Tribute to Kofi Annan, a global icon

The cruel hand of death has robbed Africa and the world of a global icon, Kofi Annan, 80, who died on August 18 in Bern, Switzerland. Born in Kumasi, Ghana, Kofi Annan was the 7th secretary general of the United Nations; the first to hail from sub-Saharan Africa.
Annan was a distinguished career diplomat, an outstanding international civil servant, a respected statesman and peacemaker which earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. Annan’s stellar record shows that contrary to the negative and shameful image which many African presidents have projected of the continent, Africa is capable of producing and has, in fact, produced world class leaders who are not corrupt, dishonest, mediocre, tribalists and persecutors of their fellow citizens.
Annan was a product of Ghana’s distinguished public service which Kwame Nkrumah established and nurtured after Ghana achieved independence on March 6, 1957. Other distinguished Ghanaians who were groomed by Nkrumah include Mr Robert Gardiner who was executive director of the Economic Commission for Africa and Mr A.L. Adu who was secretary general of the East African Common Services Organisation, predecessor of the original East African Community.
I was privileged to know Kofi Annan during the early 1980s, many years before he became secretary general. He was then director of administrative management services at UN headquarters, New York. A decent, humble and gentle man, Kofi Annan lived in Roosevelt Island which is not far from UN headquarters and often travelled to office by public transit. He joined the UN secretariat in 1962 and rose through the ranks to the positions of assistant secretary general, under-secretary general and in 1996 was elected secretary general by the UN General Assembly.
Since 2007, Annan was a member of “The Elders”, a humanitarian group of distinguished world leaders established by Nelson Mandela. Annan succeeded Mandela as group chairperson in 2013. Annan was married to a Swedish lady and they had three children.

Kofi Annan legacy
Kofi Annan left a powerful legacy which one hopes African leaders will emulate. He did Africa proud at the United Nations and on the world stage. When he retired from the UN at the end of 2006, there were rumours that he would seek election as president of Ghana which he denied. I am told attempts were made woo him to contest for the presidency of Ghana. I am glad he rejected the offers. The position of president of an African country has been so devalued and desecrated that one would not recommend it for any decent, honest, civilised and respectable person of integrity.
Annan was an internationalist, a distinguished diplomat and a renowned statesman. He was a peacemaker and a peace builder par excellence. He made every effort and left no stone unturned in painstaking efforts to prevent war in Iraq, but unfortunately the two principal protagonists, namely, US president George W. Bush and Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein were itching for war.
War eventually broke out in 2003 and with the benefit of hindsight, there were no winners in that bloody and brutal war. Only losers!
I am sure in his quiet moments former US secretary of state Colin Powell deeply regrets what happened on that day when he graphically provided false evidence to a fully packed session of the UN Security Council to prove that Saddam Hussein had a stockpile of so-called weapons of mass destruction.

A few years later it became evident that Gen Powell’s infamous speech turned the Security Council into a theatre of the absurd. I was a witness of that tragic event at UN headquarters in New York.
In a similar move, Annan attempted to broker peace between the warring parties in the ongoing civil war in Syria, but president Assad and his backers reneged on Annan’s six-point plan for peace to end the conflict which has had disastrous consequences for Syria and the Middle East.
Annan, however, succeeded in Kenya where he mediated and brokered a peace agreement between Mr Raila Odinga and Mr Mwai Kibaki in 2008 following the bloody aftermath of Kenya’s 2007 general election. Annan’s efforts saved Kenya from state collapse which would have had dire consequences for East Africa.
May Kofi Annan’s soul rest in eternal peace!