Egypt Kicks Against Okonjo-Iweala’s Nomination For WTO DG

Egypt has opposed against President Muhammadu Buhari’s nomination of former Niggeria’s finance minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the position of director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

MERIDIAN SPY reported earlier, President Buhari wrote, in a letter dated June 4, 2020, to all member countries of the African Union (AU), embassies and permanent missions, announcing his decision to withdraw the candidacy of Yonov Frederick Agah, Nigeria’s permanent representative to WTO and request their support to favour the candidacy of the former Nigeria economic minister.

But in a letter dated June 5, 2020 addressed to the candidature committee, the North African country reminded AU member states that the union had been required to nominate candidates for the director-general position since November 30, 2019, which is about five months ago.

The permanent mission of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the AU said the Office of Legal Consent opined that Nigeria’s nomination of a new candidate “is not in conformity with the executive council decision”.

It urged the ministerial committee on candidatures to officially inform the African Group in Geneva that Abdulhameed Mamdouh of Egypt and Eloi Laourou of the Republic of Benin are currently the “only two endorsed African candidates”.

The letter partly 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.”

The mission urged the legal counsel office to provide its opinion on “the conformity of Nigeria’s new nomination with executive council decision no. EX1072 of July 2019, which requested member states to nominate candidates to the position of director-general of the World Trade Organisation by November 30, 2019.

“The conformity of Nigeria’s new nomination as presented in its note verbal with the rules of procedure of the ministerial committee, specifically rule 11, para (1), (2), (3), (4);

“If the new nomination – in the event it is submitted officially to the WTO in Geneva- could constitute a failure to comply with the decision of the executive council and be subject to sanction for non-compliance as mentioned in Rule I 6 of the rules of procedure of the ministerial committee.”

The letter also revealed that the mission has started consultations with the Republic of Benin “with the aim of reaching a consensus on one African candidate between the only two currently endorsed African candidates and will communicate the outcomes of these consultations to the esteemed ministerial committee at the soonest possible date”.