By Atia Tilarious Azohnwi
World leaders have paid their respects to former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at his funeral September 13 in his home country, Ghana.
The burial, held at the Accra International Conference Centre, marks the end of three days of mourning for the African icon.
Annan, a Noble Peace Prize laureate, died in a Swiss hospital last month at the age of 80. He was surrounded in his last days by his second wife Nane and children Ama, Kojo and Nina.
The family of Kofi Annan have shared emotional and powerful tributes, describing him as a ‘special father’ and an ‘extraordinary human being’.
Opera singer Barbara Hendricks, a UN refugee council goodwill ambassador who sang at Annan’s Nobel ceremony, performed the civil rights anthem “Oh, Freedom” at the funeral for Christian prayers and song.
Among the global leaders who arrived in the Ghana capital, Accra, for the memorial ceremony and subsequent burial at a military cemetery were: Ethiopian president Mulatu Teshome, Ivorian president Alassane Ouattara, Liberian president George Manneh Weah, Namibian president Hage Geingob, Zimbabwean president Emmerson Mnangagwa, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, African Union chief Moussa Faki Mahamat and Princess Beatrix, the former queen of the Netherlands as well as a host of vice presidents, ministers among others.
Highlights of the burial which took place at a military cemetery located in Burma Camp had a religious part of it that included a series of prayers from the clergy.
After his casket was lowered into the ground, his wife and president of Ghana cast the first pieces of earth. A full military firing of gunshots followed after which a wreath laying ceremony followed. Wreaths were laid by: President Akufo-Addo on behalf of the Government of Ghana, Antonio Guterres on behalf of the United Nations, Ambassador Kobina Annan on behalf of the family, Nane Annan, the widow and his children Ama, Kojo and Nina.
In the wake of his death, the legacy of the Nobel Peace Prize winner is being celebrated by world leaders across the globe.
Former US President Barack Obama said Annan, who was the first black African to take on the UN secretary general role, had always pursued a “better world.”
Annan graduated from Macalester College in the US, he got his first job in the UN as a budget officer for the World Health Organization (WHO).
As he enjoyed a blossoming career, he was elected under-secretary-general and head of peacekeeping in 1993.
It was in this coveted position that Mr Annan encountered one of the most challenging milestones of his career – the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
He and his team came under harsh criticism after it emerged that they ignored information that was passed down to them warning genocide had been planned.
He addressed his failures when he visited the African country in 1998.
In a speech, he said: “We must and we do acknowledge that the world failed Rwanda at that time of evil,
“The international community and the United Nations could not muster the political will to confront it. The world must deeply repent this failure.’’
Despite the controversy, Mr Annan was elected UN general secretary in 1997, becoming the first black African to be voted into the position.
Mr Annan would later set up to separate inquiries about the UN’s handling of tragedies in Rwanda and Bosnia.
Annan stepped down from his post in 2006, aged 69.
He then set up the Kofi Annan foundation to help promote global security, peace and sustainable.