The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, has described the death of former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, on Saturday as sad.
Onyeama said this in his twitter handle @GeoffreyOnyeama, accessed by the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday in Abuja
He prayed that the Almighty God would comfort his family and all his loved ones.
He said: “It’s very sad to learn of the passing on of Kofi Annan, Former UN Secretary General. His family is in our thoughts and prayers.”
In the same vein, Senior Special Adviser to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, also mourned late Annan.
Dabiri -Erewa in a message obtained by the New Agency of Nigeria in Abuja sympathised with the family of the late former UN Secretary General.
She said: “We are grateful to God for his life and achievements both at the global stage and in our continent.
“The world will never forget him for his great works on peace for humanity.
“He stood up wisely and bravely to great global powers, particularly perennial violators of human rights.
“And for his gentle but audacious advocacy and empowerment of all people, particularly the youth all over the world.”
Also, the immediate past permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olusola Enikanolaiye said in statement that Africa had lost an icon in the person of Dr Kofi Atta Annan.
The ex-diplomat said he received the news of the passing on of Annan, with shock and sadness, his ripe age notwithstanding.
Enikanolaiye said: “Dr Annan was an outstanding soft-spoken and deft internationalist whose vision of international relations in the post-Cold War era led to the reinvigoration of the global body at a time of weaning relevance and influence.
“He spent most of his years at the UN in the Peace-keeping Department, which he headed before being elected the first Black Secretary General of the UN in 1997.
“It is to his credit that his astute diplomatic skills, post retirement, helped a great deal in mediating the post-election violence in Kenya in 2008, having played similar roles as Secretary General in other trouble spots in Africa such as Sierra Leone and beyond.”
He however, lamented how Annan cajoled President Olusegun Obasanjo into signing an agreement to cede Bakkasi Peninsula to Cameroon.
He said: “Many in Nigeria would not forget in a hurry how Annan cajoled President Olusegun Obasanjo in November 2002 in Geneva to sign and agree to the acceptance and implementation of the judgement of the International Court of Justice over the disputed Bakassi Peninsula whatever the outcome of the case.
“That was how the judgment became a fait accompli, without adequate safeguards and guarantees of their future in Nigeria thereby leaving them in their present pitiable conditions of quandary.
“Analysts would continue to wonder how the Geneva meeting with President Paul Biya of Cameroon came about.”
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