Ake got much of it right in this 1992 text
As tremendous as the interrogation of the ‘New World Order’ paradigm as proclaimed by then US president, George Bush, a Nigerian variant of that interrogation has been lacking. It is doubtful if there are substantial works thereto beyond Claude Ake’s intervention in 1992 but which was from a hemispheric bent rather than the perspective of an African power house.
Well, it seems that is about to happen, courtesy of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, (NIIA)’s 2022 Distinguished Lecture Series. The event has been scheduled for October 20th, 2022 at the Auditorium of the NIIA in Lagos.
The lecture is to be delivered by Prof Bolaji Akinyemi, a former Director-General of the state-owned think tank as well as a former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria. Although many observers of Akinyemi’s scholarly activism speak of him as being too comfortable, another manner of suggesting that he is conservative, he has the history of, arguably, being the most forthcoming and most provocative foreign policy scholar and practitioner in Nigeria. Against that background, it would not be surprising if this year’s Distinguished Lecture is marked by a few explosive throw-ins by the Seagull.
This lecture would be taking place at a time when it is not just that new players are taking their seats on the table of global power but that many of those regarded as laggards, such as Nigeria, have yet to develop and popularise their own narrative of the emerging order and without which they cannot go anywhere as far as social transformation is concerned.
China and Russia
Prof Akinyemi: Is he coming with a more explosive version of ‘Farewell to Policy?”
The 2022 Distinguished Lecture would thus be expected with baited breath in the media, academia, foreign and security policy establishment and the business world within Nigeria, Africa and outside, particularly as Akinyemi would like to use this occasion to wrap up on public policy politics.
