An expert in international relations and the Director, Centre for China Studies Abuja, Mr. Charles Onunaiju, has said that if Nigeria does not do the needful, the opportunity of having one of its own, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-iweala, as Director General of World Trade Organization (WTO), cannot go beyond the “symbolic fact”.
Onunaiju, stated this on the heels of Okonjo-Iweala’s, week long working visit to her home country.
He pointed out that “how we can exploit our local potentials to trade more efficiently is going to be a function of our domestic policy”.
In this vein, he stated that “we have to improve in the area of productivity” with a view to exploring the sub-regional, regional and global markets.
The centre director, who noted that trade is a key mechanism in contemporary international relations, urged the Nigerian government to leverage on the position of the country’s former finance minister, now DG of the world trade body to get privileged insight into key trading rules and protocols.
According to Onunaiju, “if her (Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-iweala) being there inspires us to do the needful to become a trading nation to be reckoned with that will be enough”.
However, speaking at a press conference at Aso Rock Presidential Villa Abuja, during her first official visit to the country, Okonjo-Iweala, noted that young Nigerians “are doing so many things in services that can also be exported, and that is one area we need to look at”.
She, added that “I was very heartened when the President Muhammadu Buhari, spoke about investment in young people”.