Nigeria’s Okonjo-Iweala Emerges First African, Woman DG of WTO

In what is another first for the former Nigerian Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has entered the history book as the first African and the first woman to attain the exalted position of Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Okonjo-Iweala became the finalist after eliminating South Korea’s current Trade Minister, Yoo Myung-hee in a fierce battle for the coveted job on Monday night.

Reports say that influential nations within the global power bloc had a rigorous time working in the Nigerian’s favour with high-level negotiations even as China reportedly tilted the dynamics.

The New Diplomat Europe’s outpost office gathered that with the EU nations and the United States moved in the opposite direction, a move that triggered a deadlock between the two powerful geopolitical allies for the first time in many years and it was the decisive and quiet support of China that finally tipped the scales in Okonjo-Iweala’s favour.

A top diplomat in Geneva told The New Diplomat in confidence: “China quietly changed the game. They said nothing openly but silently they, deftly China voted in Nigeria’s favour.”

Okonjo-Iweala, 66, served as Nigeria’s first female finance and later foreign minister, and has a 25-year career behind her as a development economist and international finance expert at the World Bank, eventually becoming its number two. She is also on Twitter’s board of directors and is a special envoy for the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 fight.

Thus, Okonjo-Iweala has successfully edged out South Korea’s Myung-hee. Yoo Myung-hee 53, is the serving South Korea’s trade minister, following a long career in trade, diplomacy, law and foreign affairs. She had previously served as South Korea’s foreign Affairs minister, among others.

A lawyer and diplomat, Myung-hee holds degrees in Law, Public Policy and was called to the New York Bar.