“If this appeal is acceded to, what it does mean is that Ghana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration will be located in Kofi Annan House just as the Office of the President is located in Jubilee House.
“Though this development will be novel in the Ghanaian context, it is not new in international relations,” a statement issued by Haruna Iddrisu, Minority Leader and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ranking Member, Foreign Affairs Committee, Wednesday, said.
Describing the late Mr Annan, as an exceptional diplomat, it said he had earned unanimous international acclaim and brought so much honour to the motherland and ought to be honoured with perhaps the foremost building apart from the Jubilee House that represents Ghanaian diplomacy.
“We believe this important gesture, no matter how small, when compared to the towering impact of Kofi Annan on the global stage, will help immortalise his memory and inspire generations unborn to emulate his noble qualities,” the statement said.
It described the late Kofi Annan as “one of the greatest Ghanaian and African of all time”, “an iconic global statesman and international diplomat par excellence”.
“The torch he lit by projecting a refreshing leadership style that was thoughtful, deliberative and conciliatory coupled with the successes he chalked in advancing global peace and confronting the hydra-headed spectre of poverty, disease and inequality will continue to inspire generations all around the world,” it said.
The statement said the legacy of the late Kofi Annan was even more relevant in today’s world where “bombastic populist rhetoric, the strong man syndrome, far right insurgency, isolationism and anti-immigration sentiments appear to be taking root in many parts of the world and thereby threatening global stability.”
It commended the government, chiefs and people of Ghana for the grace, solemnity and dignity with which the send-off for the Busumuru and former Nobel Prize Laureate has proceeded so far.
Mr Annan passed away on August 18, 2018 at a hospital in the Swiss city of Bern, after a short illnesses. He was 80 years.
He was the Seventh UN Secretary-General from January 1997 to December 2006. In 2001, he was co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize with the UN.
He was survived by a wife, Nane Maria Lagergren, and three children, Kojo, Ama and Nina.
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