Former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has berated the Nigerian government over its failure to properly represent the country at the ongoing Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9) in Japan.
Obi, in a statement on Wednesday, described the empty Nigerian booths at the conference as a “diplomatic embarrassment” and a symbolic reflection of the government’s unfulfilled promises and poor performance over the past two years.
“The empty Nigerian booths in Japan do not just define the empty promises of this government, they also reflect the consistent emptiness Nigerians have been fed at home,” Obi said.
He dismissed the government’s explanation that it opted for “strategic engagements” instead of full participation, calling it another “tired excuse” in a pattern of misleading statements and wrong statistics aimed at masking governance failures.
According to Obi, the incident at TICAD goes beyond mere optics, serving as a stark reminder of the “hollow promises” that have left millions of Nigerians struggling with poverty, insecurity, and lack of progress.
“Just as those booths stood empty in Japan, so too have the lives of millions of Nigerians been left empty, with empty hope, empty relief and empty of the progress they were promised,” he added.
Reiterating his call for better governance, Obi urged Nigerians not to lose hope, insisting that “a New Nigeria is possible.”
