The Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Nigerian-born Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has laughed off claims she is interested in contesting the 2023 presidential election.
Okonjo-Iweala spoke in reaction to the rumour that she is mulling the possibility of resigning her WTO job barely seven months into her 4 1/2-year term, described the speculation as “utterly ridiculous and not true.”
Rather, she said, “I just got here. I am enjoying what I’m doing. It is a very exciting job and I am trying to have some successes here.”
The Bloomberg News had claimed that the WTO boss began the year with “a plan to score quick negotiating victories that she said would help reboot the dysfunctional Geneva-based trade body;” reporting however that Okonjo-Iweala has fully grasped the frustrating reality of the WTO’s historical inertia.
The New York-based medium also quoted five trade officials in Geneva who declined to be identified.
This year, Okonjo-Iweala has repeatedly told ambassadors and staff that she could easily walk away from the job, and reminds them she hasn’t bought any furniture for her temporary home in Geneva, the officials said.
Bloomberg News further claimed that it was informed by some Geneva trade officials that they suspect Okonjo-Iweala wants to run in the 2023 presidential election in her native country of Nigeria.
Okonjo-Iweala didn’t comment about her threats to resign but denied any interest in running for the Nigerian presidency, calling such speculation “utterly ridiculous and not true” in a statement to Bloomberg News.
“I just got here. I am enjoying what I’m doing,” she told Bloomberg News in a television interview
She said, “It is a very exciting job and I am trying to have some successes here.”
The true test of Okonjo-Iweala’s leadership will come in November, when she hosts the WTO’s 12th ministerial conference — a gathering of the organisation’s highest decision-making body, Bloomberg states; noting that, to date, WTO members have failed to make significant headway on the three priority areas Okonjo-Iweala identified for potential outcomes at the biennial meeting.
