IN HONOR OF AN ILLUSTRIOUS SON – KOFI ANNAN

Click here for a full Slideshow of the event

By Oyiza Adaba

New York City, September 20, 2006. The government of Ghana, through its Mission to the UN in New York, held a reception to honor U. N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

President John Kufuor of Ghana and his first lady Theresa Kufor along with a large diplomatic contingent representing various nations gathered at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel to celebrate with Ghana’s illustrious son and honor him for the service rendered to the world since taking up the seat as the United Nations Secretary General in 1996.

Several African Presidents, including Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Benin’s Yayi Boni, Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, AU Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare; Business leaders such as Maurice Templesman, Ambassador Andrew Young as well as representatives of several UN agencies attended the grand event.

In a private chat, the SG (as he has come to be popularly known) said that he is looking forward to taking time off to do one thing – rest along his wife, Swedish lawyer and artist Nane Marie Annan. I asked both of them who had done most of the work this past 10 years and he jokingly pointed at her. They certainly compliment each other. Annan gave no indication on where he intends to call home after office, but did not hide the fact that Africa will be seeing more of him.

No doubt Ghana and indeed the rest of Africa is looking forward to saying ‘Akwaaba’ to Annan as he steps down in December 2006.

Click here for a full Slideshow of the event

Oyiza Adaba is a U.S-based journalist and a contributor to NVS.
Pictures by Oyiza Adaba, John Nyaku & Kobina Annan Jr

Robot  # 1 | 30.09.2006 16:26

The government of Ghana, through its Mission to the UN in New York, recently held a reception to ...Read the full article.

Progressive  # 2 | 30.09.2006 16:39

Pray what is the relevance of this story and pictures on this website? would Ghanaians put up 77 slides of a Nigerian being honoured by an international agency on Ghana -focused websites? At most, 1 or 2 pitures is enough to run this story. This is simply a waste of space. Its like NVS has lots of storgae space to spare. Thsi simply misplaced priority. maybe i should spell out the name of this website again - www.nigeriavillagesquare.com

planet1899  # 3 | 30.09.2006 19:05

Mr. Progressive, may I call you to order and advise that Annan was not a Ghanaian but a Nigerian, Togolese, Congolese, Liberian, South African, etc. You get my drift. He represented Africa at the world body for ten years and a show of appreciation by his home government being shown on this site is quite in order. You ought to be a little more open-minded and shed this contumely. With minds like yours, Africa will never progress....in times like this, we need Nkrumah with his pan-Africanism. And your screen name is "progressive?" Good job NVS..lovely pics. Planet1899

Arabconsult  # 4 | 01.10.2006 00:03

I think dat man progressigve is not understanding the education people receive only watching the pictures and seeing those old faces and smile.I hope people should understand usefulness some function here in NVS. Good work NVS.

Arabconsult  # 5 | 01.10.2006 00:19

Progressive should understand the meaning of this function and that Africa people are happy seeing those smile on SG/wife and Old and young faces in the slide (Pictures).Arab Africans are happy and believe he did his bit to our continent,so we thank NVS for loading these Pics as I know people who have downloaded some faces they need for keeps. So Mr P,there,s purposes for the pictures and you dont account for the server Space mgt of NVS even you do I believe your opinion is wrong as these pics could be deleted after sometime. Good job NVS.

Exxcuzme  # 6 | 01.10.2006 00:20

_________________________________________________________________________ Annan gave no indication on where he intends to call home after office, but did not hide the fact that Africa will be seeing more of him. _________________________________________________________________________ Don't care much about this guy groomed to be a slave and an ITT (Internation Thief Thief). What were is contribution to Africa? Ruwanda genocide, killing of Abiola, Bakassi gift to France (dont think Bakassi was handed to Cameroon), Darfur still dey there...? Of course he would not live in Africa with his Oyinbo(white prize)wife? Good riddance, if u ask me...can go an enjoy the loot with his son who made alot of money in the so called "Irag Oil for Food Program". Fela would sing: Dem go bring one African man A man with colo-mentality To become high position here...

Palamedes  # 7 | 01.10.2006 05:26

... to celebrate with Ghana’s illustrious son and honor him for the service rendered to the world since taking up the seat as the United Nations Service to the world – excluding Africa. I know, I know that he is only an international civil servant, but Kofi Annan commands more influence than most civil servants, and he can use his enormous influence with heads of governments to highlight issues. I can't recollect what exceptional thing, he did for Africa. We saw Kofi Anann in-action during the Israeli-Lebanon conflict, but not in Rwanda in his previous capacity at the UN. Further, the Darfur problem is still with us. Kofi Anann shows that, it is an illusion–-particularly where Africans are concerned--to think that having your tribesman at the helm will improve your lot. The sad thing is that we are weakened because he is seen as one of our own and cannot, therefore, criticise him or call him names. If he were a non-African UN Secretary General, we would all be calling him names such as anti-Africa, pro-Islamic, western stooge and all that. Ladies and Gentlemen, in retirement, await Kofi Anann, the 'champion of African causes', perhaps a 'Kofi Anann Foundation', but please don't buy such gimmickry.

docokwy  # 8 | 01.10.2006 09:21

I smell sycophancy. Ghana is not a friendly nation. Ghananians connive with others to help rubbish Nigeria's image. So I do not give a hoot about what happens with them. If I bring this to the national level, me thinks its time for Nigeria to stop her senseless desire to offer help, even unsolicited, to other Africans, all in the name of big brother. Many of these African beneficiaries have only shown ingratitute therefter. As someone rightly pointed out above, Ghana will not dedicate her site or facility in honour of Nigeria's affairs, except they be negative ones.

ATLien  # 9 | 01.10.2006 15:22

There are so many haters on this site...NVS, abeg continue to showcase what is positive about Africa. Some people don't realise that just seeing this positive achievements galvanise the youth among us. The world is a much smaller place now, whether some people like it or not. To the rest of the world we are all Africans. Happy indepence day ! ATL

Auspicious  # 10 | 01.10.2006 15:37

=docokwy;132819>I smell sycophancy. Ghana is not a friendly nation. Ghananians connive with others to help rubbish Nigeria's image. So I do not give a hoot about what happens with them. If I bring this to the national level, me thinks its time for Nigeria to stop her senseless desire to offer help, even unsolicited, to other Africans, all in the name of big brother. Many of these African beneficiaries have only shown ingratitute therefter. As someone rightly pointed out above, Ghana will not dedicate her site or facility in honour of Nigeria's affairs, except they be negative ones. Spoken like a true hate-monger that you are, Docokwy. Now we know that your hateful bigotry transcends not only your ethnic borders but it is also transnational - reaching as far as the Republic of Ghana and others. First is your unabashed, blunt honesty about your revulsion for people of Yoruba ethnicity..and now it is the Ghanians you collectively loathe. Lord knows you need deliverance, you bigot! *PS Villagers: Interested for more proof of Docokwy's show of hateful bigotry? Peruse his comments here on NVS..it is laden with hateful stereotyping of mind-numbing proportions. You may contact me - Auspicious - for more proof of his bigotry. Auspicious.

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