SAM Omatseye, a veteran journalist, columnist and Chairman, Editorial Board of the Nation newspaper has misled many Nigerians in his Monday column, claiming the former minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has clinched the position of Director-General of the World Trade Organisation.
“It was such a cheer to hear that former finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala clinched the WTO job,” he wrote.
Omatseye’s column was published on Monday, October 12, by the Nations newspaper subtitled ‘Grandmaster and two other plays’.
“This is the second person from the Jonathan administration to be so honoured by an international agency of prestige. The last one was former agriculture minister Akinwunmi Adesina, who stared America in the face and rode back to the glory of his job,” he added.
The veteran journalist also shared the column on his official Facebook profile which has so far been liked by 100 persons, garnered 192 comments and shared by 38 followers as of the time of this report.
Last week, The ICIR had fact-checked the report published by many newspapers that the former finance minister had been declared the winner of the WTO’s top job, and concluded the claim was false.
According to a press statement by the WTO on October 8, two candidates were selected for the final process of the election.
In the statement, the General Council Chair, David Walker of New Zealand and his co-facilitators had said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria and Yoo Myung-hee of the Republic of Korea advanced to the third and final stage.
Walker said in the statement that the two candidates were selected because they were able to “secure the broadest and deepest support from the membership” of the WTO.
He added that the final rounds of consultation with the member states would commence on October 19.
“This final round of consultations will begin on 19 October and continue through 27 October. The arrangements for the consultations will remain the same, including with respect to non-resident delegations,” Walker said.
Contrary to Omatseye’s claim, the process for the final round has not commenced. It will only begin in seven days’ time.
Even when the assistant editor of Factcheckhub, Bamas Victoria and other commenters called the attention of the senior journalist to the inaccuracy of the claim, he is yet to pull down the article.
Omatseye, a media teacher, has won the Diamond Award for Media Excellence (DAME) four times for Informed Commentary.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94