Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said Nigeria’s exclusion from a list of African countries meeting with United States President Donald Trump to discuss commercial opportunities is a verdict on President Bola Tinubu’s presidency.
President Donald Trump announced that he will host five African leaders at the White House to discuss “commercial opportunities.”
The invited nations are Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal.
Atiku, in a statement by his special assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said noted that Nigeria, continent’s most populous nation, the Giant of Africa which had an economy of $500bn and was among the world’s five fastest growing economies before the All Progressives Congress, took over was not invited.
He said, “This exclusion by the Trump administration is not a diplomatic oversight. It is not a scheduling error. It is a verdict — scathing in symbolism and staggering in implication. A verdict on Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s chaotic presidency, his divisive chairmanship of ECOWAS, and the complete evaporation of Nigeria’s diplomatic relevance.
“How do we explain it? Tinubu inherited an ECOWAS of 15 member states and left it gasping for breath with three countries pulling out and 40% of its land mass gone. Once Africa’s diplomatic compass — the nation that gave weight to regional consensus and global negotiations — Nigeria has now become an afterthought. Ignored. Sidelined. Stripped of influence. While others are summoned to negotiate Africa’s future, Nigeria is not even in the room.
“And while our Foreign Direct Investment has plunged to historic lows, Tinubu’s men lounge in St. Lucia, sipping champagne in the face of national decline. South Africa is negotiating trade frameworks with Washington. Nigeria is invisible.”
The former vice president said a Tinubu ally, Gilbert Chagoury, is not a Trump ally.
He claimed that Chagoury does not hold the keys to the White House and has no diplomatic leverage in the Trump administration, having been listed as one of the major donors to the Clinton foundation.
Atiku said the illusion of his influence has collapsed under the weight of reality, adding that Nigeria wagered its international standing on a mirage and lost.
He further claimed that Tinubu, as chair of ECOWAS, did not build bridges but burnt them by his erratic, self-serving approach fractured regional cooperation which, he said, has turned Nigeria into a polarising force rather than a rallying point.
“From Giant of Africa to diplomatic ghost — Tinubu has finished the job. He has squandered our legacy, diluted our stature, and silenced our voice on the world stage.
“This isn’t just an embarrassment. It is a disgrace — a resounding declaration that Nigeria, under this administration, has lost its way.
“But let it be known: we will not mourn in silence. We will not be complicit in our own erasure. Well, we are glad that the coalition through the ADC is here to rescue Nigeria from these urban bandits. The damage is deep — but so is our resolve. And the mission to reclaim Nigeria’s honour has already begun.
“History may not be kind to this government. But history will remember who stood up to end it,” Atiku said.
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