Ngozi effectively concedes World Bank race

According to this account, Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has conceded that the race to lead the World Bank is over (formal action is expected later today). In so doing, however, she is bolstering the narrative that, however flawed, the process has been a step forward for the institution: "You know this thing is not really being ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

According to this account, Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has conceded that the race to lead the World Bank is over (formal action is expected later today). In so doing, however, she is bolstering the narrative that, however flawed, the process has been a step forward for the institution:

According to this account, Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has conceded that the race to lead the World Bank is over (formal action is expected later today). In so doing, however, she is bolstering the narrative that, however flawed, the process has been a step forward for the institution:

"You know this thing is not really being decided on merit," Ms Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian Finance Minister and a former World Bank managing director, told reporters at a briefing on the country’s 2012 budget.

"It is voting with political weight and shares and therefore the United States will get it."

The World Bank’s directors meet on Monday to decide who will be the powerful institution’s next chief, with all expectations that the United States will maintain its unbroken lock on the position.

Ms Okonjo-Iweala said that despite the apparent failure of developing nations to have a nominee appointed to the post, her candidacy had helped inject change into the process.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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