Respected International Affairs expert, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, has called on Nigeria to commence development of nuclear power which he refered to as the ‘Balck Bomb’.
Akinyemi, who is a former Minister of External Affairs during the regime of the Ibrahim Babangida military administration, made the call on Wednesday while delivering a lecture titled “Nigerian Exceptionalism: Nigerian Quest for World Leadership”, at the 2016 convocation programmes of the University of Ibadan.
He said Nigeria needed to rise up to its natural leadership of the Black race, stressing that the country cannot reclaim its respect in the global community with the possession of nuclear strength and key diplomatic projects that would rank it among the league of powerful nations.
It would be recalled that when he was minister, the law and diplomacy expert made the call for the making of the Black Bomb. According to him, the name ‘Black Bomb’ was to promote the exceptional achievements of the Black race.
And speaking on Wednesday, he said his call was even more relevant now than when he first made it as a minister in the 1980s.
Akinyemi also criticized the country for failing to celebrate her good projects and achievements within the global community, explaining that celebrating her uncommon achievements and those of her citizens across the world, the country’s dark side would be overshadowed alongside those giving her a bad name.
He said further that Nigeria was not the world’s most corrupt country as being reported.
He singled out Nigeria’s peace-keeping efforts in the West African sub-region and sometimes outside the region as well as her foreign technical aid programme through which many Nigerian professionals have helped develop human capacity of other nations as good examples of exceptional achievements.
He said that the peace-keeping efforts made the United Nations recognize Nigeria as the West African regional power through which it implements its programmes in the region. This acknowledgement, Akinyemi said, makes Nigeria a player in the global power game.
Rather than promote these achievements in the international media and other international forums, the former minister said only negative stories emanate from Nigeria as if it is the worst country in the world.
He urged the government to begin to celebrate the good sides of the country and sustain her national space programme to enable her attain a good position in the global community.
His words: “Nigeria has over 50 years experience of peace-keeping operations but we don’t publicize it. We have been in all continents. We were even in Serbia in the former Yugoslavia. There was a time we were in the border between Pakistan and India, keeping peace. But we don’t publicize it…
“Even if every Nigerian owns a rollsroy, even if all the streets in Nigeria are paved with gold, until you have that power which the world fears, they will continue to talk to you in a derogatory manner. Nobody talks to Pakistan now the way they talk to us because Pakistan is a nuclear power. So, I still believe that we need to go down that route. But we have the space programme which I have referred to. To me, it is next to being a nuclear power. The day that Nigeria puts a man in the space, and I am happy that there is a Nigerian space programme where they are hoping that by 2018, Nigeria will completely build indigenous satellite. By 2025 to 2028, they will be launched from Nigeria and that by 2030, Nigeria intends to put a Nigerian astronaut into space…”
Akinyemi also advised the Federal Government to relate care the space programme into the Presidency to enable it monitor its successes and bypass bureaucratic bottleneck.
