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#BeLikeNgoziChallenge: Okonjo-Iweala’s appointment as WTO boss spurs Twitter challenge

By Abisola Olasupo
16 February 2021   |   10:05 am
Who would have thought after the #BussIt challenge, #Silhoute challenge and others there will be a challenge that will actually prove the youth are not all about "put your legs on my shoulder." After all, the "phone pressers and soro soke generation" has a lot to emulate beyond dancing in robes and using the red…
(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 15, 2020 Nigerian former Foreign and Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala smiles during a press conference in Geneva, following her hearing before World Trade Organization 164 member states’ representatives, as part of the application process to head the WTO as Director General. – Key WTO ambassadors tapped Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on October 26, 2020 as the best pick to lead the organisation, but she was opposed by Washington, who said it supported South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee instead. The so-called troika of ambassadors heading the World Trade Organization’s three main branches determined after four months of consultations with member states that Okonjo-Iweala was the most likely to obtain the consensus needed to take the top job, paving the way for her to become the first woman and the first African at its helm. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

Who would have thought after the #BussIt challenge, #Silhoute challenge and others there will be a challenge that will actually prove the youth are not all about “put your legs on my shoulder.”

After all, the “phone pressers and soro soke generation” has a lot to emulate beyond dancing in robes and using the red light filter while they preach selflove.

Following the appointment of should I say a “no-nonsense” Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the director-general of the World Trade Organization, who has continued to prove that every girl has her own strength and power that can help her dismantle all obstacles at any stage of her life, Twitter NG is in a celebratory mood. Rightfully so.

Okonjo-Iweala-Iweala served as Nigeria’s finance minister and spent 25 years at the World Bank, where she rose to the number-two position of managing director.

She already deserves her own world day. At least there is a WorldWizkid day, maybe this is me thinking out loud but I can imagine what her CV would look like. That makes me sigh, “God when?”

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed Monday to head the leading international trade body as it seeks to resolve disagreements over how it decides cases involving billions in sales and thousands of jobs. The appointment makes her the first African and first woman to lead the organisation. Double record, innit?

Did she get there easily, No, she didn’t.  In fact, Donald Trump had won his reelection bid, Madam NOI may not have landed the top job.

Trump threw its weight behind South Korea Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee even though the key ambassadors of the trade organisation recommended Okonjo-Iweala-Iweala for the job.

But the Joe Biden administration endorsed the 66-year-old former Nigerian finance minister and World Bank chief, dismantling the only obstacle in her way. I wonder what Trump would think of Biden right now.

And Nigerians know how to celebrate their own, especially if such person is conquering the world in a place outside of the country (remember how the Nigerian Twitter pushed Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti from the bottom to the top of the log in the public voting for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination list?).

In this case, Okonjo-Iweala-Iweala has not only become a beacon of hope to Nigerian and African women, she has become the latest sensation on Twitter NG.

With #BeLikeNgoziChallenge Nigerian women are “louding” their love for Madam NOI. And there is a bit of positive twist.

“We are giving away N100k to the best dressed! Dress up like NOI and send her a message of support as she goes to WTO,” the chief executive officer of Lifebank Temie Giwa-Tubosun tweeted, her accompanied by a video of her dressed up like Okonjo-Iweala-Iweala.

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