By Hassan Saliu
Professor Akinwande Bolaji Akinyemi, the son of a priest and politician, is an academic colossus whose impact on various aspects of Nigerian life cannot be captured in a single tribute. He is a scholar, policymaker, adviser, public intellectual, and a man with extensive academic engagements and networks. He began lecturing at the premier University of Ibadan after returning with a PhD at less than thirty years of age from Trinity College, University of Oxford in the UK. This capped his initial academic training at Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA.
After spending some years and consequent on his elevation to the rank of Senior Lecturer at the University of Ibadan, he moved to Lagos to inject more life into the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), which was somehow enmeshed in succession politics, having three or more Director-Generals in quick succession. By popular acclamation, he performed very well as the DG of the NIIA, which he led for the record time of eight years. However, a mixture of commendations and threats of removal dominated his tenure, but the latter never materialised. He has also served as a Minister and has continued to carry out some administrative assignments for the Nigerian State. One can therefore understand why the public space is usually filled with congratulatory messages that always pour in during the season of Professor Bolaji Akinyemi’s birthday, a Professor of Political Science and International Relations, trailblazer, and public analyst, who has dominated the ideas space for more than five decades.
He is not showing any signs of getting tired soon, apparently, because there are still many issues to discuss about Nigeria, especially in its relations with the rest of the world. He is a delight to watch and listen to when issues of international relations are up for mention and analysis. Truth be told, Professor Akinyemi is a pathfinder whose impact goes beyond the books he has written. Some Professors, including this author, got their strong motivation and interest in the field of International Relations from his impressive showings, hallmarked by his calmness, confidence, deep and historical exposition and gestures that he displayed on various public platforms available to him in the 1970s and 1980s.
Arguably, he remains the most successful Director-General of NIIA, judging by the public image of the Institute under him; his frequent interventions in policy that almost got his fingers burnt; the level of collaborations with similar agencies across the world; the numerous outcomes of conferences; and the record of publications by the Institute under his headship. As the DG, he was courageous in seizing the space for his interventions to test his textbook theories of International Relations (IR), most notably Realist Theory.
Perusing through some of his writings, one would also discover that he is a living idealist who, at a time, and borne out of frustration with the situation in the apartheid enclave, once called for the adoption of “black bombs” in dealing with the former obnoxious regime in South Africa. His belief in idealism also showed in his tremendous faith in the concept of Prior Consultations and in wanting Nigeria to carry more burden for the African continent, notwithstanding the mounting domestic problems facing the country.
He is, however, known more for his relentless calls for resisting Western dictation by positing that even in a world that is decidedly more in favour of the West, Nigeria can still provide leadership for countries of the South by increasing its presence and visibility in the world. Concepts such as Concert of Medium Powers, Technical Aid Corps, African Petroleum Producers Association, among others, were bold initiatives enunciated by him that sought to raise the voice of Nigeria in world affairs in line with his realist orientation.
As a Minister, he tried to actualise these pet projects, some of which recent world events have proven that he was a prophet of sorts — apologies to Prof. Akinterinwa — by boldly canvassing for their adoption in Nigeria. The point needs to be made that the pursuit of the initiatives made him popular in some quarters; they nevertheless created some problems for him in the cabinet that he was a part of.
His exit from the Babangida government, contrary to the standpoint of bookmakers, is still a mystery to many, perhaps including Professor Akinyemi himself, who, one can say, was doing well at his post at the point of his exit from the Babangida cabinet. It was more the case that, in the keynote he gave in Ibadan in 2012 at the conference of our Society, he disclosed that the only friend he had in the cabinet was General Ibrahim Babangida, who was then the Head of State in Nigeria. Why then did the tables turn? Some extra-foreign policy matters were raked up, raised, and ceaselessly deployed against him with the intention of getting him out of office. His handling of the issue of the State of Israel appeared to be the last straw that broke the camel’s back. The thrust of his submissions on the matter was perceived differently by various actors who were involved. It is instructive to note that the upper hand gained by those who were opposed to his position on the matter of Israel subsequently got him out of office. He was accused of being pro-Israel, apparently because of the trajectory of his life, while Israel itself felt uneasy with him on some issues. One would, therefore, be correct to say that he was one of the few misunderstood Foreign Affairs Ministers in Nigeria who suffered a great dose of misrepresentation. Every step of his as a Minister elicited different reactions from the people, including people from his primary occupational constituency, the academia.
To some, he was not radical enough; he was, at best, a reformist or what they would call ultra-liberal. There are still people who think that he was a Western apologist as a Minister. Certainly, there must have been a kind of miscategorisation of his person and the ideas he pursued while in office. My personal observation is that he tried his best to project Nigeria as far as he could, but his steps were always misread, most times on primordial and ideological grounds. Prof. Akinyemi, as a Minister, was a victim of circumstance or of the then prevailing environment of suspicion, where everyone, including his academic colleagues, was no longer comfortable with his postulations. He was alleged to be implementing a certain agenda even by the Superpowers. He seemed to have incurred the wrath of China, another Great Power state with its dictatorial tendencies, as the DG of NIIA when he demanded that the communiqué of his committee’s meeting with the Chinese team be drafted jointly. No major power fancies the idea of a jointly produced communiqué with Africa but the unilateral one for the obvious advantage it confers on them.
Notwithstanding, some theoretical issues that he led the country into adopting are still surprisingly the central themes in Nigeria’s foreign policy. For instance, the attempt to seek more input from Nigerians in the pursuit of the country’s foreign policy, which he spearheaded and held at NIPSS, Kuru, in 1986, is being agitated for in the country as a desideratum in rejuvenating Nigeria’s contemporary foreign policy. One recalls that the concept of BRICS being a topical issue in the world today was substantially similar to some of his ideas promoted as Foreign Affairs Minister of Nigeria.
Many years back
Out of NIIA, Prof. Akinyemi returned to the University of Lagos for teaching assignments for a while, after which he pulled out and served as a Minister. He later caught the limelight again, taking after his father when he embraced politics. This scholar-politician attempted to be Nigeria’s President. Somewhere along the line, he dropped out of the ambition for MKO Abiola, the eventual winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election in Nigeria. The annulment of the election by the Babangida regime and the emergence of Sani Abacha as a maximum ruler with his zero-tolerance for opposition pushed Prof. Akinyemi into nomadism, moving from one Western capital to another, calling for support to end military rule in Nigeria and to avoid being arrested by the Abacha regime. He was part of the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, which fought for the validation of the June 12, 1993 presidential election results. He returned to the country during the General Abdulsalami Abubakar military regime, which paved the way for the return of democracy to Nigeria in 1999.
As a man destined to be a witness to some political events, he was made a member of the Electoral Reforms Committee instituted by President Yar’Adua, the Deputy Chairman of Jonathan’s National Conference, among others. On each occasion, he tried to blend theory with praxis, with mixed results that one can summarise as impressing some and offending others, but no one could dismiss his brilliance.
He is retired, but he has not allowed that label to stop him from being a public intellectual. As usual, Prof. Akinyemi does not shy away from intervening on issues of public interest. His views were sought on Nigeria after the country was designated a “Country of Particular Concern” by the USA in 2025. He spoke candidly on the matter — an issue on which I had intended to weigh in, but later pulled back.
He supported the position that people of a particular faith were being persecuted in Nigeria. That stance proved controversial, as both the government and a section of the public did not consider it a welcome commentary. True to his realist outlook, however, he saw no reason to oppose American involvement in helping to tame the hydra-headed insecurity in Nigeria. His tolerance for possible US engagement on Nigerian soil drew a wave of reactions.
One thing is certain: Prof. Akinyemi’s trailblazing spirit ensures that he will always speak his mind, whether popular or not. His memory remains very sharp, and he has courted academic controversy since early in his career.
At the level of NSIA, he witnessed its formation in 1971. Ever since, he has remained a consistent senior member of our Society. He indeed kick-started the flagship programme on a sister association christened the NPSA Platform in 2021, where he spoke on Federalism and Nigeria’s Foreign Policy. He was one of the first set of Political Scientists who were awarded the prestigious Fellowship of NPSA in 2019, in recognition of his varied contributions to the field of Political Science in Nigeria.
Worried about the quality of decisions coming out of Balewa House, and more importantly, the disturbing low level of interest in international relations among Nigerians, he established an Academy of International Affairs a few years ago. While noting that the vision he has for the Academy is not yet realised, Prof. Akinyemi exudes the confidence that it will one day be. This optimism may have encouraged him to return to the NIIA, but this time not as the Director-General. He instead has been appointed as the Chair of its Board. He is back on familiar terrain, one would say.
Barely four months to the end of my tenure as the President of the NPSA, I ran into the warm embrace of Prof. Akinyemi at NIIA, Lagos. The first thing he said to me at the venue was, “Mr President, come and sit beside me here,” apparently against the protocol already established by the Institute for the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the death of General Murtala Muhammed that it jointly hosted with the Murtala Mohammed Foundation. I politely turned down the request, which I felt was meant for Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, the current DG of NIIA. Somewhere along the line, I got closer to him at the event, and that close contact allowed him to share his thoughts with me on how to escape from the grim financial circumstances that we faced in the NPSA. One take-home from this narration is that both the NSIA and NPSA are dear to the heart of Prof. Akinyemi, particularly their sustainability and impact. It is heartwarming that the two bodies have recognised him.
Let me confess here that I have been invited to his Academy of International Affairs (AIA) and given the Academy fellowship. However, I am not an active participant, a situation that I suspect he is not so happy about.
The Society wishes him more good health and long life as he continues to show the way, helping us find the necessary compass to navigate our country away from its largely artificial afflictions. He is marching well into his 85th birthday, which comes up in January 2027. It is pointless to say that Prof. Akinyemi is married. He is married to his sweetheart, and the union is blessed with grown-up children.
On behalf of the interim executives of our Society, I congratulate the pathfinder, a courageous scholar, notable policy advocate and public intellectual, on the naming of the Annual Distinguished Personality Lecture of NSIA after him in recognition of the role he played in the establishment of our Society. At its formation in 1971, he was called names and presented as the chief divider for obvious reasons. He was not deterred in forging ahead together with like-minded people to establish the Society. Although the Nigeria Society of International Affairs (NSIA) has been battered by harsh weather in the last couple of years, it is gratifying to note that the interim committee members put in place about two weeks ago are trying their best to revive the Society based on the noteworthy blocks put in place by Prof. Akinyemi and his team. One can conclude that Prof. Akinyemi deserves the honour being bestowed on him, and even more, who I understand played an equal role, if not more, when the Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA) was formed two years later.
The author is Interim President of the Nigerian Society of International Affairs (NSIA)
