HELMUT JOSEF MICHAEL KOHL – STATESMAN OF DISTINCTION, A MAN OF UNEQUALLED IMPACT ON THE GERMAN STATE AND WORLD HISTORY, A FELLOW OF THE OSIGWE ANYIAM-OSIGWE FOUNDATION PASSES ON.
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl, whose transition occurred on June 16, 2017, was honoured as a fellow of the Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe Foundation in 2004 when he gave the Keynote Address at the fourth session of the Emmanuel Onyechere Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe Lecture Series at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos.
With his outstanding reputation as a patriotic German who pursued and achieved the Unification of East and West Germany in 1990, he was, in the estimation of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation, a possessor of the requisite credentials to speak on the topic: Introspection and Integration as Effective Strategies for Development.
A great reformer, who transcended parochialism at every point of his social expression, his contributions to the unification of Germany and the realisation of the European Union underscore his legacy as a visionary leader who was focused on strategies to optimise the productive yield of the cosmopolitan state. Helmut Kohl, as an advocate of the higher optimum yield of the enlarged Group Mind, through the Maastricht Treaty, facilitated the adoption of a common currency (the euro) for European nations under the umbrella of the European Union (EU).
A man of esteem and integrity, he was a mentor to many during his lifetime. The second person to be named as Honorary Citizen of Europe by the European Council and the acknowledgement by many as one of the greatest European leaders of the 20th century bear eloquent testimony of the distinction and esteem in which Kohl’s integrity is situated.
The celebrated acclaims composed in the various orations at his death reaffirm the assertion of Emmanuel Onyechere Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe that “personality survives death.”
A statement from the Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe Foundation said: “We join the German people in celebrating the legacy of distinction which Helmut Kohl leaves for all mankind. At the same time, we bear with the German people the loss of the physical presence of Helmut Kohl in lending his wealth of experience and intellect to the continuing advancement of the German state, the EU and the world at large.
It is adieu as this great leader departs. We will forever be guided by the salient moral credential that his life delivered, and also by the strength of will with which he achieved extraordinary feats for Germany, Europe and the global order.”
Image Source: https://www.taurillon.org//IMG/arton9130.jpg?1497778971