Opinion
By Paul Ejime
Kofi Annan, the 7th Secretary General of the United Nations who died in 2018, aged 80, would have been 82 years old today 8 April 2020.
To commemirate the ocassion, Geneva Airport has renamed its Protocol lounge (Salon) after the late iconic African diplomat, an apostle of global collaboration.
Today’s recognition is not only well-deserved, but most apposite at a time the world is battling a deadly pandemic, which requires proactive visionary leadership and international partnership to overcome.
“It makes sense that we all come together to seek solutions that no one country no matter how powerful, can achieve alone,” is one of Annan’s instructive quotes.
In his illustrious career of service to humanity and especially as head of the UN (1997-2006), the organisation with which he jointly won the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, the Ghanaian diplonat left an abiding legacy to guide contemporary world leaders on the imperative for international cooperation.
Kofi Annan, might be gone but his legacy in the promotion of world peace through mediation and conflict resolution lives on. And what a peaceful place the world could be if today’s leaders would follow the examples of icons such as Kofi Annan and the peerless Madiba Nelson Mandela, the late former South African president!
– Apr. 9, 2020 @ 8:55 GMT |
Tags: Kofi Annan's Legacy
