- Says 422 Delegates Way Too Small
A Senator, representing Ondo South District in 10th National Assembly, Jimoh Ibrahim has defended the number of Nigerian delegates at the ongoing COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
He opined that the international community will not take Nigeria seriously if the President had attended the event with a smaller delegate.
The Matrix had reported that an outrage had trailed the huge number of 1411 delegates that accompanied the president to the event with opposition parties, individuals and the general public describing it as a waste and a further strain on the country’s meagre resources at this time.
The government had in reaction to the outcry disclosed that only 422 people were sponsored by the FG on the trip.
Speaking on the controversies surrounding the issue, Ibrahim, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said the total 1,411 Nigerian registered delegates at the summit weren’t enough.
“Funding (over) 400 people to a conference like this is too small. You may want to host the conference sometimes in future,” Ibrahim said during a live appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Monday.
He said the number of delegates has an influence on knowledge sharing at the event, adding that Nigeria was suffering from the impact of environmental pollution.
Ibrahim said President Bola Tinubu signed many multimillion-dollar bilateral deals at the summit in Nigeria’s interest.
The lawmaker said the international community won’t take Tinubu as serious if he was in Dubai with a lean delegation.
On the plans by the government to borrow to fund the 2024 Budget, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim agreed that the Federal Government must borrow money to run the country’s economy effectively.
“If you don’t borrow to run the economy, what do you want to do? Where do you want to get the funds to run the economy? Dubai, with a population of 12 million people in total, owes 168 billion dollars and look at what they have used the money to do? They are paying back now at 10 billion dollars a month.
“Now, Nigeria, with a population of 250 million people, is owing 77 million dollars, now you have challenges here and there. So, the key issue here has to do with the fact that you must borrow to run the economy,” Ibrahim stressed.
The lawmaker said that borrowing will help the Federal Government to build critical infrastructure which will enable it to repay the loan in the long run.
