It’s Africa’s Turn at the U.N. Helm : Diplomacy: The continent is primed to lead in such looming crises as global pollution.

The secretary general of the United Nations mentioned earlier this year that Africa and Eastern Europe were the only regions that had not yet produced a holder of his office. As Eastern Europe is now losing its geopolitical definition, Africa, by implication, has been put forward by many as the region from which the next secretary general should come when Javier Perez de Cuellar retires in December.

Those Africans who have been mentioned as possible candidates are as well-qualified, if not more so, than some past holders of that office. Two are current or former heads of state; others are high-ranking international civil servants or cabinet ministers. They would be quite capable of managing the complicated functioning of the organization. At the Security Council last year, for example, Africans played a notable part in the U.N. resolution toward the liberation of Kuwait and showed considerable political savoir-faire.

Africans constitute the biggest regional group in the General Assembly, representing about a third of the member states. One of the General Assembly’s key functions is to debate and pass resolutions that, although not mandatory, have influenced international law. An African secretary general could be instrumental in moving the assembly in a constructive direction in the post-Cold War atmosphere. A current major issue, for example, is that of the Environment and Development Conference to be held in Brazil next year. The debate is already lively, with considerable argument on the point that the developed world’s proposals to curb toxic wastes and pollution of the atmosphere would inhibit badly needed Third World industrialization. An African secretary general would bring unique insight into these global problems from his own experience.

An African secretary general could be of great help to South Africa at this time--something that would have been impossible a year or two ago. The South African government has now accomplished initial attempts at the abolition of apartheid and the freeing of political prisoners. It needs an honest broker to pull together its divisive interracial and intra-racial disputes. This would prepare it for re-entry into the international system and the lifting of sanctions.

Famine, natural and man-made disasters, and a huge debt burden led to the convening of special sessions of the U.N. General Assembly on Africa twice in the past few years. Together with the Middle East, Africa has been a high point in the agenda of the United Nations since the heady years of decolonization in the 1960s.

The United Nations cannot now be dismissed as a Third World club. It has become too important and essential for collective security to be categorized as such, since most of the little wars that spread into conflagrations begin in these areas.

Asia and Latin America have produced successful secretaries general over a 20-year period interrupted by a decade of European leadership under Kurt Waldheim. Africa should now be given an opportunity to make its own contribution. An African secretary general would help to focus world attention on a crisis-beset but generally ignored continent that has grave problems that threaten international peace and security.