Some Nigerians have castigated the 1,411 Nigerian delegation at the ongoing COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, forcing the Presidency to counter the claim.
Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in 2023 elections, Mr Peter Obi and a one-time Special Assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri criticised the high number of Nigerian delegates, the third highest at COP28, amidst the economic suffering of millions of citizens due to government policies, including the rising cost fuel and food.
Obi on Sunday in a post on his X handle sarcastically congratulate Nigeria for having the same number of delegations like China’s.
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“In a twist of sad irony, let me congratulate the giant of Africa, Nigeria, for matching the great China, with the same number of contingents at the ongoing COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Nigeria’s contingent to COP28 totaled 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 $33bn, about $165 per head. China has a high Human Development Index, HDI, with a ranking of 79 out of 191 countries measured, and Nigeria has a low HDI, with a ranking of 163 out of 191 countries measured,” Obi said.
He noted that Nigeria has more people living in ‘multi-dimensional’ poverty than China, despite China having seven times Nigeria’s population.
He said, “Most importantly, the vast majority of those in the Nigerian delegation to COP28 are either not relevant civil servants or relations, friends and hangers-on of high government officials. Most of them hardly understand or have anything to do with Climate Change.
“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. I pray earnestly that a day will come soon enough when we can focus on competing with China on productivity and the miracle of migrating the highest number of its citizens out of poverty over a relatively short time.
“As we have kept emphasizing, we must stop waste as a a tradition of our government and nation. We urgently need to cut the cost of governance and invest in production.”
The former Anambra State governor said Nigeria need to de-emphasize unnecessary ceremony and showmanship as a mode of government behaviour and to tie spending to necessity and national Priority.
However, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Temitope Ajayi, said that Nigeria’s 1,411 delegates at the ongoing COP28 in Dubai were not all government-funded.
In a statement on Sunday, the presidential aide said that the Nigeria delegation include civil society actors, business persons and others who have different roles to play at the conference.
Ajayi said the Nigerian delegation include business leaders, environmentalists, climate activists and journalists.
He, however, did not state the exact number of delegates being funded by the government amidst speculations that over 600 were government-funded.
“In Nigeria like so many other countries, interested parties comprising government officials from both the Federal and sub-national governments, business leaders, environmentalists, climate activists and journalists are present in Dubai. Also participating are agencies of government such as the NNPC and its subsidiaries, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, NIMASA, NDDC.
“Many youth organisations from Nigeria especially from the Northern and Niger-Delta regions whose lives and livelihoods are most impacted by desert encroachment and hydrocarbon activities are also represented.
“The President of Ijaw Youth Council, Jonathan Lokpobiri, leads a pan-Ijaw delegation of more than 15 people who registered as parties from Nigeria. Among delegates from Nigeria are also over 20 journalists from various media houses,” Ajayi said.
Meanwhile, Omokri said that anyone who believes that President Tinubu used public funds to pay for the 1400 delegates who travelled to Dubai for the COP28 climate summit with him, has ‘’below-average intelligence.”
Reno stated that on his Instagram page some hours ago. He wrote ‘’If you actually believe that President Tinubu used public funds to pay for 1400 Nigerians to be on his entourage to #COP28 , then you have below-average intelligence. Are these not the same lies that @SaharaReporters told you and made you vote out President Jonathan, only to start suffering under Buhari, and only for Buhari to arrest and detain the same Sowore, whose lies enabled him to become President? Now, Sowore is trending #FreeSowore. It is alright to hate President Tinubu. But at least engage your brain before believing every propaganda you see from notoriously dishonest media like @arisetvafrica and Sahara Reporters.
UAE largest delegation
The UAE has registered the largest delegation of any party, totalling 4,409 participants – including overflow badges. Even without overflow badges – which hugely swell delegation size – UAE’s group of 620 would be its largest in COP history.
The UAE’s registered delegation at COP27 last year was potentially larger at 1,073 people, but just 436 attended, according to the final lists, putting it second-largest behind Brazil’s delegation of 467.
Brazil has again registered a large delegation for this year’s COP – 3,081 participants including overflow badges – meaning it is only behind UAE for overall delegation size.
Other delegations surpassing 1,000 include China and Nigeria who have both registered 1,411 people, followed by Indonesia with 1,229, Japan 1,067 and Turkey with 1,045.
(It is worth noting that some countries allocate some of their party badges to NGOs, which can artificially inflate the size of their official delegation.)
At the other end of the scale, the smallest delegations have been registered by North Korea (two), Nicaragua (six), Eritrea (seven) and Liechtenstein and Moldova (both eight).
For the third year in a row, both Afghanistan and Myanmar have not registered a delegation to the COP, while San Marino is also not present on the provisional lists this year.
The map and chart below present the delegation size – split between party and overflow badges – for all the countries registered for COP27. The darker the shading, the more delegates that country has signed up. Mouse over the countries to see the number of delegates and the population size.
