite being an American citizen, thus confirming the report that Washington backs South Korean’s Myung-he.
Consequently, the General Counsel resolved to meet again for the announcement of the new Director-General. A further meeting was scheduled tentatively for November 9, after the US presidential elections.
Ganiu Oloruntade
