I’m reading INTERVENTIONS by Kofi Annan. It was recently recommended by Fareed Zakaria on GPS, the CNN programme he anchors. Currently my best TV programme.
INTERVENTIONS is a memoir.
It was not too long ago that I came to understand the meaning of Memoir. It is an account of a person pertaining to a specific period of his life. It is different from a person’s life history, called Biography, or Autobiography, if written by the person himself or herself.
INTERVENTIONS covers the over 40 years of Kofi Annan’s service to the United Nations, the last ten as Secretary-General.
I am particularly interested in the book because of what I once stumbled upon as the role of UN Secretary-General. When the UN was established immediately after the Second World War, the world powers did not want whoever was going to head the body to be powerful. They didn’t want an unelected, unaccountable and uncontrollable World President.
So they deliberately defined the role of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to be merely, “chief administrative officer” of the organisation. A glorified clerk, if you like.
Some who occupied this role, played by this restrictive job description, and had uneventful tenures.
Until the unforgettable Swede, Dag Hammarskjold became the Secretary-General in 1953. He was bold, courageous, and fearless. He would admonish, cajole, threaten, etc. He was, yes, uncontrollable.
Whenever he was reminded that he was a mere administrative officer, it was said that he would respond thus: Forget my job description. My job title says Secretary-General. I am both Secretary and a General. There is so much this allows me to do.
Mr. Dag Hammarskjold died while still in office, in a helicopter crash in Congo, in what some believe may not have been entirely an accident.
Now, let’s see how Kofi Annan played his role…
Did you know that Mr. Kofi Annan set the school record for the 100m sprint for his university in the U.S? He was also the drummer for the college musical group, and was a member of Ambassadors for Friendship, a small group of students sent out every year to tour the nooks and crannies of the United States.
He was certainly not a “Triangular Student.”
Warm regards!
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Martin Udogie is Founder & Publisher of BottomLINE Newsletter based in Nigeria. Readers can contact him directly by email through: udogie@yahoo.com
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