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.