Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has become a major victim of the nation’s tardiness as she has been disqualified by the African Union (AU) from vying for the office of the Director General, World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Dr Okonjo-Iweala nomination realigned the race and made her a frontrunner. The office was by consensus was zoned to Africa.

She remains top of Nigeria’s shining light at the international arena as she commands a global stature as an international civil servant, former Managing Director (Operations) of the World Bank, finance expert, economist and international development professional, with over 30 years’ experience.

Three candidates were originally billed to succeed the outgoing WTO Director-General. They include Eloi Laourou of the Republic of Benin, Abdulhameed Mamdouh of the Arab Republic of Egypt Arab Republic and Mr Fredrick Agah of Nigeria.

The AU says Nigeria’s new nomination of Okonjo-Iweala did not meet the submission deadline and there are no more vacancies into which Nigeria can make nomination.

Global Upfront Newspapers had last week in a story titled: ‘Nigeria’s tardiness slows Okonjo-Iweala’s emergence as race for WTO DG kicks off,’ expressed fears that the nation end up ridiculing itself and its esteemed global citizen by the manner and lateness of her nomination.

GUN wrote: “Obviously, the former Finance Minister’s nomination by Nigeria was a product of Nigeria’s “tardiness” from the moment the announcement of the opening of the race in May. She was an afterthought after the chances of the previous Nigerian nominee was not flying.”

On Thursday June 4, 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari, in what looked like and after thought, withdrew the nomination of Fedrick Agah and replaced him with Dr Okonjo-Iweala.

Immediately President Buhari’s diplomatic communication through the Nigerian Embassy and Permanent Mission to the African Union (AU) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa was submitted, Egypt issued communication No. 081 /2020- AU of June 5, 2020 to the Permanent Missions of the WTO Member States of the Ministerial Committee on Candidatures, positing that the withdrawal of Mr Agah’s candidature meant that Nigeria has forfeited its chance to participate in the race.

The memo was also sent to the African Union Commission (Commissioner of Political Affairs/Office of Legal Counsel).

Egypt said as far as it was concerned, three candidates, representing Benin Republic, Egypt and Nigeria, had already obtained the endorsement of the Executive Council to contest the position of the WTO Director General vide its decision EX.CL/December 1090(XXXVI) of February 2020.

Egypt said that with the withdrawal of Mr Agah’s candidature and substitution with Dr Okonjo-Iweala, it was requesting the Ministerial Committee on Candidatures to officially inform the African Group in Geneva about the development and Nigeria’s disqualification. It officiaaly want the committee to acknowledge that “Abdulhameed Mamdouh of the Arab Republic of Egypt and Eloi Laourou of the Republic of Benin are currently the only two endorsed African candidates” in the race.

“In this context, the Permanent Mission of Egypt would like to highlight that Government of Egypt is undertaking consultations with the Government 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,” the memo said.

In rejecting Dr Okonjo-Iweala’s nomination, the AU aligned itself with Egypt’s position. The continental body wrote: “It is a recognised principle of international law that a sovereign state has the right to substitute and replace a nomination of its citizens as it may wish for a position.

“However, the sovereign right does not endow that state any right to change existing rules, relevant decisions of the Executive Council and decisions of the ther policy organs of the union. A decision of the Executive Council should only be changed by another decision of the council not by any member state and a decision of the Assembly should be changed by a decision of the Assembly not by a member state.”

However, in a document from the Office of the Legal Counsel of the African Union, Reference Number: BC/OLC/24/5056.20 dated June 15, 2020, the African Union says the nomination of Okonjo-Iweala violates Rule (11), 1, 2 and 3, Rule 12 and Rule 15(3) of the rules of procedure of the committee on candidatures within the International System of the AU as well as Council’s Decisions Ex CI 1072 (XXXV), Ec CI Dec 1090 (XXXVI) and Assembly Dec 795 (XXXIII).

The AU says its Executive Council had endorsed the nominations of Fedrick Agah, Eloi Laourou and Abdulhameed Mamdouh before Nigeria sought to substitute its nomination.

The continental body also noted that its Council’s endorsement was for the nominees in person and not for their countries.