Foremost Professor of Political Science, Bolaji Akinyemi has advised President Bola Tinubu to avoid any form of confrontation with the newly sworn-in 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump.
He stated that bullies like Trump love to take on people who are not strong enough to resist his tactics.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday, Akinyemi warned Tinubu not to get confrontational with Trump even if he does things that steps on the interest of Nigerians.
He said, “If I were President Tinubu, I would try to steer clear of antagonising him because there is nothing a bully likes better than taking on people who are not strong enough to resist him.
“You know there is that African proverb that if you are not strong enough to take on a bully and you take him on, you are just even going to suffer more for it.
“That’s the advice I will give President Tinubu: try and avoid having a confrontation with him even if that means that he does things that annoy or does things that step on the interests of Nigeria. There are ways in which you could address his reaction without confrontation.”
Prof Akinyemi, a former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), faulted the inaugural speech of Trump as uninspiring, “shocking and depressing”.
The octogenarian said rather than rallying the world for peace, Trump took time to threaten the rest of the world with a bouquet of hostile policies including tacking back Panama Canal, renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, tariff wars, and others.