Opinions

Bad governance, tampering with constitution should be seen as coup d’état — Akinyemi

One of Nigeria’s former Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, has taken a swipe at the issues leading to the coup d’état in the Niger Republic, insisting that bad governance and tampering with the constitution should be seen as coups d’état.

The foremost professor of political science made this known while being a guest at the Toyin Falola interviews series, which was live-streamed to a large audience across the globe on various social media handles.

In the audience were leading academics, leaders of thought, policymakers, politicians, and diplomats, among many others.

While reacting to the leading causes and fallouts of the coup in the Niger Republic, the former Minister of External Affairs stated that “Something that may be falling under the radar is the use of soft diplomacy by President Tinubu. Nobody de-markets their country more than Nigerians do.

We are so critical, and everybody is busy attacking the President’s position, forgetting the fact that as chairman of ECOWAS, he is duty-bound to articulate ECOWAS decisions. But we also know that diplomacy sometimes acts behind the scenes.

The use of religious organisations and personalities is opening doors where formal organisations cannot. This is because of the abuse of religious organisations and the influence of Jihad and fundamentalism.

This has tended to discredit religious organisations and religious influences. They have their roles to play. I see President Tinubu using religious organisations that have acceptability in Niger.

The door has opened a little bit. According to reports, the government is ready to negotiate and talk. That is how negotiations start.

There was a misrepresentation of the ECOWAS communiqué from the beginning; this was when ECOWAS said it was not ruling out the use of force.

The way they would have put it at the State Department would be that nothing was off the table; nothing is on the table. Nevertheless, it never meant that boots were going in after seven days.

All the talk about the war was misplaced. That has happened, and now soft diplomacy is being used. This, however, extends beyond ECOWAS.

How does one deal with democracy and coups? I think there must be a charter on democracy proposed at the ECOWAS level, embraced by the AU, and wherever else.

That is going to say that bad governance and tampering with the constitution are civilian coups, and if that happens, that should not be accepted by the ECOWAS and AU, and that such a government would stand suspended. It is not enough to have a kangaroo election.

That is what happened in the Central African Republic, where the president there just amended the constitution to allow him to run for another seven years after spending the time allowed by the constitution.”

On the relevance of the Commonwealth to Nigeria and vice versa, Professor Akinyemi stated that “It is supposed to be a platform for mutual admiration.

The Commonwealth should be regarded as an asset because, in multilateral diplomacy, it helps to have a crop of committed friends that, when it comes to lobbying for a particular policy or a particular position, you can turn to and regard as being in your corner.

They also have other friends that they approach on your behalf. To that extent, it is a functional instrumentality that helps in multilateral diplomacy.”

Earlier, Professor Toyin Falola asked if he would still want to be born in Nigeria and why. Professor Akinyemi answered in the affirmative, just as he noted that he understood that the current realities were negating, which have pushed out many young and older Nigerians into the Diaspora.

“I would still like to be born in Nigeria with all the attendant challenges. Nigeria has been good to me. At the age of 33, I became Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs.

I was there for eight years. In the process, I met many of the movers and shakers of the world, and then Nigeria gave me the opportunity to be its Foreign Minister. In the process, it allowed me to prove that I could walk the talk.

It gave me the opportunity to meet fellow foreign ministers and many heads of state and to seek to actualize some of the dreams and visions that I have for Nigeria.

Nigeria is a critical player in the world, and in the process, I sought to sell this vision to other countries in the world.

Some bought into it; some didn’t. But in the process, I proved that dreams are achievable in this country. I am aware that in this country, not many people have had the opportunities that I have had.

Some of the challenges have overwhelmed a lot of people. I am aware of that. What other country would have given me such opportunities? I don’t have a divine right to say that if I had stayed in the United States, perhaps things would have gone my way.

I was in the United States until 1970. I was offered a permanent teaching job at the university, and that came with a green card, which I didn’t even apply for. But I belonged to a generation, so don’t let me claim something that is not personal to me.

“I understand why the present generation would spend a fortune to get visas to leave the country. In fact, those are the lucky ones.

Many others are trying to cross the Sahara Desert; they end up with great vicissitudes while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. I accept because I do know that the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea have become graveyards for a lot of Nigerians.

Among them could have been people who could have won the Nobel Prize in the future. This is because of the conditions in the country, and this is their reaction to them.

My generation never faced those difficulties. That would explain why we deliberated and rejected the opportunities to wait abroad.

We accepted to come back home because there was a vision at that time. The knowledge was that Nigeria was going to be great. This was because Nigeria was going to achieve its place in the pantheon of great countries,” he said.
Speaking on his early life, he told the audience that the successes he recorded later in life were not the result of a privileged background.

“My parents had had three of us before my father went to Faraday College to study for his degree. When he left, we were scattered among his friends.

A primary school teacher who is a mother cannot cope with three boys. I don’t think any of us had a good experience where we were taken.

A friend of my dad who knew where we were saw me and went to my mother and told her to take me away from where I was or else I would be killed.

My mother had no choice but to pick me up and keep me with her. She was a matron at a Catholic school in Oyo where boys were not allowed.

I was very young then—about seven years old. She had one room in the dormitory for the girls. When the nuns would come for inspection, I hid under her bed so that they would not see me. When I think back, the girls loved me, and I loved them in return.

They gave me biscuits and such. That was not a silver spoon. My trajectory started with merit. My first trip to the United States after I completed my A-levels was because I was reading the newspaper, which I did religiously.

My father never brought any newspapers to where I was, but I developed an interest. I read the Daily Times. That day, I was reading it, and I saw an advertisement for an essay competition. I wrote the essay and posted it to the Ministry of Education in Lagos.

I forgot all about it and went about my business. One day, a telegram came, and the principal called me and told me that I had a telegram.

I opened it, and the telegram said that my essay had been adjudged good. I was invited for an interview in Lagos.

I went to Lagos, and five of us were interviewed. A head popped out of a room, invited me inside, and told me that my essay had been adjudged the best in Nigeria.

That was how I went to the United States. The brain I inherited from my parents would be my first breakthrough. Going to the United States would be another major breakthrough in my life.

Of course, my father became the principal of a school, but he didn’t start off as one. When he came back from Faraday with a degree, he was even riding a bicycle to school,” he said.

He also noted that if given the opportunity to become a minister of foreign affairs, he would insist that certain conditions be met before taking up the appointment.

According to him, “John Kerry was a foreign minister in the United States, and he is in his late 70s. So age is not really the factor; it is whether someone still has something to contribute.

If I were to be approached, I would lay down three conditions because the environment has changed. The environment needs to be recreated. One, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must become a separate service.

I have been advocating for this, and I got quite close to getting it under Babangida. The ethnicization of our domestic policy played a role in getting that proposal defeated when it was debated in the cabinet.

But it must become a separate service from the domestic service. Two, it must have a first line in the budget. Thirdly, the budget must be denominated in foreign exchange.

When your budget is denominated in naira and yet you spend the money abroad, the amount available to you diminishes each day. A lot of our embassies are in debt.

There is no respect from the people to whom they owe rent. We spent so much money trying to pay salaries and allowances.

We don’t have money to bail out our citizens when they get into trouble. I know I won’t get those conditions met, so there is no use saying I would accept if I am given that offer (to be Minister of Foreign Affairs).”
Other members of the interview panel included Professor Akinjide Osuntokun, Ambassador Jaiyeola Joseph Lewu, who is a scholar and an accomplished and successful diplomat, and Ambassador Godknows Igali.

Members of the audience included Professor Richard Joseph, Bishop Hassan Kukah, Blessing Ajisafe, Jonathan Bill Doe, Professor Babafemi Badejo, Franklin Amoo, Femi Olugbile, Reverend Father B.A.C. Obiafuna, Tola Osunnuga, Izielen Agbon, Binta Moustapha, and Martin Okusanya, among many others.

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