Nigeria, U.S. mute as bid for World Bank boss ends today

LESS than 24 hours to the close of nomination for the soon-to-be vacant position of President of the World Bank, the United States (U.S.) and Nigeria, which are highly favoured for the office, are yet to present any candidate for the slot.

As at last night, the American President Barak Obama and his Nigerian counterpart, Goodluck Jonathan, were reportedly under pressure to break their silence on the matter.

Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been confirmed by sources within the Bretton Woods Institution, to have been nominated for the office while America’s Susan Rice, is also favoured for the slot.

But an African elder statesman and historian, Prof. Ali Mazrui, who does not believe that Nigeria’s silence on the matter is golden, has written a letter to Jonathan to forward Okonjo-Iweala’s name for the position.

Last Wednesday, Okonjo-Iweala through his aide, Paul Nwabuiku, publicly declared that she was not interested in the office.

The eventual occupant of the position would emerge through consensus by the global bank’s board.

On Wednesday afternoon at the White House, journalists pressed Obama’s Press Secretary Jay Carney on the issue of whom his boss might propose for the office since traditionally an American has always occupied the position.

As at press time yesterday, there was no clear candidate of the U.S. government although media reports mentioned Rice, the present American Ambassador to the United Nations (UN), as the country’s possible choice.

Carney, who dodged the question, simply said there are “no updates” as yet on the issue. World Bank officials said yesterday that the Americans have only one day to decide on their choice for the office.

Jonathan has allegedly come under international pressure from some eminent Africans, including Mazrui, who sent a letter through the Nigerian Embassy in U.S. to convince the Federal Government on the need to support Okonjo-Iweala’s nomination.

A source confirmed that the Embassy has forwarded the letter to Aso Rock, because according to the diplomatic source, “if a Nigerian gets the job, it will be a great honour for the country.”

The Guardian learnt that Jonathan might not be well disposed to releasing Okonjo-Iweala for the office because of her critical role in the administration’s transformation agenda, which informed her dual positions as finance and co-ordinating minister of the economy.


The World Bank Board of Directors, which includes three African representatives, will decide the next helmsman of the bank by consensus, according to a statement issued by the organisation.


Mazrui in his letter to Jonathan, which was copied to Nigeria’s Ambassador to the U.S., Prof. Ade Adefuye, the three African Executive Directors on the board of the World Bank (Mr. Agapito Mendes Dias, Hassan Ahmed Taha, and Renosi Mokate), all of whom are believed to be supporting Okonjo-Iweala’s candidature, said: “All contacts we have had so far consistently confirm that your Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is the best candidate for this position.


“We fully understand that Okonjo-Iweala only recently joined your team, and she is a major member with considerable responsibilities for supporting your agenda to help Nigeria’s economy grow faster and reduce poverty. We do not minimise this role.”


Mazrui, who is based in New York, added that “we also think that the current opportunity for Okonjo-Iweala to be considered for the position to head the World Bank - the world’s premier development institution - is an unprecedented opportunity for Nigeria, for Africa, and for the developing world to field a candidate of merit and credibility that would influence global
development considerably.”


He wrote the letter last week from his State University of New York in Binghamton.


According to him, “opportunities such as these come about rarely - and your support for Ngozi’s nomination will advance Africa’s and the developing world’s voice and leadership in global governance institutions significantly.”


Although World Bank sources confirmed yesterday that Okonjo-Iweala’s name is in contention, the time allowed for nomination ends today and a list of three short-listed candidates would be made public by the board, which is the appointing authority.


The World Bank statement explained that “nominations should be submitted by close of business on Friday, March 23, 2012, and may be made by Executive Directors, or by Governors through their Executive Directors.”


An earlier statement had hinted that “following the close of the nomination process, the Executive Directors will decide on a shortlist of up to three candidates, and publish the names of the short-listed candidates with their consent.”


It said “formal interviews by the Executive Directors will be conducted for all short-listed candidates with the expectation of selecting the new President by consensus by the Spring Meetings of 2012.”

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Africa backs Okonjo-Iweala for World Bank Presidency

South Africa has called a news conference for today to announce an African candidate for the World Bank presidency, widely expected to be Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, sources familiar with the discussions said, yesterday.

South Africa chairs one of the three African seats on the 25-member World Bank board, and Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy was being proposed after consultations between South African President Jacob Zuma and Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, the sources said.

A statement from South Africa’s Treasury said the Finance Ministers of Angola, Nigeria and South Africa would hold a news conference in Pretoria today, although it did not disclose details of the agenda.

Okonjo-Iweala and former Colombian Finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo are set to make the first concerted challenge to the US grip on the top job at the World Bank, according to a source.

Brazil said this week that both Okonjo-Iweala and Ocampo would be “great” candidates to replace Robert Zoellick as head of the Washington-based development institution, the latest sign of emerging nations wanting more say on how it is run.

Washington has held the presidency since the bank’s founding after World War II, while a European has always led its sister organisation, the International Monetary Fund.

Despite the push by emerging nations, the United States has the bank’s largest voting share and is expected to win the support of most developed nations, making it likely that another American will succeed Zoellick.

All of the World Bank’s 187 member nations have committed to a transparent, merit-based process to select Zoellick’s successor, a step adopted last year to give emerging economies a greater say in who heads the poverty-fighting institution.

Emerging and developing economies have long expressed a desire to break US and European dominance of the two Bretton Woods institutions, but until now had failed to build a coalition large enough to mount a credible challenge.

According to reports, the decision to nominate Okonjo-Iweala and Ocampo followed weeks of consultations among representatives from BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa— and other developing countries at the World Bank board level aimed at finding credible nominees.

Carlos Cozendey, Secretary of Foreign Affairs at Brazil’s Finance Ministry, said both Ocampo and Okonjo-Iweala were ‘great’ candidates and their candidacies signalled increased coordination among developing countries.

“We continue to believe that the president should be chosen based on merit, and it is very positive to have an open competition process,” Cozendey said.

Nominations will be submitted to the 25-member World Bank board, which is expected to make a decision within the next month.

However, sources said China is also considered putting forward a candidate, while the United States has focussed its search on convincing a woman to enter the race.

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, is a leading contender, though it is not clear she wants the job, sources said.

Lawrence Summers, a former economic adviser to President Barack Obama, has also been short-listed, in addition to US Senator, John Kerry and PepsiCo’s Indian-born chief executive, Indra Nooyi,

However, reports have it that Kerry has publicly ruled out the job, while sources say Nooyi is no longer in contention.

“The impressive credentials of both Ocampo and Okonjo-Iweala puts tremendous pressure on the White House to come up with a candidate of at least equivalent standing.

This is the first time in history we have a truly contested election.” said Domenico Lombardi, a former World Bank board official now at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, nominee for World Bank President

Nigeria’s finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is among the candidates being proposed to take over the presidency of the World Bank, with the incumbent Robert Zoellick, having served notice that he would step down in June.

Ngozi was a former managing director of the bank until late last year when he resigned to become Nigeria’s finance minister, for the second time in less than a decade. She is the favorite of Nancy Birdsall, head of the Center for Global Development, who stressed that the selection process “needs to be competitive” and truly open to any candidate.

Birdsall has also proposed Nandan Nilekania, the Indian co-founder of INFOSYS.

It is crucial that “whoever ends up in the job has the legitimacy that a person that is truly competent would ensure,” she said in a phone interview with the AFP.

It is not clear yet whether Ngozi would dump Nigeria for the World bank job.

But the race is much hotter with Americans with renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs, who led the UN committee on the Millennium development goals, throwing his hat in the ring Friday in a Washington Post op-ed piece, saying the World Bank needs an expert like himself rather than another politician or Wall Street banker.

Sachs’s declaration came amid signs the United States is eyeing others for the high-profile job.

“The United States signaled that it was looking at the possibility of nominating (Treasury Secretary Timothy) Geithner, (one of his predecessors Larry) Summers, or someone from the private sector like (Pimco chief executive) Mohamed El-Erian,” said a person close to the World Bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Those three have remained mum on their interest in heading the global development lender.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also has been widely mentioned in the media as a possibilty. Geithner’s deputy for international affairs, Lael Brainard, has drawn some attention as well.

With the deadline for nominations three weeks away, the competition “is beginning to pick up speed,” the source said.

One thing seems certain, though: despite a chorus of calls from emerging markets and NGOs for a non-American to lead the development lender, in the name of the “new normal” global economy, the United States, as the biggest stakeholder, is expected to decide the winner.

The World Bank has promised the selection process will be “merit-based and transparent” and open to candidates from its 187 member nations.

But in an unwritten pact since the creation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund nearly seven decades ago, the US has always put an American at the helm of the Bank and Europe has ensconced a European as IMF managing director.

But the clamor for an alternative has grown louder.

After Zoellick announced two weeks ago he was stepping down on June 30 at the end of his five-year term, China and Brazil called for a fair, competitive selection process

Neither has put forth an alternative candidate, at least not yet.

Bangladesh prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has suggested Muhammad Yunus, who won a Nobel Prize for his work in microfinance.

On Friday Yunus flatly ruled out taking the job, but the person close to the World Bank suggested that Yunus may still emerge as a candidate.

“But right now it isn’t the intention of the Indian director on the board to propose him.”

An Indian director holds the board seat shared by India and Bangladesh.

The source said Brazil would probably nominate someone, with some speculation focusing on former president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.

Washington is maintaining a vault-like silence on its preferred candidate.

Traditionally it has been a high-powered diplomat — like Zoellick — or someone from the financial sector.

Clinton would be a popular choice, many say, and she has said she wants to retire as the country’s top diplomat by January, the end of President Barack Obama’s first term.

But she has also repeatedly insisted she does not want the post.

Geithner, too, has said he wants out of Washington by January, though not as strongly as Clinton.

Because of a controversy when he was World Bank chief economist in the 1990s, “Summers would be perceived as an affront for the Africans,” the source said.

Pimco’s El-Erian, the head of the world’s biggest bond fund, might solve a problem of “internationalizing” the job: he has both French and Egyptian roots, while also maintaining US citizenship.

El-Erian, who worked for several years at the IMF, could appeal to the emerging countries, the source said, “but it still is necessary to convince him to accept” the new job.

Sachs, who directs the Earth Institute at Columbia University and is a special adviser to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, made an argument for a more qualitative change.

“Unlike previous World Bank presidents, I don’t come from Wall Street or US politics. I am a practitioner of economic development, a scholar and a writer. My track record is to side with the poor and hungry, not with a corporate balance sheet or a government,” he said in the Washington Post.

“Finding the graceful way forward, forging the networks that can create global change, should be the bank’s greatest role,” Sachs said. “I’ll stand on my record of helping to create those networks.”

The deadline for nominations is March 23. The World Bank has set a goal of picking the new president by the World Bank-IMF meetings on April 20-22.

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