EVALUATION OF THE EX-UN SECRETARY GENERAL, MR. KOFI ANNAN

Mr. Kofi Annan has been the United Nations (UN) Secretary General for two consecutive terms spanning a period of ten years. He was born on April 8, 1939 in Kumasi, to Henry Reginald and Victoria Annan. Kofi, whose name means ‘born on friday’ probably got his first lessons in politics and diplomacy early on from his elite family. His father was half Asante and half Fante; whiles his mother was Fante. The Asante’s were gold merchants while the Fante tribe was the middlemen in the gold trade between the Asante and the British. Both of Annan’s grandfathers and his uncles were tribal chiefs. Upon his retirement, Annan’s father, who worked as an export manager for the cocoa exporter, Lever Brothers was elected governor of Ghana’s Asante Province.
The seventh secretary general of the United Nations is the first to be elected from the rank of the UN staff. His first five year-term began in 1, January 1997 and, following his subsequent re-appointment by the UN member states, his second term begun on 1 January 2002. When Mr. Annan took over as the UN Secretary General, many problems were on the horizon.
For instance international peace, terrorism, disease and famine were at its epoch. However, his quality leadership and vision have provided the necessary recipe to manage and contain these issues paving the way for progress, growth and development, a feat former UN Secretary Generals could not achieve.
Mr. Annan’s success seems to be deeply rooted in the concern for amicable solution to international crisis which he achieved mainly through two principal components thus collaboration and empowerment. Much of Mr. Annan’s success can be traced to his commitment to collaboration. He has given priority to revitalizing the UN through a comprehensive program reform; strengthening the organizations’ traditional work in the areas of development and the maintenance of international peace and security. By reaching out to his council, regional representatives and heads of states, the UN has been brought closer to the people. These practices have resulted in an abundance of shared responsibility of national and international peace of which everyone is a stakeholder.
Empowerment seems to be an important component of Mr. Kofi Annan’s style of leadership. He is devoted to developing informed and confident peace keeping missionaries worldwide. Prospective members of his administrative staff goes through arduous training in addition to motivation to identify capable and selfless individuals. He looked for visionaries who will speak up and question for the benefit on the world in general.
The previous components mentioned earlier, along with Mr. Annan’s charisma compliment the final component thus his non-partisan approach to world issues of which most were dicey and sensitive. As an affable Secretary General coupled with tenacity of purpose, Mr. Annan was able to handle terrorism issues in a manner that inspired hope and peace. All he cared about was installing peace even within the limited manpower and logistic resources. He accomplishes this by soliciting and considering input from all parties involved, tailoring programs to the needs of all and sundry and by presenting the dreams and aspirations of the United Nations.
In his farewell speech to earmark the end of his 10 year tenure of office, Mr. Annan succinctly puts it thus "Only by working to make each other secure can we hope to achieve lasting security for ourselves. This responsibility includes our shared responsibility to protect people from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity."
The Secretary General, a spokesman for mankind and a man who has an aura of simple goodness has also taken a leading role in mobilizing the international community in the battle against HIV/AIDS. It is no surprise that the much cherished and respected Nobel Peace Prize for 2001 was awarded jointly to him and the UN.
In conclusion, the ensuing evaluation of Kofi Annan, the immediate past UN Secretary General has pointed out many and varied characteristics of a man who carried the issues of the world on his shoulders with good faith. Indeed, history does not really care about the position a person holds in society, rather it is more concerned about the quality of their deeds. Mr. Kofi Annan did so much for the UN and the world at large. He served his two term of office and ended it honorably. He has left remarkable footprints for the UN and a big challenge for his successor (s).