Tinubu Paying The Price Of Buhari, Jonathan’s Bad Leadership – Bolaji Akinyemi

• Former Minister Bolaji Akinyemi attributes Nigeria’s exclusion from the G20 to past bad leadership, urging President Tinubu to improve the country’s international image
• Akinyemi suggests President Tinubu should work towards securing Nigeria’s permanent membership in the G20 with the support of friendly nations like Brazil

Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, a former Minister of External Affairs, says President Bola Ahmed Tinubu inherited a lot of problems from previous governments’ bad leadership.

This was stated by Akinyemi during an interview with Arise TV about the president’s recent trip to New Delhi, India, for the G20 summit.

The president attended the two-day summit at the request of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On the sidelines of the summit, Tinubu met with leaders from the United States, Germany, and South Korea, and he also witnessed the African Union’s designation as a permanent member.

In response, the former minister stated that if Nigeria is to become a permanent member of the prestigious G20, it 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. Why?

The reasons are many. 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.