Egyptian Government Moves To Block The Appointment Of Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala As The New DG Of The World Trade Organisation

Emerging report indicates that the appointment of the candidacy of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the position of the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, WTO, seems to be shaky for now.

This is as the Arab Republic of Egypt has claimed that the nomination of Okonjo-Iweala by President Muhammadu Buhari, “is not in conformity with the Executive Council decision”, since the time for this nomination had elapsed in 2019, specifically on Saturday, November 30, 2019.

The African nation, alerted the Ministerial Committee on Candidatures of the African Union, AU, that only two persons have been nominated and endorsed for the embattled Office, Abdulhameed Mamdouh of Egypt, and Eloi Laourou of the Republic of Benin.

A part of the letter read: “During the Ambassadorial level Ministerial Committee on Candidatures meeting, which was held on June 4, 2020, the Office of Legal Counsel, OLC, gave its legal opinion 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. I 090(XXXVI), since the Council’s decision, had 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.”