Nigeria Quest for World Bank President

It is nice for Nigerians to dream of one of their own being nominated and confirmed as World Bank president.  Current president, Robert Zoellick announced that he is stepping down in June 2012.  Consequently, African leaders are rallying around Nigeria Finance Minister and former World bank vice president, Dr. Ngozi Okonja-Iweala, Latin American countries are backing Jose Antonio Ocampo, a Colombian national and professor at Columbia University.  President Obama quickly nominated Jim Yong Kim, a U.S national and president of Darmouth College on Friday, March 23, 2012.  The world bank board of executive directors said that the three nominees will be considered for the position.

Who will prevail among the three candidates?  The three candidates are qualified for the position.  Okonja-Iweala on the basis of direct experience appears to be more qualified because she knows the inner workings of world bank and has done a lot of development work for the bank around the world.  She will not have to learn on the job.  Direct experience in my opinion is crucial for this position.  On the hand, one may argue that experience alone is not quite enough.  People who hold that view will point to current president, Mr. Zoellick and his predecessor, Paul Wolfowitz who was forced out due to conflict of interest.

Mr. Ocampo is qualified but has not had direct experience at World Bank, however, he has served in a number of positions in the United Nations and the government of Colombia, most notably as United Nations Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs.  He also served as Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, minister of Finance and Public Credit, chairman of Central bank of Colombia.  His knowledge of world affairs especially in developing countries will make it easier for him to successfully carry out the main function of World Bank which is to fight poverty and promote development since it is a leading source of development loans for countires seeking financing to build roads, dams and other infrastructure projects.

Dr. Jim Yong Kim nominated by President Barack Obama does not have direct banking experience as Okonja-Iweala.  Jim Yong Kim moved to United states from South Korea  with his parents at the age of five, then went on to earn degree from Brown University and became a Harvard trained medical doctor, anthropologist and former World Health Organization official.

Rave reviews are already pouring in from the global health and development community on his nomination to head the 187-nation bank.  He is being lauded as someone who have actually done development work.  Former president, Bill Clinton weighed in. “Jim Kim is an inspired and outstanding choice to lead the world Bank” he further lauded Kim’s years of commitment and leadership in development and health care.  Kim participated in HIV/AIDS treatment around the world.  He basically has experience in the core mission of the World bank.  Ophelia Dahl, executive director and fellow co-founder of Partners in Health told Yahoo News that “ Kim’s work looked at why people were dying when drugs were available, and challenged the policy, to make sure that people had access to treatment that were shown to work.”  Yong Kim without any doubt have done a lot of work with communities in the developing world but have not had direct experience in world bank activities around the world when compared to Dr. Okonjo-Iweala.

It is nice to dream of an African and a Nigerian being nominated and confirmed as World bank president, unfortunately, it is not going to happen.  It is an exercise in futility.  The whole exercise of choosing World bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) president is rigged from the get go.  There is  unwritten and common understanding between United States and Europe that head of the World bank will always be an American and head of International Monetary fund, European, for the foreseeable future.  To compound the near insurmountable roadblock African leaders faces is the fact that United State holds World bank’s largest voting share which makes it extremely likely that another American will succeed current president,  Robert Zoellick.  Americans contribute most to the bank and will not leave their money under the care of somebody from a developing country whom they do not know very well.

Also, Obama will not risk supporting a foreigner as head of World bank in an election year.  There is already a narrative out there planted by his political opponents that he is not quite an American or patriotic enough.  Supporting a foreigner will aid the narrative and Obama will not take that risk at this time.  I think it is one of the reasons he moved so quickly in nominating Dr. Jim Yong Kim despite the push by emerging nations to end the U.S. monopoly of the top job at this international institution.  United State’s power and influence will definitely result in Dr. Kim Yong Kim confirmation as World Bank head within the next couple of months.