Akinyemi: What Nigeria Needs To Do To Secure G20 Membership

Akinyemi: What Nigeria Needs To Do To Secure G20 Membership

By Elem Kash

Nigeria’s former foreign affairs minister,  Professor Bolaji Akinyemi who served under the military says the nation should take urgent steps to secure membership of the  G20.

To realise the ambition to join the prestigious club, the top diplomat noted, Nigeria would have to work very hard to earn international recognition and respect.

The Professor who spoke on Arise TV said Nigeria should be able to leverage on its friendship with many countries, including Brazil which now chairs the G20, to push for a permanent membership.

He urged President Bola Tinubu to set up a taskforce to drive the process and cautioned Nigerians against de-marketing the country.

Akinyemi said the perception people from other countries have of Nigeria is a product of the kind of things that Nigerians say about their nation.

“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,” Akinyemi emphasized.

He said Tinubu is currently struggling with the level of mismanagement and rot left behind by governments in the last 16 years.

The professor however disagreed with those who think that Jonathan and Buhari were responsible for Nigeria’s socio – economic woes, saying the country’s travails date back to the era of other governments that he did not name.