The Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has stressed the need for strong macro-economic reforms to accelerate growth and development of the country.
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala made this submission on Sunday while speaking at the Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association in Lagos.
“Strong macroeconomic reforms are something we need in Nigeria. Oil has dominated Nigerian exports, but we must diversify to agricultural and solid minerals exports,” she said.
Speaking on a topic titled, “A Social Contract for Nigeria’s Future,” the former Nigerian Finance Minister as well as the first woman and first African to lead the WTO regretted that Nigeria is not progressing as much as it should in its over 60 years of existence.
She lamented the lack of policy consistency, which, according to her, has also affected the growth of the nation.
The WTO DG, in a statement by the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Communications, Stanley Nkwocha, noted that to minimise the volatility of inconsistent policies, Nigeria needs a social contract, stressing that achieving a social contract involves the security of lives and national assets.
She said, an organisation like the NBA has a role to play in achieving a social contract.
“We need a new social contract to achieve growth in our country. My conviction on the need for a social contract is based on the need to tolerate different political parties and past administrations that preceded any administration in power,” Dr. Okonjo-Iweala noted.
On his part, the host governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, maintained that the security of lives and property was one of the cardinal things that the social contract was all about.
Urging the judiciary to strengthen the nation’s electoral process, he assured that Lagos, as a state, is ready to take on the social contract; even as he said for five years, he has not taken a kobo from the local government treasury.
“And we have demonstrated that even in the legal profession that all of you are part of, we have more women in our judiciary consistently than any other part of the country, and we kept faith in that,” Sanwo-Olu added.
Earlier in his welcome address, President of NBA, Mr. Yakubu Maikyau (SAN), assured that the bar will continue to work for the course of justice in Nigeria, adding that the respect the bar has is a symbol of freedom in the county.
“The bar is represented primarily by the need to serve justice to the people. Our existence as a people is intricately connected to our responsibility as the defenders of the people,” he said.
Mr. Maikyau urged lawyers to ensure that they discharged their duties to the people of Nigeria with determination like the resilience of an eagle and eschew corruption at all levels.
The occasion also featured the launch of a book titled, “History of the Nigerian Bar Association,” written by a Nigerian lawyer, Olanrewaju Akinsola.
Other dignitaries present at the event included Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang; former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama; Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) @LOFagbem; President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, the Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi (the Ọjájá II), and representatives of the Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, among others.
