Decorated With A Medal On The Day Of Peace

At the 81st UN General Assembly High-Level Week I had more than a presence in the fringes. I was back at the UN as a member of the Republic of Djibouti’s delegation. In addition, on Monday, 21 September, the International Day of Peace, His Excellency José Ramos-Horta, Nobel Peace Laureate and President of Timor-Leste, conferred on me the Medal of the Order of Timor-Leste, his country’s highest national honour. The ceremony took place on the sidelines of the General Assembly at Timor-Leste’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.

The President cited my work alongside the Timorese technical team that helped Guinea-Bissau return to constitutional order in 2013–2014, when I served as President Ramos-Horta’s Chief of Staff while he was the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Guinea-Bissau. He called me a true friend of Timor-Leste and a champion of peace, which is a generous description of a man who once sat quietly with him on a small plane between Banjul and Dakar, convinced it was the end of our lives, only to learn on landing that the cover for the baggage compartment of the aircraft had fallen off mid-flight. The choice of the Day of Peace was right. Our friendship was forged in the business of making peace.

I was glad I did not receive the honour alone. Among many others from Timor-Leste came H.E. Bendito dos Santos Freitas, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, and Ambassador Dionísio Babo Soares, Permanent Representative to the UN, along with Mr. Lourenço de Oliveira, founder and owner of Aero Dili. I had many friends, in attendance: Ambassador Mohamed Siad Doualeh, the Permanent Representative of Djibouti to the UN; Mr. Bunmi Makinwa, Mr. Sonala Olumhense, Mrs. Folashade Abegunde, and Jonathan Granoff, President, Global Security Institute, were all present. My wife, Adejumoke, who kept the family together and survived decades of my travel schedule without complaint, stood beside me. In accepting, I dedicated the Order to every mediator, peace support official, civil society worker and ordinary citizens who stood up for peace. I put on record, that tiny Timor-Leste gave $8 million for Guinea-Bissau’s 2014 elections while Nigeria gave $7 million as many who had spoken loudest, at the time, only gave a few hundred thousand dollars. ECOWAS came third, giving about the same as Nigeria.

Walking on several legs

As usual, many of the roads around the UN had been cordoned off on September 22, 2026. President Trump, like several sovereigns, were in town. On that day, I had a warm exchange with H.E. Abdoulkader Houssein Omar, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, of Djibouti. I also followed the debate at the Assembly and hope to look at these in another piece on the 81st session of the UNGA.

On September 23, 2026, I bumped into a friend Dr. Babatunde Afolabi, the new Director of Political Affairs at ECOWAS accompanied by Mrs. Esther Oyewumi, his Senior Political Adviser colleague. They were kind in helping me through the UN’s elaborate security arrangement. I parted with them as I decided to hero-worship at Madiba Mandela’s statue. He was happily waving at the world he left behind, a world that continues a downward spiral of lack of peace and persistent squalor and poverty. Of course, Trevor Noah did not see a waving of hands. For him, Mandela was in a surrender mode, begging Mayor Mamdani’s New York Police Department not to fire shots at him.

I met Carl Skau, the Acting Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP). Who continues to serve as WFP’s Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer. He could not attend the honour H.E. José Ramos-Horta did me on Monday. I very much admire Carl for his leadership at WFP, at a time when the Organiztion is confronting extraordinary levels of hunger and humanitarian need, including in Sudan and Gaza.

I had a short conversation with Mia Amor Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados, who I admire so much. She showed dexterity in selfie shots.

I once promised Laolu Akande, former spokesperson to the immediate past Vice-President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, an interview that did not happen. So, I could not turn down his request for an interview for Inside Sources on the sidelines of UNGA. Finishing that, Jesse Watters grabbed me for a lighthearted interview on Fox News.

The week also had work conversations. I met with H.E. Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), whose region, from Sudan to Somalia and South Sudan, keeps testing the patience of peacemakers. We spoke about implementation challenges on the 2023 IGAD Treaty that has now been ratified. I had useful exchanges with my longtime friend, Mr. Mohamed Yahya, UN’s Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator; also, with Ms. Maureen Achieng, IGAD’s Permanent Representative to the African Union; and with a wonderful human being, Mr. Abdallah Fadhil who invited me to undertake a visit to the Somali community in Canada, with my book titled, Somalia Just Before Al-Shabaab: Why Peace Was Elusive.

Each conversation reminded me that the Horn of Africa’s troubles, and its possibilities, are never far from the corridors of the UN.

I also renewed my acquaintance with Rania Dagash-Kamara, WFP’s Assistant Executive Director for Partnerships and Innovation, with whom I collaborated while at the UN on the Darfur conflict. She is doing an impressive job raising funds for WFP. Jean-Martin Bauer, WFP’s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Service also joined us as Rania showed me that she could compete with Mia Amor Mottley on snapping selfies. Sadly, New York is not like much of the world, where you can beckon to someone to help snap a photograph. Like Lagos, New York is in a rush, but a Lagosian would always be happy to have you smile into the camera as he or she pauses from a rush that started in the tummy. Lagos children, even as embryos, listening to the mummy prepare to join 240 million people in a country whose mis-leaders are bothered about little except competing to steal billions in naira and dollars, and then boldly lament the poverty and squalor that WFP seeks to relieve.

The children of Timor-Leste take the podium

When my Big Brother Bossman took the podium in the General Debate, he did not speak for Timor-Leste alone. In his characteristic style, President Ramos-Horta brought the voices of Timorese children into the Hall.

I had watched him throw the state house gate open for children to enter and partake in the feast on his inauguration to the chagrin of officials who preferred the children to watch events from far-away. Twelve young people, aged twelve to seventeen, had written messages for world leaders, and he read them out. Sixteen-year-old Olgita reminded the Assembly that peace is a decision we choose, not merely a dream. Elizabeth, also sixteen, asked why we divide ourselves when we all bleed the same colour, and twelve-year-old Irabela asked why anyone would choose to hate when love is possible. Emily, sixteen, put it most simply: “No child learns war before laughter.”

Around those voices, President Ramos-Horta condemned the world’s growing numbness to civilian suffering in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan. He warned of nuclear proliferation, demanded accessible climate finance for vulnerable states and celebrated Timor-Leste’s accession to ASEAN. On reform he went further than most: an enlarged Security Council, an end to the veto, and a woman as the next Secretary-General. He had the order right: a bigger Council that keeps the veto would change the faces at the table, not the way power is exercised there. In a week of loud talk about power, the children of Timor-Leste were the grown-ups in the room.

I came to New York courtesy of two small countries with big hearts. I received an Order for peace on the Day of Peace, and I heard children remind the world’s most powerful people that peace should be intentional and not an accident. Olgita, Elizabeth, Irabela and Emily deserve leaders who listen. So do the children of Lagos, who deserve leaders who steal less and serve more.

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Babafemi A. Badejo**, a former Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Somalia, writer of a best seller on Kenya and Why Peace Was Elusive in Somalia, and former Professor of Political Science and International Relations, is a recipient of the Medal of the Order of Timor-Leste and of Djibouti’s 27 Juin 1977 Order.*