BY BANYO TEMITAYO
FORMER Minister of Finance, Olusegun Aganga, has described Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s appointment as the first African and first female Director-General of the World Trade Organisation as a good development for Nigeria.
Aganga, who was Managing Director at leading global investment bank, Goldman Sachs, before he was invited to serve as minister in 2010, noted that her emergence after the rigorous process, and considering the huge number of countries involved, was a big endorsement for Nigeria, for Africa and for Okonjo-Iweala as the candidate.
He also listed the benefits to Nigeria and Africa, of having the former Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, as the WTO DG, in an interview on Arise TV, monitored by THE POINT.
He said, “It is good for the profile of Nigeria and Africa, internationally. That is one benefit for Africa but there are many other benefits. This year, we commenced the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area. For that to be successful, you need to have a very strong trade facilitation agreement in place, as we agreed in Bali in 2013.
“The countries that are supposed to benefit most from this are the developing countries and the poor countries. And there are mechanisms in the trade agreement, which provide support for developing nations and least developed countries to actually benefit from this trade agreement.
“I think more and more of the African leaders would be tapping into these resources with someone like Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the helm of affairs there.”
According to him, some people have complained that only a small group within the WTO actually makes the key decisions and this reservation can be addressed by the new DG.
Aganga, who was also Nigeria’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, said, “The second benefit is the fact that some people have complained that only a small minority group within the WTO actually makes some of the key decisions.
“She will make sure that you have more inclusive and democratic discussions, which will bring in more of the developing nations and the LDCs, including other nations of the world. So I think there is a lot of benefit for Nigeria and Africa.”
On whether Okonjo-Iweala had the right skills to fix what some perceived as the broken nature of the WTO, he noted, “She has the right skills but let me help manage expectations here. WTO is a member-led organisation. All the decisions in WTO are made by the members, the 164 countries and custom territories.
“It is led at the ministerial conference level and the day to day decision making is left to the General Council. So the role of the DG is the Head of the Secretariat supporting the WTO itself, which means that the DG cannot on her own drive the agenda of the WTO, cannot on her own actually force a nation or a country to do what they don’t want to do. But the WTO DG can play a big role in influencing, in shaping the decision of the Organisation.
“It requires a lot of negotiations. It is like working for 164 bosses. It’s not easy. It requires consensus, negotiations, discussions, and all decisions have to be made by consensus. So it requires a lot of tact, political goodwill; it requires someone who has the kind of experience which Dr. Okonjo-Iweala has.”
The former minister described the new DG as a reformist who had worked in a big multilateral organisation at the World Bank, noting therefore that she was familiar with that territory.
You can’t have a better person to play that role. So I think she didn’t emerge as the successful candidate because she is a woman or an African; she emerged because she is actually very competent. That shows you the quality of Nigerians we have in the Diaspora and in Nigeria,” Aganga stressed.
