Soyinka condoles with Ghana over death of Kofi Annan

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka has condoled with the people of Ghana over the demise of former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan.

Soyinka, in a letter addressed to Ghana’s President, Nana Akufo-Addo, through the Ghana High Commission in Lagos, said he was joining others in sending his deep condolences over the loss of Kofi Annan, which came too soon after the death of  Atukwei Okai.

He said he was privileged to have known Annan personally as a friend who also considered himself partly belonging to the Nigerian project.

“As many tributes will unquestionably attest, he was a gentle, consummate diplomat who also exercised a mind of steel. A number of us who participated in his grand initiative ‘The African Millennium Dialogues’ at the turn of the century, have cause to value him as both a realist and futurist.

“That feat of bringing together a unique cross-section of multi-disciplinary minds across the continent for an engrossing, and propulsive series of millennial discourse remains an act of great inspiration and commitment to African humanity and our place in the modern world,” he said.

Soyinka stated that the death of Annan and Okai were a great loss to the mission of creative understanding between nations and peoples, and the imperatives of peaceful co-existence on the African continent and universe, noting that “but we know that it must be felt most keenly by our sister nation Ghana. Kindly accept our most sincere condolences.”