Omokri insists G-7 snubbed Buhari due to misrule, corruption

A former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, has insisted that President Muhammadu Buhari was not invited to the 45th Group of Seven (G-7) Summit due to perceived misrule and corruption under his government.

Reno had made the claim in an earlier statement. But a media report refuted it and said it was misleading.

However, in a series of tweets on his verified Twitter handle on Wednesday, Reno accused the Presidency of being behind the report describing his claim on why Buhari was ‘snubbed’ by G-7 as misleading.

He insisted that misrule, issues of corruption and other undemocratic practices under the current administration were the reasons Buhari was not invited for this year’s G-7 meeting.

He wrote: “My attention is drawn to a planted story by the @NGRPresident, claiming my tweet that General @MBuhari was not invited to the G 7 because of misrule is ‘misleading’. I am glad they did not say I lied. They said misleading. Since that is the case, let me clarify #BuhariSnubbedByG7.

“The @NGRPresident’s planted story claims that African nations are invited to the G-7 on a rotational basis. This is not true. African nations are invited to the G-7 based on their economy and their governance and the RELEVANCE of both of these to the G-7.

“For instance, the largest economies in Africa will usually be invited, EXCEPT where such economies, like Nigeria, have governance challenges arising from misrule or other anti democracies practices, such as compromised elections and unaddressed corruption

“Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy (due to past governments, not Buhari’s junta) and is naturally invited to represent Africa at the G-7. The claim by @NGRPresident’s hired guns that Nigeria was not invited due to the rotational invitation policy is false

“Rwanda’s @PaulKagame was invited to the 2018 G-7 summit which held in Quebec, Canada in June of 2018. He is also invited to and is attending the ongoing G-7 summit holding in Biarritz, France. This DISPROVES the ROTATIONAL invitation lie of the @NGRPresident

“If invitations are done rotationally, as @NGRPresident’s hired guns would like Nigerians to believe, @PaulKagame would not have been invited to the G-7 back to back.  Kagame was invited back to back because he is RELEVANT to the G-7 whole @MBuhari is NOT

“The truth is that General @MBuhari was not invited to the G-7 summit because of governance and democracy challenges. For example, just a week before the summit began, Nigeria was censured for misrule by a G-7 member state.

“On August 18, 2019, just a week before the G-7 summit in France began, the US Department of State released the 2019 Fiscal Transparency Report which classified the General @MBuhari led Nigerian junta as “not fiscally transparent.” In other words, CORRUPT!”

READ ALSO: IPOB claims Buhari is in Oman, not Japan

The G-7 is a forum of the seven countries with the world’s largest developed economies. They are France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Government leaders of these countries meet annually on international economic and monetary issues. Government leaders of other countries who are working in line with the goal of the forum are often invited as guest countries to G-7 meeting.

The 45th G7 summit, which held on August 24–26, 2019, in Biarritz, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France, had leaders of Burkina Faso, Egypt, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa invited as guests from Africa.

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