As the World Bank selects its new? president after the tenure of the current one, Mr. Robert Zoellick in two weeks’ time, ABIODUN OLUWAROTIMI, LEADERSHIP correspondent covering the activities of the global bank writes on the pedigrees, merits and demerits of the three major candidates that have been nominated for the contest.
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
The former managing director of the World Bank and current finance minister in President Goodluck Jonathan’s government may possibly have the edge over the other contestants if the support of the African Union (AU) is something to go by.
AU recently gave a resounding support to the candidacy of Dr. Okonjo-Iweala.
Speaking on the impeccable credentials of the former World Bank MD, which makes her the best for the job, the AU described her as a development professional who spent more than two decades at the World Bank before becoming the finance minister of Nigeria.
In its endorsement of Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy, the AU said the crux of development issues in the world today resides in Africa, and, therefore, the World Bank needs to have at its helm someone with deep knowledge and expertise in a wide range of development issues.
Also, the support of Ambassador Harold E. Doley, the first U.S. executive director to the African Development Bank, who recently wrote an article to support the nomination of Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, will also make the African candidate sellable.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala will also enjoy the goodwill of Nigeria, which will be showcased by the Nigerian ambassador to the United States, Prof. Adebowale Adefuye, during the campaigns which he will personally lead to ensure the success of the Nigerian candidate.
It should be noted that the federal government has just directed the Nigerian Ambassador to the US, to use all available resources to ensure that Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, Africa’s sole candidate for the World presidency, gets elected when the Board of Directors of the bank vote at the Spring meeting of the bank scheduled for April 20 -22, 2012, in Washington DC.
The decision of the federal government of Nigeria was borne out of the broad and overwhelming support that Dr. Okonjo-Iweala’s candidacy has received globally.
Okonjo-Iweala, 57, had served as World Bank VP and managing director and would be the first woman World Bank president, if she gets the spot.
Despite the support for her, one cannot but mention some troubles that she might face before and during the selection process of the next World Bank president.
Another problem that the Nigerian finance minister will face is that the position of the World Bank president is traditionally held by Americans while Europe normally produces the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Also, voting percentage might work against her as Nigeria has just one per cent voting power while the United States has about 15 per cent.
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Dr. Jim Yong Kim
The sole candidate of the United States may enjoy more backing as he is a direct nominee and choice of the most powerful president in the world, Mr. Barrack Obama.
If the selection of the global bank’s president is still done as it used to be traditionally done, then, the United States nominee will have little or no hurdle to face as it has always been the US that produces the World Bank’s president.
The White House has started releasing different statements of support for the Asian-American Jim Young Kim, including one from an African head of state, Rwandan Paul Kagame, a noted and respectable voice in the continent.
It should be noted that Paul Kagame’s open and total support of the United States choice already shows a crack in the African camp, and also indicates that it is not all the African countries that are supporting Okonjo-Iweala.
Also, the decision of the bank’s Board of Directors, which is made up of 25 members, would be by consensus, and the US and European countries already have a majority. The US alone has about 15 per cent voting power on the board, while Nigeria has less than one per cent.
Another thing that will work for the US candidate is that despite the massive support that he is expected to enjoy among the Board of Directors, the US government is not leaving any stone unturned in their campaign for him and, during these campaigns, he has been making juicy promises for the African continent.
During one of the campaigns in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Dr. Jim Yong Kim vowed to place Africa among his top priorities if elected to head the world’s leading financial institution.
?“One of the things I have been watching with great interest is the fact that, from the time in the early 2000s, when people had very little hope for the continent as a whole to develop economically, the performance of African countries including Ethiopia has been quite impressive,” said Dr. Kim at the United States Embassy in Addis Ababa.
Meanwhile, many opinion leaders believe that the US nominee is not the best person to handle the World Bank’s top job because he lacks the broader experience that the World Bank president should normally possess.
Dr. Kim earned a medical degree and an anthropology doctorate from Harvard, where he founded a non-profit agency Partners in Health (PHI) with medical school classmate Paul Farmer.?? PHI renders community-based healthcare services in a number of African countries.
Kim, 52, was director of the department of HIV/AIDS at the World Health Organization and, while there, led a successful initiative to treat three million AIDS patients by 2005.
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Mr. José Antonio Ocampo
The Columbian nominee and former UN under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs may be lucky if the selection process is done on merit as being promised by the World Bank.
On merit, José Antonio Ocampo is far and away the most qualified candidate to lead and reform the World Bank,? according to The Guardian of UK in its recent publication.
Ocampo is the only candidate who has the breadth of knowledge and experience to reform the World Bank for these 21st-century challenges.
He has managed and reformed major global institutions and government ministries. And, as a leading development economist in academia, he will have the respect of a bank swarming with economists.
Between 2003 and 2007 Ocampo served as the UN under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs. In that capacity he chaired the UN executive committee on economic and social affairs and headed the UN department of economic and social affairs.
He was tapped for that job because of his stellar record in reforming the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, where he was executive secretary from 1998 to 2003.
From 1989 to 1997 he held a number of senior posts in the Colombian government, including finance minister and chair of the Central Bank board.
In addition, he was minister of national planning, and minister of agriculture and rural development. In all these capacities he was a proven reformer.
One of the only things standing in Ocampo’s way is his own government. Colombia’s finance minister, Bogota, gave Ocampo the go-ahead but only days later said Ocampo’s bid was not “politically feasible” because Bogotá was then pushing a candidate to head the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
The Dominican Republic and Brazil nominated Ocampo, and Columbia joined them when pressure was mounting on Colombian government to change its stance.
Despite his nomination, it is still very clear that Ocampo is not enjoying the full support of the government of his country as a result of the government’s interest in the ILO slot.
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