Nana Akufo Addo has joined hundreds of millions of people both in Ghana and outside, to eulogized the life and time of late United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, as his body is being laid to rest in his country home Ghana today.
The late Kofi Annan is being laid to rest today in Ghana, as many are gathered to pay their last respect to the most popular and well respected United Nations Secretary-General ever.
While giving his speech, the President of Ghana Nana Akufo Addo in his usual eloquent manner, called the late Kofi Annan one of the iconic figures in modern times, and the man that took the Ghana brand to the world, and because of him, and the fullness of his personality, Ghana is well respected today by the world. He said:
Charming, cosmopolitan, consensus-builder, elegant, eloquent, gentle-mannered, modest, polyglot, proud African, peacemaker, quintessential diplomat, these words are still inadequate to capture the fullness of the personality of Kofi Annan, one of the truly iconic figures of modern times.
Even though he was my senior, we were good friends for most of my adult life. His father, H.R Annan, was one of the stalwarts of the Danquah-Dombo-Busia political tradition, serving as the Ashanti Regional Minister under Prime Minister Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia’s Progress Party Government of the 2nd Republic. Although he never openly acknowledged, in my presence, his attachment to the tradition, his advocacy of human rights, respect for the rule of law and the principle of democratic accountability was the very essence of that tradition.
Speaking further, Nana Akufo Addo praised how the late Kofi Annan put his country on the world map, and how he worked tirelessly to made sure there was peace around the world, and promoting virtue where there was evil. He said:
Highly admired Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan was the first from sub-Saharan Africa to occupy this exalted office, which made him the world’s top diplomat. He brought considerable renown to our country by this position and by his conduct and comportment in the global arena. Indeed, the outpouring of tributes from the world over is an accurate measure of the man, a man who gave his life to making peace where there was conflict, to defending the voiceless who were powerless, to promoting virtue where there was evil.
Despite the unjustified attacks on him, trying to fix him with responsibility for the genocides in Rwanda and Srebrenica, when he was Head of UN Peace Operations, he never lost his moral compass, as he showed, when he stood up to the might of the United States of America, when she was embarking on her ill-fated intervention in Iraq. Kofi Annan’s epic, but unavailing effort to establish the supremacy of international law over the actions of even the world’s greatest power, won him the admiration of all right-thinking persons. He has been vindicated by history” Nana Akufo Addo concluded.