A former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has raised the alarm that some highly placed Nigerians are working against her campaign for the position of Director-General of the World Trade Organisation.
In a statement on Friday by her Media Adviser, Paul Nwabuikwu, the former minister said these persons and their cohorts were peddling outright lies and distortions designed to invent a non-existent scandal in order to paint her and her campaign in negative light.
The statement said, “It has come to our attention that there is an ongoing effort by some well-connected Nigerians to sabotage the campaign of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the country’s candidate for Director-General of the World Trade Organization.
“As part of this campaign, these persons and their cohorts are peddling outright lies and distortions designed to invent a non-existent ‘scandal’ in order to paint the Candidate and her campaign in negative light.
“An example of this is the effort to misrepresent the Campaign’s relationship with Mercury Communications, one of the organisations and individuals that have done voluntary, pro bono work for the Campaign.
“Mercury was never formally engaged by Dr Okonjo-Iweala and its work for the Campaign was done strictly on volunteer basis.
“Against this background, the attempt by these elements to manufacture a ‘controversy’ in the local and international media by distorting the facts and creating falsehoods to link the Campaign with some of Mercury’s current or past clients to push a false impression is contemptible.”
The minister, in the statement, noted that it was sad that the elements behind this campaign were placing their “squalid concerns above the interests of the country.”
She urged all well-meaning Nigerians to ignore this condemnable effort.
President Muhammadu Buhari had, on June 9, 2020, nominated Okonjo-Iweala for the post of WTO Director-General to succeed the current Director-General, Roberto Azevêdo, who had announced that he would step down on August 31, 2020.
The WTO however said shortly after this that Egypt, which was opposed to Okonjo-Iweala’s nomination, had nominated Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh for the same position.
Egypt had opposed the nomination of Okonjo-Iweala on the ground that it was belated.
The North African country had told members of the African Union that her nomination should not be recognised.
