Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, a former minister of external affairs, has cautioned Nigerians against de-marketing the country through unguarded criticisms of the government.
In a recent interview with AriseTV, Akinyemi noted that President Bola Tinubu inherited a lot problems from the bad leadership of the past governments.
He noted that the country must work hard to improve its image in the international community.
His words: “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 [G20] 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.
“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,” Akinyemi said.
“But the good news is that President Tinubu is starting at a time when he can maximize the goodwill of the international communities.
“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,” the former minister advised.
