•Why S/Africa champions Okonjo-Iweala’s campaign
Written by Olawale Rasheed, Adelowo Oladipo and Johnson Babajide with Agency ReportsThursday, 29 March 2012
AS leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) meet in New Delhi, India, today, intensive lobbying is ongoing as United States’ diplomats and BRICS officials slug it out over plan by the leaders to adopt a common candidate for the World Bank presidency.
The BRICS is an international political organisation of leading emerging economies.
Reports from the Indian capital indicated that the US is using the host nation, India, to frustrate plan to adopt a common candidate, while Russia, China and South Africa are pushing for such adoption to stop American’s nominee for the top job.
In a move seen as pre-empting other BRICS leaders, India announced on Wednesday that the issue of common candidate for the World Bank job was not on the agenda, insisting that the grouping simply wanted an “open and merit-based” process.
The Chinese and the Russian governments are, however, said to be well disposed to the common candidate issue with the South African team reported to have launched a diplomatic offensive to ensure that the African choice for the job, Mrs Okonjo-Iweala, is adopted by the leaders.
China’s foreign ministry said on Monday that “the voice of developing countries” should be taken into account when selecting a new leader for the World Bank while the Brazilian team is reported to be in support of single candidacy but undecided between Okonjo-Iweala and Colombian, Jose Antonio Ocampo.
The South African delegation, led by President Jacob Zuma, arrived on Wednesday with a statement from the country‘s presidency declaring that South Africa would use the summit to help advance the African agenda in seeking support from BRICS partners for infrastructure development and industrialisation initiatives and World Bank presidency.
Nigerian Tribune can also report that the Nigerian team arrived in the Indian capital on Tuesday to present the Nigerian and the African case for the World Bank job in coordination with the South African team which arrived ahead of the South African president.
An official, who craved anonymity, confirmed to Nigerian Tribune that the team is in Delhi, adding “we are getting favourable response ahead of the meeting of leaders. We are making our case.”
Findings revealed that South Africa is expending all its diplomatic capital in support of Nigeria‘s Okonjo-Iweala, an action reportedly targeting Nigeria’s rethinking of its opposition to South Africa’s candidacy for the presidency of the African Union Commission.
It will be recalled that on two occasions now, the South African candidate has failed to win the seat due to lack of support from Nigeria and other Anglophone countries. The next date for rescheduled election for the AU office is June.
Meanwhile, the board of World Bank has fixed dates for interviews for the three shortlisted candidates — namely Ocampio, Okonjo-Iweala and American nominee, Jim Yong Kim.
According to leaked board’s decision, Ocampio will be interviewed on April 4; Okonjo-Iweala on April 9 and Kim on April 11.
It was learnt that the board will announce its decision on April 11 immediately after concluding the interview with the last candidate.
It will be recalled that the BRICS leaders’ meeting on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Mexico in February had said that the appointment of president of the multilateral agency should be based on merit and “not on nationality.”
“Candidates should be based on merit and not on nationality,” Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega told reporters in Mexico.
“It is time we broke the traditions of the US and Europe sharing the two seats and amongst all of us. We must try harder this time to find some consensus,” South Africa’s Finance Minister, Pravin Gordhan had said.
It is left to be seen whether the BRICS leaders would withstand the US pressure as they meet today in New Delhi.
SOURCE: Nigerian Tribune, 29 March 2012. http://tribune.com.ng/index.php
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