- Obi, Others Kick, Fault FG’s Large Delegate To Event
- Say It Is ‘Waste Of Resources Amid Hardship’
- Presidential Aide Defends Large Number, Says They Are Not There On A Jambore
- Not all Delegates are Sponsored By Government- presidential Aide
The Federal Government of Nigeria and the Presidency have come under severe criticism from the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi and other Nigerians over the alleged large number of government delegates at the ongoing COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The former Anambra State governor lamented the waste of resources amid biting hardship in the country.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the ex-governor of Anambra State, described sending over 1,000 persons to the summit as a waste of scarce resources by the Tinubu administration.
Obi wondered about the need for the “huge contingent” in Dubai at public expense at a time when most Nigerians can hardly afford food and basic needs.
“Nigeria’s contingent to COP28 totalled 1411, the same number as the Chinese contingents. While China’s budget for 2024 is about $4 trillion, about $2,860 per head; Nigeria’s budget is about $33 billion, about $165 per head,” Obi said.
“Nigeria has more people living in ‘Multi-Dimensional’ poverty than China, despite China having seven times our population.”
Obi said a majority of those in the Nigerian delegation to COP28 are either non-relevant civil servants or relations of high government officials.
“This huge contingent is out at public expense at a time when most Nigerians can hardly afford food and basic needs as a result of economic hardship.
“As we have kept emphasizing, we must stop waste as a tradition of our government and nation. We urgently need to cut the cost of governance and invest in production.
“We need to de-emphasize unnecessary ceremony and showmanship as a mode of government behaviour. We need to tie spending to necessity and national Priority. A New Nigeria is possible. We only need to do the reasonable and the necessary.”
Similarly, a Professor of Political Science, Jideofor Adibe, also knocked the Federal Government over its “bloated” number of delegates at the event.
Adibe, who spoke on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, said, that with over 1,000 delegates sponsored by the government to the two-week summit, the compassion of the President Bola Tinubu administration to the hardship faced by Nigerians was doubtful.
Adibe lamented that with the harsh economy, the Tinubu administration should lead by example and cut cost of governance.
He said, “Amid the binge on loans and borrowings, and the increasing hardship and increasing emigration of Nigerians, these things happening, is not just that it raises the question about fidelity to cutting down the cost of governance, but also the question of whether there is even compassion for suffering Nigerians because if there is compassion for what is going on in the country at the moment, people (government officials) should also be sensitive to the optics about the whole thing.”
The analyst said not just the costs of flights of the officials in Dubai were funded by the government but their “Estacodes of about $900” daily and hotel costs for about two weeks of the summit.
The professor said the size of the President’s delegation should be on specific roles and it should not be more than three ministers.
He urged the President to set the tone that his administration abhors waste by sanctioning officials responsible for the large delegation in Dubai.
Meanwhile, a presidential aide, Temitope Ajayi, in a comment on Sunday, defended the delegation of the President to the summit, saying that “President Tinubu and other officials on the Federal government delegation are in Dubai for serious business not jamboree”.
“Multifaceted stakeholders from different countries including Nigeria are on the ground in Dubai because they don’t want decisions that will affect them to be taken without pushing their own agenda. It is the reason delegates from China and Brazil are over 3000 respectively.
China is one of the world’s biggest polluters and Brazil is at the centre of global climate debate with her Amazon rainforest. These two countries know important decisions that will affect them will be taken and they have to move everything to be fully on the ground and ensure they are fully represented by their best brains at every level of discussion and negotiation.
“Like former President Muhammadu Buhari and other African leaders who demanded fair deal and climate justice for Africa at previous UN Climate summits, President Tinubu is leading the charge at COP28 on behalf of Nigeria and the rest of the continent, demanding from the West that any climate decision and action must be fair and just to Africa and Nigeria in particular, especially the debate around energy transition.
President Tinubu has been unequivocal in his position that Africa which is battling problems of poverty, security and struggling to provide education and healthcare to her people cannot be told to abandon its major source of income which is mostly from extractive industries without the West providing the funding and investment in alternative and clean energy sources.
President Tinubu and other officials on the Federal government delegation are in Dubai for serious business not jamboree. Our President has been very busy representing our country well. Since Thursday morning when he arrived in Dubai, President Tinubu has spent not less than 18 hours daily in attending very important sessions, pushing our national agenda whilst holding bilateral and business meetings on the sidelines” he disclosed.
