I was reading this account of a terrible fuel explosion in Nigeria that killed 260 people; two sentences served to pointedly underscore the worthlessness of Kofi Annan is if for no other reason than how disconnected he is while sequestered away in his Manhattan mansion.

Here’s Annan’s call to arms:

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed his condolences and called “for a review of the country’s fuel supply management, as well as a thorough regional review of risks that could lead to other environmental or technological disasters in West Africa,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York.

Here’s what the residents of this impoverished neighborhood had to say:

Residents blamed greed, graft and poverty for the disaster. (ED: referring to the massive corruption and mismanagement that plagues Nigeria’s dominant export business – oil.)

In this case the residents of Abule Egba called a spade a spade while Annan calls for more reviews and studies of which the results he would no doubt ignore and do more of nothing about. But the news conference will be delivered in a charming foreign accent. Actually, I’m not surprised that Annan doesn’t have much to say about institutional corruption, after all he does oversee one himself. The only good news is that Kofi Annan is gone, I’m anxious to see what the new Secretary General Ban will do differently