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Bolaji Akinyemi Advises Tinubu to Avoid Confrontation with Trump
Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, a renowned political scientist, has urged President Bola Tinubu to be cautious in dealing with the newly inaugurated 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump. Akinyemi shared this advice during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today program on Monday.
“If I were President Tinubu, I would try to avoid provoking him,” Akinyemi said, noting that a bully often seeks out those who are not strong enough to resist.
He referenced an African proverb, advising Tinubu that challenging someone in a position of power without the strength to back it up could lead to more harm.
“Even if Trump’s actions annoy or undermine Nigeria’s interests, there are ways to address them without direct confrontation,” Akinyemi explained.
Reflecting on Trump’s inaugural speech, Akinyemi described it as uninspiring, shocking, and depressing. Instead of promoting peace and unity, Trump’s speech seemed to outline a series of hostile policies.
He mentioned proposals such as taking back the Panama Canal, renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and engaging in tariff wars, all of which, Akinyemi said, set the tone for a more aggressive and isolationist US stance under Trump’s leadership.
Akinyemi, a former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) and former Nigerian Minister of External Affairs, predicted that Trump would soon realize that his policies have consequences. “The next four years will be a rough ride for the world,” he warned.
On Nigeria’s relationship with the US under Trump, Akinyemi believes that the country’s priorities will not align with Nigeria’s interests.
“Nigeria will no longer be a focus for the 78-year-old president, and we shouldn’t expect anything extraordinary from his administration,” he said.
TV anchor Rufai Oseni makes headlines as he speaks on fuel subsidy in Nigeria. He shared that Nigeria can have fuel subsidy without the long queues at filling stations.
“When we were still paying subsidies, there were no long queues. We were subsidising. So you can still have a subsidy regime going on, and there will be no long queues because production was close by. Dangote had it. That’s just it. That argument also falls flat.
“The biggest beneficiaries of subsidy are not Nigerians. They are crony capitalists that have big infrastructure, and they do contracts. They have been the biggest beneficiaries of the subsidy,” he said.
Lagos State Governor, Sanwo-Olu, speaks to those in the electricity sector about the usual blackouts in the state.
He speaks on ways things can change in the state and how electricity can be provided.
“We need to drop corporate egos, abandon long-standing excuses, and confront the harsh realities obstructing progress in the power sector.”
“We, state governments, used to give excuses that everything is centralised, so the Federal Government has unbundled it now. What have we done in a year and a half?” Sanwo-Olu asked.
“We take two steps forward, we go five steps backward,” he said.
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has declared Thursday, August 20, a work-free day for public servants in the state to mark the Isese Festival.
Speaking on the celebration, he said “Ìṣẹ̀ṣe is not a relic. It is a living expression of our traditions and a celebration of Yoruba spirituality as an important part of Nigeria’s cultural and religious landscape,” he said.
He added “When the drums sound in Lagos on Thursday, they answer drums in Havana, in Salvador, in Port of Spain. Fifty-five million people and counting. Lagos is not observing a local holiday. Lagos is standing at the centre of a global heritage,” Aregbe said.
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