Background
Akinyemi was born in Ilesa, in what is now Osun State.
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Bolaji Akinyemi
Edit ProfileDiplomat minister of foreign affairs
Education
He attended Igbobi College in Yaba from 1955 until 1959, Christ"s School Ado Ekiti from 1960 to 1961, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, from 1962 to 1964, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, United States, 1964 to 1966, and Trinity College, Oxford, England, from 1966 until 1969.
Career
He is chairman of the National Think Tank. He was a visiting professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and at the Diplomacy Training Programme, University of Nairobi, Kenya, both in 1977. He was Regents Lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, United States in 1979, Professor of Political Science at the University of Lagos, from 1983 until 1985, and Visiting Fellow, Street John"s College, Cambridge, England in 1984.
Akinyemi was Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) from 1975 until 1983.
The NIAA is an organisation focusing on Nigerian foreign policy. While he was Director-General, it was involved in promoting Nigerian-Angolan relations, among other things.
Akinyemi was appointed Minister of External Affairs by military leader Ibrahim Babangida in 1985. While in this position, he originated the Technical Aid Corps (TAC), a program which sent Nigerian professionals overseas to engage in volunteer work.
lieutenant was designed to "promote the country"s image and status as a major contributor to Third World and particularly African development".
He also came up with the concept of the "Concert of Medium Powers". In his position as Minister of External Affairs, Akinyemi headed numerous Nigerian delegations. In 1987, Akinyemi stated his support for Nigeria developing nuclear weapons.
He referred to the proposal as the "black bomb," and said that "Nigeria has a sacred responsibility to challenge the racial monopoly of nuclear weapons."
During the short-lived Third Republic of 1993, he called on the military to overthrow Ernest Shonekan"s administration.
Sani Abacha, Defense Minister at the time, later did so, and assumed the position of head of state. Akinyemi was later among those who opposed Abacha"s regime.
In August 2007, President Umaru Yar"Adua appointed him to the newly created Electoral Reform Panel.
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Born
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Nationality
Nigeria -
Ethnicity