Akinwumi Adesina, Amina Mohammed…4 Nigerians shining on the global stage

These two men and two men are shaking major tables around the world

Some Nigerians are flying the flag of the country on the international scene.

From commerce to trade to banking, these Nigerians are good ambassadors of the country and role models to many people.

In this piece, we will take a look at some persons in this category.

• Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Okonjo-Iweala, who was Nigeria’s Finance Minister, was on Monday appointed the Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

When she begins her five-year term on March 1, Okonjo-Iweala will become the first woman, first Nigerian and first African to head the international organisation. She beat eight other candidates to the job in a selection process that was delayed by the refusal of the Trump’s administration to endorse her.

However, this is not her first chance on the international scene. She has played numerous roles at the World Bank, where she worked her way up to Number two position, served in various capacities at the African Development Bank (AfDB), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Okonjo-Iweala sits on the boards of Standard Chartered Bank and Twitter. Between 2016 and 2020, she was the Board Chair of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).

• Akinwumi Adesina

Akinwumi Adesina, a former minister for agriculture and rural development, heads the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Until his appointment as minister in 2010, he was Vice-President of Policy and Partnerships for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Adesina was first elected to head the AfDB in 2015, becoming the first Nigerian to assume the position.

As with Okonjo-Iweala, the 61-year old also encountered hitches with the Trump’s administration attempting to block his path to a second term.

Adesina was eventually re-elected for a second term of five years in August 2020, after an independent panel of three international experts cleared him of corruption allegations.

• Amina Mohammed

Amina Mohammed is a Nigerian diplomat and politician who is serving as the fifth Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.

She resigned from her role as Nigeria’s Minister of Environment to become the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) in 2017, a position she still occupies.

The 59-year-old has served on numerous international advisory boards and panels, she was a member of the board of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders.

She also served as the Special Adviser to then UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, on Post-2015 development planning.

• Chile Eboe-Osuji

Six years after he joined the International Criminal Court (ICC), The Hague, Eboe-Osuji was elected President in March 2018.

The 58-year-old was the legal advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

He worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda as prosecution counsel and senior legal officer to the judges of the tribunal, and later for the Special Court for Sierra Leone as senior prosecution appeals counsel.