Trouble looms for former Minister of Finance in the country, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, as new reports claims she has taken up American citizenship while using Nigeria to push her candidacy for the position of Director-General of the World Trade Organisation.
According to Sahara Reporters, the former minister, while planning to become a naturalised American citizen has renounced her country Nigeria and attended an oath-swearing ceremony to plead allegiance to the United States of America.
The whistle-blowing report comes after Nigeria had nominated the former Minister of Finance as its candidate for the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation.
WITHIN NIGERIA recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari nominated the former minister in an official announcement through the Nigerian Embassy and Permanent Mission to the African Union and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The diplomatic note informed all member countries’ embassies and permanent missions, communicating Nigeria’s decision to withdraw the candidacy of Yonov Frederick Agah for the election, and unveiling Okonjo-Iweala to serve as Nigeria’s candidate for the term 2021–2025 at the elections scheduled for Geneva, Switzerland, in 2021.
Commenting on Okonjo-Iweala’s alleged action, an economist told the online news medium that “She was nominated by Nigeria but decided to ditch the country for USA. That’s bad, why not wait till after the election, that’s unpatriotic on her side. This is someone who was minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria twice.”
A sample of the naturalisation oath of allegiance to USA allegedly taken by the former minister reads;
“I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform non-combatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.”