Nigerians have been having a merry time, especially on social media, as they celebrate Ngozi Okonjo Iweala on her appointment as the new director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Not only is she the first African to occupy the position, she is also the first woman to run the WTO.
Responding to her appointment, she said in a tweet, “It is done! Thank you, @WTO members, for finalizing my election today and making history. In the 73 years of GATT and WTO, honoured to be First Woman and First African to lead. But now the real work begins. Ready to tackle the challenges of WTO. Forget Business as usual!”
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NOI is known for many things, one of them being her trademark dressing which always spotlights an ankara and gele (headtie) stylishly worn upon her head. In the spirit of the celebration, founder of LifeBank, Temie Giwa-Tubosun, launched a challenge for people to dress like Iweala and upload the pictures on social media.
The best replication of the iconic ankara style will receive a cash prize of N100,000.
You can trust that Nigerians showed up for this because we stand up for our own as much as we can. From all the entries, there are the good ones, the laughable ones and the passable ones. Here are our top selections below.
Uneasy lies the head that wants to tie Iweala’s gele
Iweala’s style of tying her headtie is quite uncommon and virtually everyone that took part in the challenge had difficulty getting the gele right. Some people tried, though, but only very few came close to looking exactly like the real thing.
The point of the #BeLikeNgoziChallenge is to show African women and men a role model to look up to as well as celebrate her appointment which is a win for the African continent as a whole. In light of this, children also took part in the challenge, congratulating Iweala and emulating her style of dressing in their entries. Here are some of them.
Temie is yet to announce the winner of the challenge. She won’t be wrong to award it to herself though because her own replica remains one of the best. No matter who wins the cash prize though, the challenge has been a good way of collectively reminding Africans that we can retain our heritage and still be trailblazers.
For being a worthy role-model as well as for her appointment, we celebrate Ngozi Okonjo Iweala now and always.
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