President of the European Council, Charles Michel, has restated Europe’s support for Nigeria’s Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the next Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, WTO.

The support was restated during a video conference between Michel and President Muhammadu Buhari.

A statement issued on Friday by Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity said the president was leading Nigeria’s charge for Okonjo-Iweala, the country’s former Minister of Finance, to emerge as the first Black and female WTO DG.

President Buhari thanked the European Council for its support for Nigeria’s candidate.

Also discussed during the conference, he said, were issues bordering on debt relief for Africa, EU-African relations and recharge of the Lake Chad, which has currently shrunk to less than one-third of its usual size, and throwing about 130 million people who depend on the Lake into dire straits.

Recharge of the Lake Chad is an issue the Nigerian president had vigorously canvassed at diverse global fora in recent time.