Despite a large entourage, including President Bola Tinubu, attending the ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9), Nigeria’s exhibition booth was left unmanned on Wednesday.
The exhibition booth, which is one of the ways through which countries around the world converse and speak with potential businesses and investors, was without any attendant at the event compared with other countries.
A Nigerian, Mr Idris Ayodeji Bello, attending the event as a private citizen, while writing on X (formerly X), said he had to step in to answer questions that the Nigerian public sector teams should be handling.
Business Post reports that President Tinubu, who arrived in Japan on Tuesday, is expected to hold bilateral meetings with world leaders and engage with top Japanese chief executives who have significant investments in Nigeria.
The three-day summit, scheduled for August 20–22 at the Pacifico Yokohama, is bringing together African leaders, development partners, and global stakeholders to discuss strategies for Africa’s economic transformation.
However, one of the first points of contact at such summits is the exhibition, and according to Mr Bello, Nigeria had the only unsupervised booth, so he had to step in as a makeshift envoy to answer questions about the country’s investment scene.
“I hate to show negative things about Nigeria but it is sad that Nigeria is the only unmanned booth at TICAD9 in Japan. Upon all the folks who probably got estacode for coming to Japan
“Only God knows how many Japanese folks have asked me about the unmanned booth seeing my dressing.
“So ashamed I have now designated myself as Honorary Consul and taken over the booth to engage visitors,” he wrote on X, accompanied by photos of the empty booths.
Soon after, Dr Ola Brown, a Nigerian investor and founder of Health Cap Africa, joined Mr Bello to answer the questions to curious attendees at the exhibition.
“Had an interesting time manning the Nigeria booth today with Idris.
“Unfortunately, the booth was left unstaffed by the Nigerian public sector team, but we still had engaging conversations with academics, private business owners, and NGOs who asked great questions,” she wrote in X, via her @NaijaFlyingDr handle.
Responding to a post about why the booth was unmanned, the investor answered, “I am not sure. But even Cape Verde whose entire GDP is less than Zenith Bank’s revenue had a fully staffed and decorated booth. Lesotho was fully staffed with a small economy than Oshogbo.”
Many Nigerians have taken to the platform to express displeasure at the lack of Nigerian public sector officials at the exhibition.
According to @DaMinister14, “It’s one thing for our anyhowness to be local – at least we will know it’s in-house. However, taking it to the global stage is embarrassingly sad. I mean I know I shouldn’t be surprised anymore but I just can’t help it. Anyhowness has now become a feature instead of a bug.”
According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, Nigeria is using (TICAD9) as a springboard to expand trade with Japan, push for reforms in the global financial system, and consolidate its leadership role in Africa.
Speaking on the sidelines of the summit in Tokyo, Mr Tuggar stressed that Nigeria’s participation, led by President Tinubu, signals its determination to forge deeper ties with Japan while also using the multilateral platform to advocate for Africa’s interests.
Nigeria exports large volumes of hydrocarbons to Japan, with bilateral trade currently estimated at $1 billion.
Beyond trade, Mr Tuggar said Nigeria was using the TICAD9 forum to push its long-standing diplomatic objectives, including permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Mr Tuggar said central to Nigeria’s agenda, is reform of the global financial architecture to ensure African economies can thrive.
“Unless the system is reformed to address issues like debt restructuring and rescheduling, Africa will remain disadvantaged. Nigeria, as Africa’s leading economy, must champion this cause,” he said.