Nigeria’s chief trade negotiator, Osakwe is dead

Nigeria’s Chief Trade Negotiator and Director-General of Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiation, Ambassador Chiedu Osakwe, has died.

“Amb Chiedu Osakwe, Nigeria’s Chief Trade Negotiator & Director General of Nigerian Office for Trade Negotiation @TradeOfficeNG has passed on,” African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) said in a Tweet on Monday.

“Africa has lost an illustrious son, a role model per excellent.”

Prior to his death, Osakwe chaired the Negotiating Forum of the African Union (AU) from June 2017 to March 2018, during which time the negotiations were concluded on the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade.

Osakwe was on the staff of the World Trade Organization Secretariat (1998–2017) during which he was the director of a number of WTO divisions. Osakwe was an Associate Professor on International Tarde Policy, Diplomacy, and Negotiations at the International University in Geneva.

He lectured globally and published extensively in peer-reviewed journals on a range of subjects, including trade policy; fiscal and monetary policies; and, structural reforms.

Osakwe was also, a special coordinator for Least Developed Countries LDC and Head of Secretariat inter-agency working group for the integrated framework for LDcs in the office of the Director general

After his National Youth Service Commission, Osakwe joined Nigerian Foreign Service Officer from 1979 to 1998 where he served in various capacities at the headquarters of the Nigerian Ministry of foreign affairs in Lagos and then Abuja.

As a Nigerian diplomat, he held a number of international positions. At the Permanent Mission in New York, Osakwe was the chairman of the UN Sub-committee on the Legal Aspects of the struggle against apartheid(1984-1986).