Nigeria’s former
Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been appointed into a High
Level Group on Governance of the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Prof. Ben Maloney,
Communications Officer, Commonwealth Secretariat, said in a statement that the
High Level Group would make recommendations on governance of the Commonwealth
Secretariat.
“At their last Summit in
Malta, Commonwealth heads of government directed the Secretary-General to form
the Group.
“Today members are
discussing the scope of the group’s work and the areas of governance it will
examine over the coming months.
“The process is open and
the High Level Group reports to the heads.
“The issue of succession
of the Head of the Commonwealth is not part of the Group’s mandate,” the
statement said.
The group is chaired by
Anote Tong, former President of Kiribati from 2003 to 2016.
Okonjo-Iweala, the
Coordinating Minister of the Economy during the administration of former
President Goodluck Jonathan, is among the seven-member group.
Others include Lord
Howell, former British Energy Secretary; Louise Frechette, former UN Deputy
Secretary-General; and Robert Hill, former Australian Defence Minister.
Dame Miller, former
Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados and Dr George Vella, former Foreign Minister
of Malta are also members of the group.
The group operates
independently of the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat and would report
only to the heads of Commonwealth governments.
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