Emmanuel Abi Couson
Amidst the controversy and public outcry of the Nigerian 1,411 delegation to the COP 28 Climate Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Federal Government said it funded 422 persons to the event.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, made this known in a statement on Monday 4 December.
Earlier on Sunday December 3 President Bola Tinubu’s Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, said only a handful of the 1,411 Nigerian delegates who registered to attend the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, are sponsored by the Federal Government.
This was, as it said, a bulk of the contingents comprised private sector players such as business people, Civil Society Organisations and delegates from Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta region.
It also argued that the delegates are at the Summit to promote their respective causes and not for a jamboree.
“It is important to state here that delegates from all countries, whether from government, private sector, media and civil society groups, attend COP summits and conferences as parties and the number of attendees, He said.
The Federal Government funded 422 persons to the ongoing COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has said.
President Bola Tinubu had on November 29, 2023, departed Abuja for Dubai for the summit expected to end on December 12, 2023.
Controversy has since surrounded the number of Nigerian delegates at the summit which ranked that of China, with many Nigerians on social media berating the government for being “insensitive” to their economic sufferings occasioned by the removal of petrol subsidy in mid-2023.
