A former Minister of External Affairs, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, says President Bola Ahmed Tinubu inherited a lot problems from the bad leadership of the past governments.
Akinyemi stated this during an interview with Arise TV concerning the president’s recent trip to New Delhi in India for the G20 summit. The president had attended the two-day summit on the special invitation of Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
Tinubu met with leaders of the US, Germany and South Korea on the sidelines of the summit, and also witnessed the conferment of permanent member title on the African Union. Commenting on it, the former minister said if Nigeria wanted to be a permanent member of the prestigious G20, the country must work hard to improve its image in the international community.
“We must stop de-marketing Nigeria, irrespective of what the government does. If we as people have no faith in our own country, in our own government, it will backfire. Let me, however, deal now with what I would call the international aspect of that summit, and the implications for Nigeria. We are not members of the G20.
One is: the bad leadership that has driven our economy to the ground. Now that we know the cost of bad leadership, I hope we will give to our country a decent leadership that can promote Nigeria. We must stop Boko Haram and all the things that destabilize and give Nigeria a bad image,” he said.
Akinyemi also said that Tinubu is paying the price of the bad leadership that characterized Nigeria’s past governments, and should work hard towards getting the country permanent membership of the G20 before the next summit.
He said, “Tinubu and Nigeria are paying the price for the bad leadership of the past. We tend to say that it started with Jonathan and Buhari. But forgive me, it started before that. I won’t however, go into that now.
“But the good news is that President Tinubu is starting at a time when he can maximize the goodwill of the international communities.
“Number one: the new President of G20 is from Brazil. And Brazil is a friend of Nigeria. We have very good relationship with Brazil. That good relationship should be cultivated because the president of the G20 actually has a lot of influence on his fellow members in terms of what he would like to do or not to.
“Therefore, President Tinubu should set up a taskforce whose objective should be that by the next summit, Nigeria should actually be sponsored for permanent membership of the G20.”
By Unini Chioma
