Nigerians have stepped into the controversy regarding the number of delegates from the country at the COP 28 Climate Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
It would be recalled that reports emerged over the weekend that the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was accompanied by 1,411 Nigerians to the UAE event, triggering various reactions across the country.
Flagbearer of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential polls, Peter Obi, queried the rationale behind the huge contingent attending the summit at public expense, saying most of the delegates hardly understand or have anything to do with climate change,” even as “most Nigerians can hardly afford food and basic needs.”
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, also shared his criticism, saying that President Tinubu turned the global change summit into an ‘Owambe’ all-comers jamboree with his large entourage.
To gauge the reactions of the masses, RoyalTimes spoke to various Nigerians and Amedu tagged the number of entourage as a waste of time, “I think it’s a waste of resources. Climate change per se is not a bad conference. We keep learning. We have the responsibility to keep learning. But sending such a large number of people is a waste of resources because in Nigeria now, many of us have not even gotten our salary. Many workers are suffering. I retired 13 years ago. Up till now, I’ve not been paid by the federal government. How can you be sending such a large number of people to a conference to waste our resources there? It’s unreasonable.”
Amedu’s statement was backed by a clergyman, Pastor Arinsoyin who in his submission said it was a waste of human resources, “What the federal government has done is a waste of human resources because so many people are suffering. So many people have not eaten once. We’re supposed to eat at least 3 times a day, but the majority are meeting the demand of eating thrice a day for once. It’s an economic waste. The federal government has done the wrong thing and what is going to be the benefit of that program in Dubai?”
The PDP in its reaction, challenged the Presidency to “come clean by making public the names of the official delegation sponsored by the Federal Government to the conference”.
It stressed that the relevance of such individuals to the conference and the total cost of such sponsorship on the nation should be revealed.
Swinging towards a different direction, Samuel opined that the President is looking at ways to help the nation.
“Mr. President taking a large number of contingents to Dubai to attend a meeting on climate change, I don’t think that it affects the Nigerian economy as a whole because Nigeria’s economy has not been balanced for 2 decades now and if you look at it, it’s not him that started the problems. He was trying to correct the errors.”
“If I may say it, Mr. President has said it clear and okay in his speech that he is not going to welcome the fuel subsidy and he went straight forward to remove the fuel subsidy. I think he is working towards easing and making the economy of Nigeria to be alright. And by traveling with the contingents to the UAE, I think they can solicit more investors for the country and make things better for the citizens.”
Anthony also towed the same line as Samuel saying, “There’s nothing bad there. Just to exchange ideas with each other. If Nigeria has the money to send the people to that place, to bring more knowledge, it’s okay. There’s nothing bad there for me.”
The Presidency through one of its aides, Temitope Ajayi, said the government did not sponsor all the delegates, adding that there are several delegates from the private sector, media, and civil society groups that attend COP summits.
Join our twitter community :