Okonjo-Iweala debunks 2023 presidential rumours, opens up on plans for WTO

Director General of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has debunked rumours that she planned quitting the WTO’s top job to contest for Nigeria’s presidency in 2023.

Reacting to rumours, Okonjo-Iweala described the rumour as “utterly ridiculous and not true

It would be recalled that Bloomberg News, a New-York based news portal had reported that despite beginning the year with “a plan to score quick negotiating victories that she said would help reboot the dysfunctional Geneva-based trade body;” insiders revealed that the WTO chief is threatening to walk away from the job.

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“Some Geneva officials told the medium that they suspect Okonjo-Iweala wants to run in the 2023 presidential election in her native country of Nigeria,” the news said.

But Okonjo-Iweala denies the report, saying she just got the job. 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 success here.”

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. “It is a very exciting job and I am trying to have some success 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.