Moscow’s Foreign Ministry yesterday sent a list of international organisations to parliament, with orders to review it and break ‘obligations [or] treaties which do not bring benefit, but direct damage to our country,’ deputy speaker Pyotr Tolstoy said.

The World Health Organisation and World Trade Organisation are among names on the list, Russian news agencies reported.

It comes after Western countries cut off large parts of the Russian economy from the global trade via sanctions, with hundreds of western businesses pulling out of the country to protest the war.

WHO member states have already tried to force the health body into taking action over the invasion.

Last week, they voted in favour of a non-binding resolution condemning Russian attacks on Ukrainian healthcare facilities, and the effect of the war on public health.

The same resolution also called on WHO chiefs to consider closing their office in Moscow and relocating it outside the country.

President Buhari  made this promise when he received Okonjo-Iweala at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday.

Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement titled “We’ll push, push until you win, President Buhari assures Okonjo-Iweala.”

Recall that the former minister and South Korea’s Yoo Myung-Hee are the two candidates contesting the top position of the multilateral institution.

According to the statement, Buhari told the former minister that she deserved more support to get the top job because of her profile and diligence in serving the country and the world.

“I assure you that we will do all that we can to ensure that you emerge as the Director-General of WTO, not only because you are a Nigerian, but because you are a hardworking Nigerian. You deserve this,” the President was quoted as saying.

He was also said to have assured Okonjo-Iweala that he will make more phone calls and send letters to some world leaders for more support.

“I did the same for Dr Akinwunmi Adesina for President of the African Development Bank.

“Both of you served the country under the Peoples Democratic Party. You are both highly qualified. We will continue to support you. I will immediately make those calls,” the President said.

The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mariam Katagum, made this call in a statement on Thursday, News Agency of Nigeria, NAN reports.

Katagum, who is also the Chairperson of the Okonjo-Iweala Campaign Team, described her as “the best choice for the job”.

She commended the Economic Community of West African States and the European Union for backing the Nigerian candidate.

“These are excellent testimonies of her eminent qualification for the top job. The WTO as of today needs a DG with multiple skills to revive the challenged spirit of trade liberalisation worldwide.

“The WTO faces a lot of problems currently, and confronting these challenges necessarily requires building trust among the membership especially as the problems are not solely of a technical nature.

“Only a DG with the requisite political and negotiating skills coupled with multilateral experience can ensure deep engagement of the Members in order to restore trust and build a truly efficient organisation.

“Dr Iweala’s qualities and experience in managing multilateral issues, in trade facilitation and negotiation as well as brokering deals and agreements with high political stakes, put her in good standing,” the Minister said.

Recall that WTO members had on Thursday selected two final candidates, Okonjo-Iweala and South Korea’s Yoo Myung-hee, to advance to the final round in the race to lead the Geneva-based trade body.

The body however dropped three candidates from the contest.

It also plans to reduce the contestants to two final candidates in the next few weeks.

WTO said Mexico’s Jesus Seade, Egypt’s Hamid Mamdouh and Moldova’s Tudor Ulianovschi didn’t secure enough support in a first of three rounds of voting.

“Their expertise and high professional and personal qualities are highly valued and respected by all members,” WTO General Council Chairman, David Walker, said in a statement on Friday.

The second phase of consultations would begin on September 24 and run until October 6 after which the WTO would announce two final candidates.

The goal was to name a new leader by November 7.

Those left in the race are: Mohammad Maziad Al-Tuwaijri, Saudi Arabia’s former minister of economy and planning; Liam Fox, the UK’s former secretary of state for international trade; Yoo Myung-hee, South Korea’s trade minister; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; and Amina Chawahir Mohamed Jibril, Kenya’s former international trade minister.

The AU’s office of legal counsel had rejected the former Minister’s nomination of grounds of coming after the November 30 deadline set by the ministerial committee on candidature for member countries to present their candidates.

The Nigerian government in a Note Verbale which served as a response to AU’s stance on the nomination insisted that they did not violate any law as it was a replacement of a previously presented candidate (Yonov Agah) and not a fresh nomination.

It read in part “The permanent mission of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will not be a party to any propaganda and/or actions that supplant the vision and objectives of the African Union, by supporting a willful, obviously partisan and outlandish interpretation of rules and decisions. It is obvious that the OLC is stubbornly trapped to the unfounded notion that the candidature of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is a fresh submission and cleverly refraining from recognizing it as a replacement for Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah, an earlier submission, duly made in line with all known rules. By the same token of illogic, does it then mean that a country whose candidate steps down as a result of natural causes or act of force majeure becomes ineligible to replacing such candidate according to OLC? Such a conclusion is not just patently wrong, but worrisome and grossly uninformed. The rules referred to by the legal counsel were related to the submission of a new candidature and not, by any shred of imagination, a substitution/replacement of an earlier submission duly made in line with all rules.  Hence, Nigeria’s substitution/replacement of Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah with Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as a candidate for DG-WTO cannot be treated as a fresh nomination for the position, and as such cannot be said, or even imagined not to conform with any of the rules of procedure deliberately highlighted by OLC to mislead. None of the decisions so far prevents any member state from substituting its candidate especially when a consensus candidate has not been chosen. To state that Nigeria is latching on its sovereign right to change existing rules of procedure and relevant decisions of the executive council as well as decisions of other policy organs, is very unbecoming, unfortunate and a gross misinterpretation and misrepresentation of facts from an office established to be dispassionate, neutral and professional. OLC has substantially failed to substantiate how the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in exercising her sovereign right, flouted any of the said decisions or rules of procedure, as none of them categorically precludes the substitution of a candidate by the member-states.”

InsideOjodu recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari recently approved Okonjo-Iweala’s nomination for the position, after withdrawn of Yonov Agah, Nigeria’s permanent representative to WTO, for the same position.

WTO in a statement on Tuesday said, “Nigeria, on 9 June 2020, nominated Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the post of WTO Director-General to succeed the current Director-General, Mr Roberto Azevêdo, who has announced he will step down on 31 August 2020.

“According to the timetable announced by the Chair of the General Council, David Walker, the nomination period will close on 8 July 2020.

“Shortly after the nomination period has closed, candidates will be invited to meet with members at a special General Council meeting, present their views and take questions from the membership.”