The Federal Government on Monday clarified that it funded 422 delegates to the ongoing climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

 The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference is the 28th edition and is holding from November 30, 2023 to December 12, 2023 at Expo City.

There have been criticisms over the 1,411 delegates Nigeria allegedly sent to the event at a time the government is advising Nigerians to cut cost as well as dwindling economic fortunes.

In his official response to the criticisms, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris on Monday, pointed out that “The overall Nigerian delegation to COP-28 comprised of Government-sponsored (Federal and State Governments) and non-government-sponsored participants (from Private Companies, Non-Governmental Organisations, Civil Society Organisations, media, academia, etc).”

According to the breakdown of the government-funded delegates contained in a statement signed by the minister himself, “32 delegates were from the National Council on Climate Change; 34 from the Federal Ministry of Environment; 167 delegates from All Ministries; 67 from presidency; nine from the office of the Vice President; 40 from the National Assembly; and 73 from the Federal parastatals/agencies.”

This came as Idris added that President Bola Tinubu and other officials were in Dubai for ‘serious business’ and not for jamboree.

 He said, “President Tinubu has been unequivocal in his position that Africa, which is battling problems of poverty and security and struggling to provide education and healthcare to her people, cannot be told to abandon its primary source of income, which is mostly from extractive industries, without the West providing the funding and investment in alternative and clean energy sources.

“Since assuming office, President Tinubu has been a vocal champion for the African continent on the global stage, whether at the United Nations General Assembly, the G-20, or the ongoing COP-28. The President has been supported by an equally active and engaged Nigerian delegation at these various fora.

“It is therefore, essential to keep setting the records straight while assuring Nigerians that President Tinubu and other officials on the Federal Government delegation are in Dubai for serious business, not a jamboree.”

However, there has been concerns that Tinubu did not make any speech at the ongoing conference. This has led to speculations on the social media and other platforms.

In its reaction, the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party said that it was not surprised that Tinubu did not deliver his scheduled address at the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference, otherwise known as the Conference of Parties, COP 28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

 The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Olagunagba, in an interview with our correspondent said Tinubu and All Progressives Congress-led Federal government had no plan for Nigerians.

 Ologunagba who berated the President for embarking on the trip with bloated government delegates lamented that the President was nowhere to be found when it mattered the most.

He said “This government has no plan for anything and we are not surprised. They started this a long time ago. President Tinubu did it before and during the 2023 Presidential election. He’s not interested in engaging with Nigerians.

“Recall that during the election, he didn’t show up in all the debates. So the man is not concerned about Nigeria, he has no idea. To him, everything is about self-fulfillment, not about the people.

“So what he has done in Dubai is not far from what his known for. During the campaign, he didn’t answer Nigerians questions. He didn’t speak with Nigerians. So we are just a number, that he does not think he holds us any responsibility to account.”

Meanwhile, the chief spokesman for the Labour Party Campaign Organisation, Yunusa Tanko, has expressed concern over President Tinubu’s failure to give a speech at the ongoing climate change summit.

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Tanko, who objected to the president’s action via a phone interview with one of our correspondents on Monday, stated that it was also possible that the nation’s first citizen probably doesn’t have a concrete idea to sell to such a serious gathering of climate change experts.

He said, “Tinubu probably didn’t have anything to say because he doesn’t even have grasp of what climate change is. If they know, what has his government done internally about it the country? Are they fully aware of what climate change fully represents?

“For instance, for the very first time, we have rain come in November in Abuja. The rain came at a time we ought to be having harmattan that we are used to. Most of our farmers are used to having rain from at least June, July to August. Now it is being elongated and there is need to understand the implication. This is an example of what we call climate change and these are some of the basic things being envisaged by proponents of climate change.

“There is also the problem of desertification and the need for tree planting to consider. If a leader is not knowledgeable about it, he may get confused on what the investors and probably technology driven individuals are able to do in terms of mitigation in their own countries.”

 A professor of Theoretical and Applied Climatology, University of Uyo, Micheal Ekaenem, said the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, represented the team for COP28, hence he was supposed to speak.

He said, “represented the team for COP28, hence he should speak, if he does not speak, it means that Nigeria has not spoken. Unless he delegated someone to speak, but if Nigeria was not speaking at all through the president, we just went there for a jamboree. We are the country that pays the most tax, so we should be very vocal in the COP28, he should have delegated to the Minister of Environment to speak, and it is understandable.

“If Nigeria is not speaking or negotiating, what is the essence of going there with over 1,411 delegates?”

Meanwhile, the ruling All progressives Congress has urged opposition and critics of President Bola Tinubu to give him a breather, insisting that he is not mandated to give a speech.

The party said, “As a party, it is not in our manifesto to be presenting speeches in public conscience. Ours is to pack and bring the dividend of democracy to the people. We have already marketed a candidate and he has won. He is supposed to implement his own agenda. We can only call on him if there is a deviation from the laid down agenda of the party.

“But in this case, only the presidential spokespersons can tell you why Tinubu wasn’t there to deliver his speech if at all he is programmed to deliver one. I don’t know the president’s schedule. But occasion of this nature is not a town hall where you necessarily must speak to one audience at any particular point in time. There are sideline discussions that normally hold and you cannot expect to do them concurrently.

“As a party, we don’t take speech making as top of our priorities or policies. We prepare for programmes that will bring dividends to the people and make sure that it takes them to the next level. And we don’t have to do that through the microphone. Besides, we can only come in if this were to be a conference of political parties and not that of global world leaders.”