Global Human Development Sustainability:  Men must step aside for Women to take over the administration of the United Nations in 2016

By Mawutodzi Kodzo Abissath

Dr. Joyce R. Aryee, Proposed Ghana's nominee 
for First Woman UN Secretary-General 2016

A very simple Ghanaian proverb admonishes: “A child who does not want his mother to sleep will not also sleep either.”

United Nations @70

Do you know that come October this year, the United Nations (UN) would have clocked 70 solid years as a world body? It was precisely on October 24, 1945 that the UN officially came into being. Records show that the term “United Nations” was coined by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was first used in the Declaration by United Nations of January 1, 1942 during the Second World War, “when representatives of 26 nations pledged their Governments to continue fighting together against the Axis Powers.” The forerunner of the United Nations, an organization conceived in similar circumstances during the  First World War, and established in 1919 under the Treaty of Versailles "to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security." 
Source: (http://www.un.org/en/aboutun/history/).

Amazingly, 70 years ago when the UN came into existence, world population was only about 1.5billion. Today, as of July 2015, the number of human beings who are eating salt on our beloved Mother Earth is over 7.349 billion. Despite this astronomical jump in the world population over the past 70 years period, the tiny number of the five so-called permanent members with veto powers, namely China, France, the then Soviet Union, now Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, remains intact. These global apostles of democracy are still perching on their veto thrones like “legba” or statues without an eye blinking.  

From 1997-2007, When the Ghanaian-born internationally acclaimed civil servant of evergreen wisdom, Dr. Kofi Annan served humanity as UN Secretary-General, all efforts he made in collaboration with other well-meaning nations like Canada, Japan, Germany, Brazil, India, Nigeria, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore  and others to reform the world body proved futile. I wonder whether the attitude of these undemocratic permanent members of the UN is different from that of Mugabes of our time.

Give women the chance to rule the world

The object of this article is to join hands with women advocates and all men of good will who think the First Woman Secretary-General of the UN must be elected into office. It has been observed that the ship of globalization under the captainship of men, if care is not taken, the entire world would soon be navigated into an abyss of some unknown ocean. Just take a glance at the fate of hundreds of poor fellow human beings referred to as “illegal immigrants” including women and children who are currently perishing in deep sea between African and Europe on daily basis.

 Civilized European coastal guards are standing and staring with glee while helpless women and children are being drowned in ravaging sea waves. The other day a Syrian mother with her baby firmly grasped unto her bosom was being carried away by the undulating waves. And men in uniforms watched this poor mother perish with her baby. If this is not the apogee of the cruelty of men then I don’t know what it is. Men seem to be atrocious, brutish, callous, insensitive, sadistic and simply wicked by nature. Look at how ISIS terrorists are slaughtering fellow human beings including journalists like fowls. Look at how Boko Haram terrorists are using innocent girls as suicide bombers! And all the guns, bombs and chemical weapons are being manufactured by so-called civilized nations. And all these atrocities are committed mostly by men.   

Consequently, the time has come for men to give way to women to govern the world. God or Allah in his own wisdom created women in a special biological fashion. The secret of receiving, conceiving, preserving and giving birth to human species is hidden only in the womb of a woman. No woman or mother of sane mind in sound body will ever conceal a bomb on the body of her daughter to be blown into pieces. It is only sadistically psychopathic men who can perpetuate such atrocities be it in the name of religion or politics.

   Thus, it is the considered view of this author that for human development to be sustained wicked men must step aside for loving, considerate and sympathetic women to take over the global governance of the UN for the next 70 years. If women are given equal chance of 70 years to rule the world and after that period, still  poverty, corruption, discrimination, intimidation, oppression and suppression of man by man do not cease then men can assume their murderous ways of manufacturing weapons of mass destruction to create “illegal immigrants” again  for the rest of the world!

UNDP Human Development Report 2014

For purposes of this article, it is relevant to cite some portion of the United Nations Development Programme (UND) Human Development Report 2014 for illustration. The well-researched Report published on UNDP website (www.undp.org) is not only informative but educative and instructive. The full title of the Report is: “Human Development Report 2014 - Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerability and Building Resilience”.

 Coincidentally, the summary report was signed by an Administrator who happens to be a woman by the name Helen Clarke. The opening paragraph reads: “The 2014 Human Development Report – Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerability and Building Resilience – looks at two concepts which are both interconnected and immensely important to securing human development progress.”

The second paragraph of the Report reminds mankind thus: “Since the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) first global Human Development Report (HDR) 1990, most countries have registered significant human development. This year’s Report shows that overall global trends are positive and that progress is continuing.” Then it quickly added: “Yet, lives are being lost and livehoods or development undermined by natural or human-induced disasters and crises.” Every sustainable-development-minded person on this planet of environmental havoc and chaotic climate must read that UNDP Report.

Appeal to UN Secretary – General

There is a popular Ghanaian adage that: “If you want to talk to God, you must speak into the air.” Thus, this ordinary citizen of the world wishes to humbly appeal to the current UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon to make history for which posterity would be eternally grateful to him. He should prepare the grounds and ensure that after him, the world body will gracefully elect the First ever Woman UN Secretary-General to steer the affairs of that famous intergovernmental body. If I ever had the chance to speak to the UN Secretary General, I would have whispered into his ears that the election of the First Woman UN Secretary-General should not be left in the hands of the undemocratic dictators of the five permanent members of the UN.

Rather, I would suggest that all 194 or so member states of UN should nominate one woman each from their respective countries. Then at the next UN General Assembly, all Heads of State should give ten reasons why their nominees should be elected as the First Woman UN Secretary-General. Then all Heads of State present should cast secret ballots to elect the next Secretary- General. The nominee who would get 50 plus one vote becomes the First Woman UN Secretary General. Simple! For Ghana, I take the liberty to propose Madam Joyce R. Aryee as my country’s nominee for the post of First Woman UN Secretary-General. Any seconder?

The author works with the Information Services Department (ISD), Accra.< abissath@gmail.com>