•Professor Bolaji Akinyemi
Former Nigerian External Affairs Minister, Bolaji Akinyemi, has called for urgent appointments into vacant ambassadorial positions.
The professor, in an interview on Channels Television last night , stressed the importance of filling these posts without delay.
“I believe credible appointments should be made to the vacant ambassadorial posts. We need to fill them,” he said.
He argued that, despite internet access to information, diplomacy still requires personal ambassadorial contact.
“The absence of ambassadors does not deny us information. But diplomacy runs on ambassadorial contact, the interaction between governments and ambassadors,” he noted.
Akinyemi added that ambassadors should return to their posts as soon as possible.
Commenting on the ongoing United Nations General Assembly (UNGA80), Akinyemi faulted President Bola Tinubu’s decision to delegate Vice President Kashim Shettima.
Vice President Kashim Shettima is representing President Bola Tinubu at the 80th UNGA in New York.
According to him, Tinubu, not Shettima, should have addressed world leaders.
“I don’t think we need to make much ado about the absence of President Tinubu. He (Tinubu) is more interested in transactional foreign policy that will bring in investment,” he said.
Meanwhile, Shettima met United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in New York yesterday.
The discussions focused on Nigeria’s bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat, climate change, artificial intelligence, and development.
Shettima urged the UN to “support Nigeria even more so that we achieve more.”
Representing Tinubu, he also called for sweeping UN reforms, warning that the organisation risked irrelevance if it failed to adapt.
‘World Attention To Insurgency’
Weighing on matters of insecurity, Akinyemi said Nigeria must draw the world’s attention to insurgency, which he described as a global problem.
“Nigeria deserves the support of world leaders. Insurgency is not a domestic affair,” he said.
He recalled how the fall of Libya after Muammar Gaddafi’s death worsened instability across the Sahel.
Akinyemi linked the crisis to global interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, which he said worsened extremism in Africa.
“This insurgency came across the Sahel, and we now face their activities in Nigeria.
“It is not just a Nigerian problem. We deserve support from the world community in confronting these jihadists,” he explained
The former minister also warned against the unchecked exploitation of Nigeria’s mineral resources.
“We must control the presence and exploitation of earth materials. If we fail, we have ourselves to blame,” he said.
He pointed to the Democratic Republic of Congo as an example where multinational companies benefited at the expense of national interests.
