Kofi in Syria

Photograph: AP
Kofi Annan is in Syria as a special envoy of the UN and the Arab league. What is worrisome is the attitude of the loose coalition of the friends of Syria and other high ranking officials of the U.S. and Western Europe.

It seems like they are just waiting for Kofi Annan to fail and have a "legitimate" (sic) reason to finish Bashar Al-Assad once and for all.

I really hope Kofi succeeds in brokering a peace deal in Syria and bring an end to the massacre of the Syrian people from government and opposition forces alike.

However, as a commentator on CNN pointed out 2 days ago, "Kofi Annan is the wrongest man for the wrongest job at the wrongest time."

Kofi is no doubt a fine diplomat with impressive credentials and a very good outing as the UN Secretary General. He is on record to have declared the US-led invasion of Iraq as illegal. However, as the head of the UN, he was not able to prevent a coalition of some countries not to invade Iraq.

Kofi also failed to resolve to a logical conclusion the Cyprus problem that has been going on for decades. Even though, he is credited with the last major plan that the South Cypriots rejected and was overwhelmingly voted for by Northern Cypriots, the Cyprus problem still persists and all there is to show for all his effort is the "Kofi Annan plan".

As I mentioned earlier, Kofi is a very fine diplomat and I really hope he can bring his influence to bear on the Syrian government and opposition forces to cease fire and rebuild their country.

Who do I think would do a better job in Syria? The ex-Nigerian President Obasanjo.