By Silver Nwokoro
Former Minister of External Affairs, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, who turns 82 today, has advised Nigerian youths to vote wisely in the forthcoming election.
Akinyemi, in a brief chat with The Guardian, yesterday, said the election is for the youth, because they are the future of the country.
He said: “The country belongs to the youth. They should vote wisely. They should know that the election is an investment to their future. It will be an opportunity to restart the building of this country. The election is critical. It will be an opportunity to put round pegs in round holes. They should think carefully about what they would embark upon. And I hope that unlike old people, whose fate in this country was betrayed, the fate of the youth in this country won’t be betrayed.”
He condemned former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s new year message, which endorsed Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP).
He said: “Some of us believe Obasanjo is also part of the foundation of the problems that we have in this country.
“One of the things I had said is once you have occupied the post of president and served your term, go home, be like General Gowon and General Abdulsalami. Just be quiet. You have had your term. You have had your innings, to use a cricket language. Let others get on.
“But for you to create problems for us and then you come back and present yourself as a problem solver, I find it difficult to swallow.
“I know there are people who say, ‘Ignore the messenger, focus on the message.’ I’m sorry. I’m a political scientist. That doesn’t rub with me as a political scientist. I’m sure whoever came up with that must be a politician, who does not want people to look back into his own record.”
Born January 4, 1942 in Ilesa, in what is now Osun State, Akinyemi attended Igbobi College, Yaba, from 1955 to 1959 and Christ’s School Ado Ekiti from 1960 to 1961.
He later attended Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, America, between 1962 and 1964, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, 1964 to 1966, and Trinity College, Oxford, England, from 1966 until 1969.
A member of The Guardian Editorial Board, he was a visiting professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and at the Diplomacy Training Programme, University of Nairobi, Kenya, both in 1977. He was Regents Lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, America in 1979, Professor of Political Science at the University of Lagos, from 1983 until 1985, and visiting fellow, St John’s College, Cambridge, England in 1984.
Akinyemi was Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) from 1975 until 1983.
The NIIA is an organisation focusing on Nigerian foreign policy.
While he was Director General, he was involved in promoting Nigerian-Angolan relations, among other things.
He has written and edited many books and journals.
Akinyemi married Rowena Jane Viney in 1970. They have one son and three daughters.
Source: The Guardian
