A former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Kingsley Moghalu has regretted that President Muhammadu Buhari was not invited to the just concluded 45th Group of Seven (G-7) Summit in France.

Moghalu, who was the presidential candidate of Young Progressive Party (YPP) at the 2019 general elections, said that Nigeria should be at the table and not on the menu!

According to him, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, “like him or not was at the table”.

The G-7, a form of the seven countries with the world’s largest developed economies, has France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada as members.

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.

Frowning that Nigeria was not invited, Moghalu said on his verified Twitter handle on Thursday, that “It’s sad that @NGRPresident of Africa’s supposedly largest economy wasn’t invited to the G7 summit in France but of South Africa were. Our country should be at the table, not on the menu! Obasanjo, like him or not, was at the table.

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“South is a member of the G20 world economies. Nigeria is not. Why? That Nigeria’s standing in the world has declined over the past decade is incontestable, with practical implications for us here at home, and is also a reflection of our domestic weakness.

“Now, Ghana is now eating our cake in West Africa. It’s getting more foreign investment than Nigeria. Obama visited there but not us. We should face the fact of our decline and what to do about it, instead of puerile not-picking arguments!”