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| - A claim that Nigeria’s 2023 Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, was invited for US President Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony has gone viral on X.
An X user, @drkenon2 posted the claim with a caption that read:
“Peter Obi was invited but the BluBlu was not.”
The post has generated more than 280,000 views, with over 800 reposts and more than 3,000 likes as of January 23, 2025.
Similarly, another X user, @Chief_Ajiji posted the story with a caption thus:
“Trump’s Inauguration
Peter Obi was invited
Bola Tinubu was not invited
The world knows exactly what happened.”
The post has generated over 400 reposts and more than 1500 likes as of January 23, 2025.
CLAIM
Peter Obi invited for Donald Trump’s inauguration in the US.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE.
The FactCheckHub reported that the topic of who was invited to President Trump’s inauguration in the United States has been a trending misinformation among Nigerian netizens. While no African Head of State was officially invited to the ceremony, there have been misleading reports suggesting otherwise.
Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025, and thus returning to the White House for a second term after losing the presidency to Joe Biden in 2020.
The inauguration, held in the US Capitol Rotunda due to freezing weather, was attended by prominent figures such as Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, political allies, and thousands of supporters. His second term has sparked anxiety, especially within immigrant communities, due to his controversial executive orders on immigration.
The viral claim appears to have originated from a misleading story titled “Peter Obi Invited for Trump’s Inauguration” published by a pro-Obi news platform, Parallel Facts.
However, contrary to the headline, the story only referenced an X (formerly Twitter) post by Nenadi Usman, Chairperson of the Labour Party Caretaker Committee, who attended the event on behalf of the party. Usman later shared a picture of herself amid the audience at the stadium, not in the main hall.
According to the BBC, foreign leaders barely attend presidential inauguration in the United States. The Associated Press reported that “no heads of state have previously made an official visit to the U.S. for the inauguration.”
However, Trump’s inauguration stood unique as few foreign leaders were invited to Monday’s inaugural ceremony. This explains why most African presidents and Head of State such as the Nigerian president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, were not at the event.
In the days leading to the inauguration ceremony, the Associated Press (AP) and Al-Jazeera published the list of foreign leaders who were invited to the ceremony.
The list included Chinese President, Xi Jinping, and conservative world leaders such as Argentine president, Javier Milei, and Italian Prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, to the inauguration.
Others are pro-Western former Georgia president, Salome Zourabichvili; French president, Emmanuel Macron; Ecuadorean president, Daniel Noboa; Paraguayan president, Santiago Peña; Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orban; El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele; and former Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro.
ALSO READ: No, Traoré did not decline Trump’s invitation to his inauguration
Major outlets like The Times and Fox5 New York corroborated these reports, detailing the invited world leaders, former presidents, and business leaders. Peter Obi’s name did not appear on any official list.
A comprehensive review of publicly available records and the official guest list confirmed that Peter Obi was not invited to Trump’s inauguration.
In addition, The FactCheckHub contacted the National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement, Yunusa Tanko who confirmed that Obi did not receive any invitation for the occasion.
THE VERDICT
The claim that Peter Obi was invited to Donald Trump’s invitation is FALSE; publicly available records show that he was not invited.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
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