Annan says no to tenure extension
Aderemi Ojikutu
less a person than the U.N. Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Anan today as
the Guardian newspapers from Nigeria pulished an interview Mr. Anan...
"WE need to play by the rules. We need to accept the constitution...
And we should not tamper with the constitution to perpetuate our rule."
With these words, United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, listed
what it would take for African leaders to put African countries in the
light in the comity of nations.
Saying that a constitution is written for a nation to stand the test of
time and never for an individual, he exhorts African leaders to toe the
path of rectitude and play by the transparent rules of democracy. The
UN Secretary-General's worry is that if constitutions are changed for
individuals and their mandate is extended, an open invitation may be
unwittingly extended to the soldiers in the barracks to come and make,
their own way, the change which was resisted normally. And in a tone of
finality, Annan declared: "We do not want that!"
The UN Secretary-General, who spoke to The Guardian, his first
interview with an African newspaper, in his office in New York, United
States of America, bemoaned the state of affairs in Africa but sees
hope in the capacity of Africans, especially in the civil society, to
ensure a change.
Africa, according to him, is being held down by all kinds of conflicts
that have really done a lot of damage to the continent. These
conflicts, which have the tendency to cross borders to affect entire
regions, he lamented, have not only impacted negatively on
infrastructural development, but have also stunted democratic growth.
An end must therefore be sought to all conflicts on the African
continent, he declared.
In the interview, the UN Secretary-General addressed the state of the
world, Africa's place in it, reforms in the UN system, security of all
humanity, among other issues. He is worried that unless the accelerator
is revved by the continent's leaders, not many African countries would
meet the Millennium Development Goals (aimed at eradicating poverty,
among others by 2015).
He also spoke of his encounter with the late Chief MKO Abiola in
prison, and the pride Africans must feel to see one of their own
running the global organisation and helping to resolve issues not only
in Africa but in other regions around the world.
Exuding a palpable humility, he rejected the notion that he is the most
powerful African on the stage, saying, humorously, that he has neither
an army nor a Police force. But he admitted to possessing, and
deploying from the moral bully pulpit that the UN Secretary-General
office is, the powers of reasoning, persuasion and diplomacy to get the
world together, tapping into his ability to reach many world leaders
and the respect he has earned from them.
By Debo Adesina, Editor (who was in New York)