Obama and Okonjo-Iweala’s World Bank bid

Ngozi-Iweala

By Paul Arhewe

The race for the presidency of the World Bank is reaching a crescendo with the billed appearance of Nigeria’s Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala before a 26 member panel of assessors yesterday. Her rivals, Jose Antonio Ocampo of Colombia and Professor Jim Young Kim, nominated by President Barack Obama, will take their turn on Tuesday and Wednesday re-spectively. On a personal note, I am still at a loss over the rationale behind Obama’s nomination of the relatively low profiled American-Korean Kim for the exalted position. It is to say the least, perplexing.I have followed the international dis-course on the politics of appointing the presidency of both the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Of the three potential candidates for the World Bank presidency, one thing analysts are agreed on is that Jim Young Kim, the public health professor, has the least appealing credentials. I find it rather baffling that the USA President throws his weight behind a candidate that is a hard sale when his candidacy is juxtaposed over the more qualified Nigerian Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Colombian Jose Antonio Ocampo.

Given the real politick that underlines international relations, I would think the USA would offer the world a first class candidate if she wants to maintain the existing tradition where America gets the presidency of the World Bank as a matter of right, and Europe that of the IMF. I wish to appreciate the dilemma President Obama faces in an election year.

If he gives his blessing to a non-American, the US president would have given critics and his political opponents the needed fuel to incinerate his second term bid.
There is the argument that President Obama’s choice of Kim is in line with his push for a change in the World Bank. Supporting insiders like Okonjo-Iweala and Ocampo, it is reasoned, would have obviated his desire for a change of the status quo.
The argument is that Kim’s antecedents as the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s campaign against AIDS/HIV in underdeveloped countries would endear him more to these countries, hence his choice. This may not have changed Kim’s anti- economic growth and private investment views, as reflected in his book ‘Dying for Growth’.
His positions on core issues like these are already being bandied as the most compelling reason why he is unfit for the World Bank plum job. By Obama’s choice, it might eventu-ally turn out to be a repeat of the fiasco committed by former President George Bush when he foisted Paul Wolfowitz on the world in 2005. Informed commentators said Wolfowitz was one of the most polarizing figures in the world to head this great global institution. I would think Kim is best suited as the director general of WHO.
He would be a misfit in the World Bank where vast array of economic and development issues requiring serious grounding in econom-ics to be properly appreciated, would be thrown up.
Ocampo put his finger on the issue when he recently said: “I think in terms of development expertise it is quite clear to everyone that the finance minister of Nigeria and myself stand above the US candidate, who has very narrow expertise in development. He is an excellent physician, nobody denies that, but we’re talking about a develop-ment institution.”
Despite having the least appealing resume among the trio, the US nominee cannot be sidelined in this contest. The vote distribution arrangement might be tilted in Kim’s favour, as Europe, especially the United Kingdom, is more dis-posed to following the path of America.
Also, Kim partly a Korean, may also have the sympathy of Japan and China.No doubts, Okonjo-Iweala stands out, clearly, as the most qualified to take over from Robert Zoellick comes June this year. Her credential and many years experience as a former managing director of the World Bank is a plus.
In addition, the Bretton Wood institution that mainly focuses on the fight against poverty, and proffers supports for development among developing and third world countries would no doubt requires the services and experience of someone who is a two-time finance minister in Africa’s most populous state, a country where the fight against poverty is predominant.

Okonjo-Iweala’s expected emergence as the World Bank president would really be of tremendous benefits to developing coun-tries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It is time, indeed, the developing world felt the pulse of this great institution through the endorsement of the most qualified and most suitable candidate for the World Bank presidency.