Abuja, Nigeria – The Diplomatic Community in Nigeria, in a tribute, has described the late former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr. Kofi Annan as “a great African, quintessential diplomat, humanitarian, and world citizen”.
A release from the Liberian Embassy in Abuja says the Liberian Ambassador to Nigeria, Professor Al-Hassan Conteh, on behalf of the Diplomatic Community, delivered the tribute to the late Dr. Annan during a memorial service held in honor of the fallen former UN Secretary-General.
The United Nations System in Nigeria, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria and the High Commission of Ghana in Abuja, hosted the memorial program. The program took place Monday evening, September 10, 2018 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja.
According to the release, members of the Diplomatic Corps in their tribute said Dr. Annan’s life was devoted to the search for sustainable world peace and development, “as formulated in his signature agenda titled the Global Compact”.
“Members of the Diplomatic Corps in Nigeria, no doubt, have their varied stories of interactions with the late Secretary General in near and far corners of the World. Closer to home, we vividly recall his visit to Nigeria in the heat of the 2015 Presidential and Gubernatorial elections and the role he played in dialoguing with all stakeholders to ensure a free and fair election”, the tribute continues.
The Abuja-based foreign envoys said due to Dr. Annan’s indefatigable role in peacebuilding around the world, centers of excellence were named in his honor. Two of these, which are in West Africa, are the Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training (KAIPKT) in Accra, Ghana and the Kofi Annan Institute for Conflict Transformation (KAICT) in Monrovia, Liberia.
The tribute continues, “The Diplomatic Corps in Nigeria are grateful to the late Secretary General for his manifold, distinguished accomplishments in reforming the United Nations and maintaining world peace and development, including MDGs, the precursor to the SDGs, which were formulated during his tenure to implement the Millennium Declaration of 2000 by World Leaders”.
Others who paid tribute at the event included the Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, the High Commissioner of Ghana in Nigeria, His Excellency Rashid Bawa, and the UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. Edward Kallon, among others.
For Foreign Minister Onyeama, the former UN Secretary-General was a “very distinguished diplomat whose footprint remains not within the UN but also in the sands of time”.
Mr. Kallon, the UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator, who delivered a tribute on behalf of the UN Secretary-General, recounted the late Annan’s active days “even in his retirement”.
“Today, we bid farewell to a truly global citizen”, he concluded.
Dr. Annan, born April 8, 1938 in Kumasi, Ghana, died in Bern, Switzerland on the 18th of August, 2018.
A state funeral was held in his native Ghana on September 13, 2018. He was the 7th Secretary-General of the UN, the release concludes.