Kofi Annan was my great mentor - Dr Lawrence Tetteh

Dr Lawrence Tetteh, renowned Healing International Evangelist and the Founder of the Worldwide Miracle Outreach, has paid tribute to the late Kofi Anan, the illustrious Ghanaian and former UN secretary general.

Dr Tetteh, an Economist, described the Ghanaian diplomat, who was the seventh secretary general and served for two terms between 1997 and 2006 as a great mentor who was “an inspiration to me and Barbara”.

He said “I specialised in international relations on his advice after my graduation in economics and “my links with the United Nations deepened through his leads and recommendations”.

Dr Tetteh described him as a great unifier adding that I could count on his support at all times.

Mr Kofi Annan was awarded the Nobel peace prize for his humanitarian work jointly with the UN as an organisation in 2001.

He had retired to Geneva and later lived in a Swiss village.

Annan’s foundation issued a statement on his Twitter account on Saturday that described him as a “global statesman and deeply committed internationalist who fought throughout his life for a fairer and more peaceful world”.

Born in Kumasi, he joined the UN in 1962, working for the World health Organization’s (WHO) Office in Geneva.

He then went to serve in various capacities at the UN Headquarters including serving as Under Secretary-General for peacekeeping from March 1992 to December 1996.

He was appointed the UN Chief in December 1996 by the Security Council and later confirmed by the General Assembly, becoming the first office holder to be elected from the UN staff itself.

The late Annan was re-elected for a second term in 2001 and was succeeded by South Korea’s Ban Ki-moon on January 01, 2007.

As Secretary-General, he worked to reform the UN bureaucracy, combat the deadly HIV spread, especially in Africa and launched the UN Global Compact.

After serving out his term, he formed the Kofi Annan Foundation in 2007 to work on international development.

He was also the Chairman of “The Elders”, an international organization founded by Nelson Mandela.

In 2012, the late Annan was the UN-Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria, to aid efforts at resolving the bloody conflict there but quit over his frustration with the UN’s lack of progress with regard to conflict resolution.

He was appointed to lead a UN Commission to investigate the Rohingya crisis in September 2016.

The late Annan studied economics at Macalester College – International Relations from the Graduate Institute Geneva and Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

He is survived by his wife Nane Marie Lagergren and their Children, Anna, Kojo and Nina.

He died in hospital in Bern, Switzerland in the early hours of Saturday with his wife, Nane, and three children Ama, Kojo and Nina, by his side.