DR. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala's bid for the Presidency of The World Bank and the initiative of South Africa and Angola joined by Nigeria to spearhead her nomination is one of the most heart-warming news coming from Nigeria. Her acclamation by the Africa Union as the continent's sole candidate was unprecedented; while her endorsement by the largely Francophone ECOWAS region and the published support by the BRICS group - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - is salutary. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala may well be the most endorsed individual from Africa for an international responsibility in recent times.In an environment regretfully suffused with warped ambitions and unmerited aspirations, this nomination is comment, first on Okonjo-Iweala and then Nigeria. It is perhaps a reaffirmation that the promise Nigeria holds has not fatally waned and that when the elements mix, excellence or distinction shines through the rest of the world.The Presidency of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, otherwise called the World Bank, is by definition of the job and responsibility, exclusively in its own class. It is arguably, the job simultaneously wooed by every economic operator globally, coveted by global money managers, courted by Potentates and Serfdoms and deferred to by natural and political sovereigns. In the wake of the President's authorisation and influence is an asset base, as at last year, of over US$300billion spread over the global money and capital markets and a loan book of over US$57billion.It is an awesome assignment superintending the agencies of the World Bank Group namely: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Development Association (IDA), International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), with primary assignments ranging from concessional lending for hard and social infrastructure, in developing and poorest countries ' roads, agriculture, irrigation, education, health, etc., and facilitation of private sector finance, to legal and governance policy development.With only three candidates, Jim Yong Kim, Jose Antonio Ocampo and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala formally available at close of nomination on March 23, 2010; and acuity of support to many emerging nations, the competence, background and aptitude of the nominees ought to be distilled in a transparent, merit-based process.Until she resumed as Minister in Nigeria few months ago, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala was the Managing Director of the World Bank responsible for Africa, South Asia, Europe and Central Asia. In a career spanning over twenty years, she has served the World Bank as Special Assistant to the Senior Vice-President, Operations; Director of Institutional Change and Strategy; Country Director, Malaysia, Mongolia, Laos and Cambodia; Deputy Vice-President, Middle East Region; Vice President and Corporate Secretary. Okonjo-Iweala holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Harvard University and a PhD in Regional Economics and Development from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has served as Minister of Finance and Foreign Affairs in the Nigerian Government and her aptitude for the common touch is evident in her everyday profile.Okonjo-Iweala's vastness, breadth of education, cognate experience, specific hands-on professional competence across a swathe of the real world; coupled with being a tested public finance reformer and budget innovator in one of the world's most difficult economies, matched against the challenges for the incoming President of the World Bank group, puts her head and shoulder above the other nominees in an objective assessment. Her gender of course is, by all means, more than a little advantage.Instructively, there is anxiety across the world on the monopoly of the United States' nominee on this post. The fear for this tendency to continue given the weight of the U.S. and her G8 allies' voting rights is anachronistic. Even the U.S. itself recently baulked the trend with the election of President Barack Obama! Sixty years after the Bretton Woods conference, the world is severely and severally changed, including the oligopoly of those times between Europe and the United States. Amongst the moving changes is the decline of European Economies which now require IMF funding; the continuing rise of China, India, Russia, South Africa and Brazil; the emergence of South Korea and the Asian Tigers; the massive transformation of the Gulf States' economies and the aggressive growth of natural resource management in erstwhile poor nations.There is nothing but grief in the comment that, in an election year, a U.S. citizen must hold the post because Congress will be loath to appropriate funds to the World Bank. Perhaps, it may now be reflected too that current results of the World Bank activities during the incumbency of American nominees only, all these years, require a punctuation to allow for a new comparative index in delivering to the poor, to be led by another vision of the poor. The U.S. will put a seal of hypocrisy on the rest of the world and not the least, undermine the World Bank professionals themselves if the America throws in a physician, good natured or not, to head the World Bank group at this time. The suggestion counts to be retrogressive in an era that produced Barack Obama. If the U.S. along with European or G8 friends destroy the legitimacy of the President of the World Bank, every other attribute, including accountability, would be thrown out presently and that will further blur the picture of how America makes friends and enemies in the deprived Third World, the World Bank main theatre of service.To counter America's opposition, the current coalition in Africa and the BRICS should prevail on Colombia and the South Americans for Dr. Jose Ocampo, formidable on the strength of his own accomplishment as innovative Finance Minister and later Under-secretary General at the United Nations, to step down. That will not diminish respect for him. A transparent two way contest between Okonjo-Iweala and the U.S nominee will be a historic turn of event that would revisit governance at the Bank, the limitations of current quota and voting rights, bank structure and representation and abolition of any divine rights to rule.The Bank itself orders the job specification, inter alia: A proven track record of leadership; Experience in managing large organizations with international exposure; familiarity with the public sector; Ability to articulate a clear vision of the Bank's development mission; A firm commitment to and appreciation for multilateral cooperation; and effective and diplomatic communication skills, impartiality and objectivity.' These attributes effectively describe Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.Her candidature for the 12th President of the World Bank Group is an immense challenge in our time; a clear call to duty and responsibility to the most desperate part of humanity. Her candidature is credible and an event where she already made the critical point to stand in her own skin and skills.Her competencies attest to this: Ivy League Alumna, Doctor of Philosophy in Regional Economics, Bank lender and policy work in all the core sectors of the World Bank service - South Asia, Africa, Europe, Central Asia; Development Economist, Debts Negotiator, Finance Minister of the Year 2005, Her aptitudes as Finance expert, Foreign Minister, not excluding the hard work of Wife, Mother and African Princess. Comfortable in Washington and in the Tropics, her span bestrides the sophisticated and the mundane; a real world banker.Okonjo-Iweala is exceptionally prepared for this assignment. The Board of Governors should approve her when she gets interviewed on April 9, so the World can inaugurate and invigorate a much more realistic Bretton Woods.
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