Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala vs The United States of America

The race for the presidency of the Bretton Woods institution(World Bank) had been narrowed down to two candidates - Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Dr. Jim Yong Kim, a Korean-American Physician and United States’ nominee - after the former Colombian finance minister, Jose Antonio Ocampo, withdrew his candidacy at the weekend. In fact, Ocampo had thrown his weight behind the Nigerian finance minister, describing her as an "excellent candidate". Zoellick’s tenure expires on June 30.

Observers had been curious that Kim had not even appeared on any major American interview. It had been suggested that his handlers were worried that he might make a slip, which would bring the issue of merit to the fore once again.

“That is why they have resulted to issuing press releases about his visits to different parts of the world,” one of them noted.

However, Okonjo-Iweala, who had also served as managing director of the multilateral institution, has the support of other emerging economies.

Okonjo-Iweala when interviewed by the World Bank board last week promised to tackle global poverty and address issues of job creation if elected.

She also advised the US to end the long tradition of an American always heading the Bretton Woods institution, saying that the decision on who leads the global development institution should go to the candidate with the best skills for the job.

The finance minister had also dismissed the argument by some US politicians that the American country would stop financing the World Bank if a non-American took the reins of the institution. She said she would use her "persuasive powers" to convince Congress to keep funds flowing to the World Bank.

On his part, Kim, had during the interview session with the board of directors of the bank, said that he would not hesitate to question the status quo and do his best to help the world's poorest countries.

Kim had said: “I would bring rigour; objectivity and a focus on data that help all of us define and achieve our shared vision of securing strong economic growth and delivering greater opportunity for the world's poor.”

The contest is now between Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the United State of America and not Jim Yong Kim who is seen as not only unqualified but also not a match for Okonjo-Iweala. But knowing how the system is Okonjo-Iweala know she has already lost and has come out to say that Jim Yung Kim is the next president of the World Bank because the method of selection which is not based on merit but by percentage own. A successor to the out-going President of the World Bank, Mr. Robert Zoellick, will emerge Monday between 5pm and 7pm (12 noon and 2pm Washington DC time), when the results will be announced.

Mali, the Coup d'état and the Tuareg's Declaration of Independence

"We, the people of the Azawad," they said in a statement published on the rebel website, "proclaim the irrevocable independence of the state of the Azawad starting from this day, Friday, April 6, 2012."

"The Executive Committee of the MNLA calls on the entire international community to immediately recognise, in a spirit of justice and peace, the independent state of Azawad," Billal Ag Acherif, the MNLA's secretary-general, said on its French-language

Their independence declaration cited 50 years of misrule by the country's southern-based administration and was issued by the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad (NMLA) whose army is led by a Tuareg senior commander who fought in the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's military. Nomadic Tuaregs have nurtured the dream of secession since Mali's own independence from France in 1960, but have little foreign support for a move neighbours fear could encourage other separatist movements. The rebels that captured the North of Mali comprises: the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNAA), the Islamist Ansar Dine which is closely tied to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and which is demanding the imposition of Islamic law in northern Mali and the secular Tuareg nationalist Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) which is seeking an autonomy, if not a completely independent homeland.

The rebels' advance capitalized on confusion in Bamako after a March 22 coup by mid-ranking officers whose main goal had ironically been to beef up efforts to quash the rebellion of the rebels. Tuareg rebels in the country's north launched incursions deeper into Mali, seizing towns and bases formerly held by government forces fighting the conflict that caused the coup. As military forces have been engaged in consolidating their hold on the capital, the rebels have been able to push southward with little opposition. The Malian coup d'état began on 21 March, when mutinying Malian soldiers unhappy with the management of the 2012 Tuareg rebellion attacked several locations in the capital Bamako. The soldiers, who now call themselves the National Committee for the Restoration of Democracy and State (CNRDR) led by Captain Amadou Sanogo, declared that they had seized power from "the incompetent regime of Amadou Toumani Touré" and said it would look to hand over power to a new democratically elected government. The coup was followed by the swift loss of northern Mali to Tuareg forces, leading Reuters to describe the coup as "a spectacular own-goal" for the CNRDR.

The coup d'état was "unanimously condemned" by the international community and as for the declaration of independence by the rebel, the African Union said in a statement Friday that its commission chairman Jean Ping "firmly condemned" the declaration, which it said was "null and of no value whatsoever." And the French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said "a unilateral declaration of independence that is not recognized by African states means nothing for us."

It is believe that despite the declaration of independence made by the NMLA, they are not in total control of the situation in the north of Mali.

"I heard the declaration but I'm telling you the situation on the ground. We barely see the NMLA. The people we see are the Salafis," said the young man, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal. "I can't tell which group they are exactly, but we know they are the Islamists because of their beards. They are the people in control of Gao.

"They do not speak any African language as far as I can tell. In fact, I don't believe any of them are African ... Even the ones that speak Arabic, speak an Arabic that doesn't come from around here," said Halle, who explained that their dress and appearance leads him to believe that they are likely foreign fighters recruited by the al-Qaida franchise.

The situation on ground and the involvement of Al-Qaida in all these makes me believe that this is the beginning of another African long civil war that will be hard to end.

World Bank Presidency: does Okonjo-Iweala have a chance?

On Friday 23 of March, the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank drew the curtain on nominations for the position of World Bank President, as Robert Zoellick plans to step down in June. Three candidates: Jim Yong Kim, Jose Antinio Ocampo and Dr. (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala have been short-listed.

  

Mr. Jim Yong Kim is a Korean born US national and President of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. The Korean-born Kim represents a break from the financiers and bureaucrats, who have run the World Bank. He is seen as a very smart man and has many of the characteristics that anyone would look for in a World Bank President; however, he lacks recognition among the world's development community. More importantly, he lacks the experience and knowledge of finance and broad-based development that will be essential as the world continues to recover from the global financial crisis and works to prevent its recurrence.

   

José Antonio Ocampo on the other hand is a Colombian national and professor at Columbia University, New York. He is a US-trained economist, who has excellent credentials in academia, national politics and at the United Nations. He has held posts as Agriculture Minister, Planning Minister and Central Bank Chairman in Colombia's government but has no support from his home government, which is looking forward to ILO Presidency.

  

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian and has a PhD in economic. She is a respected economist and diplomat. She has spent more than two decades in numerous positions at the World Bank. A much-heralded finance minister in Nigeria, she help the country to gain its first ever credit rating. Ordinarily, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, who until recently served as one of the bank's managing directors would be expected by experience to pick up the job but the chance of her becoming the next World Bank president is very slim.

   

The President of the World Bank is decided mainly by super powers led by America. It is a known fact that since the inception of the World Bank, the President has always been an American. This is   as a result of a tacit agreement between Europe and America that says when Europe has its citizen as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, the United States of America will produce the President of the World Bank. Emerging countries have gone on the offensive to put an end to this succession rule. Emerging economies such as the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have sought to use their growing economic clout to pry open the selection process for the heads of the World Bank and its sister organisation, the International Monetary Fund.

  

While José Antonio Ocampo has no backing from his country and Angola, Nigeria and South Africa in fact the entire African leadership has endorsed the nomination of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as a candidate to take over the leadership of the bank, when Robert Zoellick steps down in June. The US backed by Europe as usual is ready to force their nominee on member nations, despite the fact that he is the least qualified of the three nominees. U S argued that it does not head any other global organisation and that giving up the World Bank presidency will make it difficult for the White House to obtain funding from the Congress for the global lender, especially with lawmakers worried about mounting budget deficits. But this does not make sense considering the quality of their nominee. Kim's highest qualification as a former director of the World Health Organization's HIV/Aids department which is increasingly been recognized as a core development issue is not good enough for the position because beyond public health, the new World Bank president will face challenges in re-tooling global and national finances for development, food price volatility, filling the massive infrastructure gap and global climate change. Kim is not versed on these issues and lacks experience in managing the delicate global, national, and local interests in play. My opinion is that the U S careless about Kim's qualification all they care about is putting someone who they can control as the president of World Bank and if they are forced to withdraw their nominee they may prefer Ocampo who has a good working relationship with the US. Ocampo won points for collaborating with US on a clamp-down on drug-related money-laundering. Colombia is arguably the US's closest partner in South America and Ocampo has earned the trust of Americans at the highest level but If the decision is finally based on merit, as it should be, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is sure to be the next World Bank president.

   

Rather than listening to the Washington Consensus, many developing countries took matters into their own hands at the turn of the century. Since then the developing world has grown faster than the rich, reduced poverty significantly and avoided the worst of the financial crisis that originated in the US. It would be ironic for the US to dictate the appointment at the World Bank in such an environment.

Syria Crisis: the response

"UN political chief says 'well over' 7500 people have died in Syria violence", this is a tweet posted by Associate Press which has about 824488 followers at about the time of that post and I wondered how many of these followers were shocked when they saw the number of those that have died or felt sad about the continuous killing of Syrian demonstrators by the Syrian government. I am sure majority of these followers do not care. The Associate Press twitter community is an example of the big picture (the global community) though as it has always been known that the global community is a far more complex community with a lot of selfish and conflicting interest.

While killing is still going on in Syria, the number of dead people are increasing daily and the news of the increased use of military forces on armless civilians is now been widely known, it is interesting to know that more people, NGOs and countries are showing concern. More people are giving in the form of charity; more NGOs are getting involved in their own corporate capacity and more countries in their own sovereign capacity but sadly even more people, NGOs and more especially countries are been indifferent to this issue.

Sympathy for the Syrians or empathy towards their struggle; love for equity, justice, peace and mankind should be the core reasons to show concern in this crises but as the game of international politics always go national gain always dominates. The majority of people, corporate bodies and countries that are involved got involved to protect and/or to pursue their personal interest. This can give a good reason for one to say the apathy of some in this crisis does not make them all less their brother's keeper than others as it may seem. The position of China, Russia and America who are some of the big players in this crisis and other world issues is a clear indication that the cold war between the west and the east is still on.

The Arab world which for decades has been battling with insurgency, militancy and religious extremism already have their hands full with internal problems and so are not putting much in the crisis. The United Nations which in itself is powerless is only playing diplomacy pending when the big players come to a consensus which I do not think is close by. The systems that man created around himself and the selfish ways of man has always been a barrier in conflict resolutions which this Syria crisis is not different. While the big players are busy playing the game of international politics and the United Nations is busy doing nothing and the others minding their own business, the big question is how many more people will have to die before president Al Assad will be forced to step down and reap what he has sown.