I am blessed to be approaching my four score birth year. Looking back over the transformation of Africa during my lifetime, I recognize my fortune to have been a participant and witness to her transition from colonialism to sovereignty.
My generation understood that all things were possible. We were inspired by the likes of Nkrumah, Kenyatta, Nasser, Senghor, Nyerere, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
The great economic powers recruited the best and the brightest from the so called "Dark Continent" such as my contemporary, a young Kenyan economist named Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., to study at the best universities in Europe and the United States. We were not accorded special matriculation privileges but had to persevere in a competitive environment. The world and the World Bank are better places for this. We were required to succeed strictly on the basis of merit. My generation was steeped in understanding that our survival was dependent upon our academic and professional performance in the most competitive environs the world had to offer.
This generation implemented the human rights, democratic processes, and commitment to free markets that we Africans have now embraced as the highest form of governance and most equitable economic system.
Today, Africa offers you her best: a young woman who's story is the sort that forges a lady of iron. At the age of 15 in the midst of a war zone where a million people died, while suffering the ravages of hunger, a young Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala strapped her malaria stricken 3 year old sister to her back and walked 10 kilometers to the nearest doctor. Though painful, she persisted, all the while telling herself that she could do it. To get there and save her sister's life, Ngozi would need to continue to put one foot in front of the other. Ngozi's sister is today, the mother of three, and is herself saving lives as a physician. Two years later, Ngozi competed and was chosen, to go to Harvard to study economics. Ngozi excelled, and proceeded to MIT to earn her Ph.D.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala's contemporaries at Harvard and MIT included Benjamin Bernanke, Bill Gates, John Reed, Jeffrey Sachs, and Lawrence Summers.
Africa, and indeed all the emerging and frontier market economies, appreciate the gravity of the responsibilities of the Governors of the European Union. All we seek from you today, is to provide our daughter of Africa with a free, fair and open process in making the critical decision of who will head the most important development institution in the world. Please consider as you initiate the process to select the next president of the World Bank who will be the best candidate to lead this institution further into the 21st Century.
We present an economist who says "if you want to help Africa, do business with Africa". Our economist has experience running one of the largest economies in the world. Our economist has negotiated with the Paris Club. Our economist has played a major role in running the World Bank for 21 years.
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I have watched this process develop over the last 30 days. This is a clarion call for the best that Africa has to offer, to be considered for the highest position ever available for the developing world.
In the next five years the World Bank will invest an amount approaching a half trillion Euros. The world requires that we have the best person with the knowledge, background, and experience to take on the challenge of directing these resources.
It is my belief that the best person to head the World Bank today is Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, currently the coordinating minister for the economy and minister of finance for the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the world's 31st largest economy. I encourage you, the Governors of the European Union, to do the best for the Bank, Europe, and the world by appointing this daughter of Africa the next World Bank President.
Babacar Ndiaye is a past president of the African Development Bank Group; the founder of the African Export-Import Bank, Shelter Afrique, and the African Business Roundtable; a member of the Africa Forum; Ambassador at Large for Senegal; and a senior strategic advisor on investments, finance and private sector growth in Africa. Diplôme de l'Ecole Supérieure de Commerce, Toulouse, France; Diplôme de l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques "Sciences Po" Paris, France; Diplôme du Centre d'Etudes Bancaires et Financières, Paris, France; Diplôme d'Etat d'Expertise Comptable, Paris, France
