The world has shortchanged women for centuries as we evolve as a human family. While always content to be the foundation for our elevation as a people, women do have much higher potential to contribute to our collective progress than what has been realized.
This situation is by no fault of theirs. Therefore it is about time that the world accorded women their fitting place at the policy table for our collective good. A central role in an organisation well primed to obliterate poverty and improve welfare across continents is the right setting.
It is a well established fact in economics that trade is the optimal tool to improve socio-economic development across nations. Conducted within the right setting and primed with the right incentive mechanisms, trade has no match in its potential to uplift the welfare of the masses. However, the dynamics of global exchange have not always been anchored on the most appropriate pedestal.
In this era of perennial plans and slogans about improving the socio-economic situation of people around the world within the operating guidelines of the United Nations, a rejigging of the global trade dynamics is highly timely. The need to put the global trade policy, and watchdog, body under the leadership of a competent lady with the requisite academic and professional pedigree cannot be gainsaid by any right thinking individual or group.
Having a woman with the foregoing credentials coming from the Continent rightly dubbed the next frontier for our collective quest for global economic progress would just be the right panacea for whatever obstacles that may be impeding higher success in the operations of the World Trade Organisation.
Certainly, the Harvard-trained former World Bank top executive who has already demonstrated her credentials in managing one of the worlds most complex economies, Nigeria, needs no testing for the role of heading the global bazar, the WTO.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has consistently proven her professional mettle and inspired thousands of young aspiring professionals around the world. Granting her the opportunity to lead the World Trade Organisation will not only give her the opportunity to steer the global trade body to higher pedestals for the global common good; it will also empower her to shine the much-needed inspiring guiding light to brighten the trail for other aspiring female professionals whose expertise and creative energy are needed in regional and global bodies.
Momodou Sabally
Former Presidential Affairs Minister, and Budget Director, Momodou Sabally is a macroeconomist with a decade of professional experience at the Central Bank of The Gambia. He has also served as member of the ECOWAS Budget oversight committee, the Committee on Administration and Finance, as well as the erstwhile ECOWAS Task Force for the creation of a roadmap for a common currency in anglophone West Africa.
