Remarks upon arrival (unofficial transcript)

Press events | Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General

We are in the region to see what developments have taken place. I was encouraged to hear of your efforts to establish a university in the north with various branches and I thought it was a good idea to visit the north and the university to see whatever encouragement we can give.

The Minister described very clearly my work around the world trying to work with people to ensure that there is freedom from fear, freedom from want and above all there is peace and security.

We are also quite keen to see the advancement of education particularly girls' education and the empowerment of women. Our women play important roles but behind the scenes. They will even do much better if they were to be given their rightful role in all aspects of our lives.

I hope as you develop your university, you'll go out of your way to enroll women for further studies and that the chiefs will encourage young women to do so. We look forward to learning a lot, we have come to see, to listen and to learn. I hope in the next couple of days that we are here we would have a better understanding of the problems that are here, what the prospects are and what we can do to move things forward. That, in a nutshell is why we are here.

For my wife since this is her first time of coming up north, she is very excited. We will also be visiting some projects dealing with areas of keen interest to her –water development, girls' education, the fight against HIV/AIDS, etc.

We are happy to be here and we hope to spend some time with all of you.

Thank you very much.