As I was saying

Well it did not take them long. According to the Chinese news agency, Xinhuanet, France has expressed full support for UN SecGen Kofi Annan (father of Kojo).

At a press conference Jean-Baptiste Mattei, the spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry said:

“We've noted that the report clearly excludes any irregularities on the part of the secretary general.

We reassert our full support for the secretary general and our willingness to work with him to confront the numerous challenges that the UN must take up, notably reform of the world body in the best possible conditions.”

Well, of course, one could argue that one of the challenges that the UN must take up is the fact that no official is ever held responsible for the many things that go wrong inside the organization or in their execution of their supposed duty on the ground. But that is not the way the French government argues about anything.

Incidentally, the other organization to rush to Annan’s support has been the African Union.

AU Commission Chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare said, while launching the Interim General Assembly of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union (AU-ECOSOCC):

“You cannot tell us to choose between reforms or Kofi Annan.

We are saying it very clearly today that there are no reforms of the United Nations without Kofi Annan and we commend him a citizen of the world.

The reforms of the United Nations will help us in order to have greater democracy in the world and the voice of the people to be heard.”

And much more, no doubt, in the same vein.

Well, as Tom Lehrer used to sing: who’s next?