Former Minister of External Affairs, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, on Monday faulted the invasion of Venezuela by the United States special forces, accusing President Donald Trump of playing with third world war.
Akinyemi said Trump disrespected the sovereignty of the South American nation.
The former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs accused Trump of double standards, recalling how he accused the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of instigating a third world war at the start of the Ukraine-Russia war.
“The first meeting with the President of Ukraine, Trump was screaming at Zelensky that you are playing with third world war,.
“It is Trump who is playing with the third world war and this is frightening,” the respected diplomat said during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
“We in Nigeria are at the crossroads of global instability. When in the 70s I was Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, I was advocating that Nigeria should build a powerbase that will protect itself.
“People thought I didn’t know what I was talking about. My colleagues at the university at that time thought I had no business talking about power,” he added.
On January 3, Trump announced the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, alongside his wife Cilia Flores, from the Miraflores Palace, Caracas.
Trump later posted a picture of Maduro, blindfolded and handcuffed, aboard the amphibious USS Iwo Jima warship as proof of capture.