Nigeria’s former Finance and Foreign Affairs Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala reportedly took an American citizenship in 2019.
According to Bloomberg, the decision might be linked to her ambition of becoming the next director-general of the World Trade Organisation under a nomination from Nigeria, a position she is contesting for alongside 8 others.
The 1976 Harvard graduate of Economics spent most of her career at the World Bank and living in the Washington suburbs. The publication noted that revelation of her dual status may become magnified as protectionist sentiment rises around the world and national allegiances are questioned.
At least two other candidates for the top WTO job disclosed multiple nationalities on their biographies posted online by the Geneva-based organization. Okonjo-Iweala’s bio doesn’t mention dual citizenship, and there’s no requirement to do so.
Jesús Seade Kuri is Mexican and Lebanese; Amina Mohamed serves as a minister in Kenya, but has Somali roots; Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh is both Swiss and Egyptian.
