The news is that the media hype about transparency in selecting the new head for the bank was not followed. That is the United States of America's reality.
Since the World Bank was established in 1945, Americans have always headed the bank and they are not in a hurry to let go of that position.
At the beginning of the campaign for the job, international news media, academics and economists all over the world tipped Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the most qualified candidate but they also voiced their fears that the most qualified candidate may not get the job.
Those fears was confirmed yesterday when Yong Kim was finally announced as the 12th president of the bank to take over from Robert B. Zoellick.
Weeks back when campaign for the job started, US delayed fielding a candidate while the developing countries pooled their support for Okonjo-Iweala and Colombia;s former finance Minister Jose Antonio Ocampo. Ocampo later stepped down for Okonjo-Iweala citing lack of support from his country.
This is the first time that US will receive a challenge for who will ascend the presidency of the World Bank. This is also the first time that the developing and emerging economies are challenging that position.
Despite their strong fight to head the bank, the informal agreement between the US and Europe over the leadership of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)played out. US supported Europe to produce the current IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde and Europe must pay back and that was what they did.
Emerging-market nations have been seeking to challenge US leadership at the bank to increase their influence in global economic institutions long dominated by rich nations, but US and Europe have over 48 percent votes and they have just used that to the maximum.
At the beginning of the contest, the developing nations had one voice but along the line, their voice broke.
All the African countries and even South Africa that never seem to see eye to eye with Nigeria, supported Okonjo-Iweala. And Nigerians showed their support for her too. But their support was not strong enough to break the US and western stronghold.
Commentators believe that the leadership of the World Bank is too powerful to be left in the hands of an emerging economy, saying it would take sometime for the emerging economy to taste the position.
It becomes obvious that the US anointed candidate would become victorious when Russia pooled its support for US following Japan that first showed its support about three weeks ago.
In announcing the new president, the executive directors of the bank said they followed the new selection process agreed in 2011 which, for the first time in the bank's history, yielded multiple nominees.
This process included an open nomination where any national of the bank's membership could be proposed by any executive director or governor, publication of the names of the candidates, interviews of the candidates by the executive directors, and final selection of the president.
While the above criteria were seen to be followed, what was left out was the fact that the publicly acknowledged best candidate lost the contest. While Okonjo-Iweala is an economist who has spent over two decades in the World Bank, Yong Kim is a health expert.
What the final result shows is the fact that any candidate that is supported by US would always win.
Analysts however believe that with this outing by a candidate from a developing nation, the developed world will now know that they want to be full participants in making decisions that concern them.
Back here in Nigeria, Okonjo-Iweala can now focus in implementing economic reforms that are ongoing.
The contest was a good outing for her for several reasons. At the international level, she would be regarded as an important world player and at home, her political profile is expanded. Some people are already saying that this would provide a nice ground for her to eye Nigeria's presidency in 2015.
However one looks at it, it is easy to summarize that Okonjo-Iweala lost the contest not because she was the least qualified but because US is yet to let go of that position.
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