Former president Olusegun Obasanjo says President Muhammadu Buhari’s hands are too weak to sign the African free trade agreement (AfCTA).

He made the statement on Saturday while speaking at the Babacar Ndiaye lecture series in Bali, Indonesia.

Obasanjo said he hopes that Nigeria will soon have a president who will sign the agreement.

“Africa cannot overcome fears of trade wars till it achieves 50 percent intra-Africa trade,” he said at the ongoing World Bank Group/International Monetary Fund meetings.

“The AfCTA is a good idea and for Nigeria, hopefully, we will have a president that will be able to sign it because the one that is there now, his hands are too weak to sign.”

Nigeria was absent in March as leaders from 44 African countries signed the agreement to form a $2.5 trillion continental free-trade zone.

The free-trade zone is the largest in the world since the creation of the World Trade Organisation in 1995.

Explaining its decision not to sign, the federal government had said a committee was reviewing the treaty and that it needs more input from stakeholders.