Poor and indebted as the Nigeria government claims the country is, she has third largest delegation to the climate change conference ongoing in Dubai, the United Arab Emirate. She equals the delegation of one of her creditors and one of the world’s richest countries, China.
The government has come under lacerating criticism on social media, with many pointing out the whopping cost of paying the return tickets, accommodating the delegation, and paying the estacode for the government officials that were on the trip.
One of the commentators is Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 Election, Peter Obi, who admonished Nigeria to strive to compete with China in the area of production and not on the size of delegations to a specialized conference of experts.
Obi in a series of tweets in his X handle on Sunday in reaction to the trending large number of Nigeria delegations to the United Nations, COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates decried the waste and wrong imitation of a country dutifully pulling their people out of poverty.
But in a satirical response to the size of Nigeria’s contingent Obi said “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.
The LP standard bearer noted that 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. 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. Nigeria has more people living in ‘Multi-Dimensional’ poverty than China, despite China having seven times our population.
“Most importantly, the vast majority of those in the Nigerian delegation to COP28 are either non-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 at public expense and 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 an addition to our government and nation. We urgently need to cut the cost of governance and invest in production.
Obi finally stated that “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. He pointed out that a New Nigeria is possible but we only need to do the reasonable and the necessary.
Prestigious business newspaper, Businessday, did a report that showed what it might have cost government to finance what is currently being styled a jamboree.
Eagle online newspaper reports that the country has no fewer than 1,411 participants at the ongoing 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Codenamed: “COP28,” the United Nations-backed conference is ongoing in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
The number of Nigerians participating in the conference was disclosed by Statisense, a leading AI data company specialising in financial report analysis, bank statement evaluation, and AI chatbot services.
The registered participants under Nigeria, according to Statisense, showed that of the 1,411, the State House, led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has 138
Also represented at the conference are the National Assembly, Niger Delta Development Commission, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and State Governments among others.
Businessday reports that Tinubu arrived in Dubai with 1,411 delegates, according to a list by the UN Climate Change, making him the leader in Africa with the highest entourage and the third largest representation among global countries attending the conference.
COP28 which started on Thursday 30 November to end on Tuesday 12 December, is a 13-day event that is used by governments to agree on policies to limit global temperature rises and adapt to impacts associated with climate change. On Saturday, the Nigerian President shared the platform with Sultan Ahmed al-Jabar, President of COP28, John Kerry and the Chinese Envoy on Climate change President of COP28. The President who spoke on the need for participants to make commitments to the goal of limiting the earth’s temperature increase to 1.5C by the end of the century, said Nigeria has committed already.
“We have been doing so before today. We are committed to critical steps to reduce methane emissions by ensuring gas flaring is eliminated. There is a huge penalty for that. There is equally a huge incentive to do so,” Tinubu said.
However, back home, it is not Tinubu’s pledges that have Nigerians buzzing. His government continues to show that it cannot curb wasteful spending.
Of the 1,411 delegates, 590 were sponsored to attend the conference by the Nigerian government which is currently battling with record inflation, an out-of-control exchange rate, a ballooning debt profile, and millions of its citizens sliding into poverty. The total to-and-from flight ticket for the 590 delegates is estimated at N885 million.
BusinessDay arrived at the cost using flight rates from international airline operators. According to sources in the aviation sector who would not want to be mentioned, the federal government rarely charter local carriers when attending conferences outside the country. The government prefers to contract international flight operators and pay them in foreign currency for charter services, this is despite having local operators with approvals to fly directly to some of the countries. The President is known to use one of the 10 Presidential fleets while the rest of the entourage charter an international flight. The cost of maintaining each of the Presidential aircraft rose by 99.6 percent to N7.297 billion in 2019.
A check on the average international flight operator showed that a two-way flight ticket from Nigeria to Dubai will cost N1.5 million.
On the list of the Nigerian delegation include the President, 25 ministers, the chief of staff, about 5 director generals, several directors, deputy directors, assistant directors, and several officials with different titles. Gilbert Ramex Chagouri is listed among the ministers as ‘Confidente of the President’.
“This number of aides and officials is too many for just a meeting. President Tinubu keeps wasting our resources on frivolities. How many people will speak on behalf of Nigeria, that is if Mr President will be allowed to climb the podium,” Adewale Damilare said on his X account.
However, a source at the Presidency told BusinessDay that only seven ministers embarked on the Dubai trip. In a video trending online, Seyi Tinubu was seen entering the venue of the COP28 ahead of the President and his very large entourage. Apart from the cost of flight, it is also a normal practice by the Nigerian government to give per diem also called estacodes to those going with the President on any trip.
BusinessDay investigation found that the estacode each traveler receives depends on their level. Ministers are paid $900 per day as estacode which amounts to $11,7000 per minister for the 13 days the conference would be held. Permanent secretaries get $600, amounting to $7,800 for the same period. Officers of levels 15-17 receive $425 amounting to $5,525 in total. Levels 7-14 get $381 amounting to $4,953 and levels 1-6 get $206 amounting to $2,678 for the 13 days.
“COP28 is a 13-day event that will cost a lot more money in hotel accommodation than UNGA. It’ll be nice for Nigerians to know how much is spent in sponsoring Tinubu and all that accompanied him to COP28. Tinubu and 2 Ministers would’ve been more than enough for this trip given the current economic reality in the country,” said a Nigerian who goes by the name Brother Barth on X.
“Nigeria at COP-28. An entrance befitting a country that delivers 400,000MW to its people daily, utilising approximately 100bcf of gas daily, with a $4trn economy and arriving the Dubai meetings with 1,411-strong delegation of which 851 are delegates of various federal and state government entities, third largest behind China and Brazil. We will surely be a strong and persuasive voice for climate action at COP-28,” an energy consultant said describing what would have been an ideal situation.
Experts say it is unfortunate that the government does not recognise the importance of cutting down the high cost of governance, even when it has to borrow almost 100 percent to fund its budget. Nigeria is planning to spend N27.5 trillion in 2024, out of which the non-debt recurrent expenditure is N9.92 trillion while debt service is projected to be N8.25 trillion and capital expenditure is N8.7 trillion.
A list of the delegation shows that State House has 138
National Council on Climate Change: 54
Federal Min of Environment: 53
National Assembly: 36
NNPC: 28
Ministry of Foreign Affairs: 21
Ministry of Environment: 16
Lagos State Government: 14
NDDC: 13
Bank of Industry: 13
Ministry of Petroleum Resources: 12
Federal Capital Territory Authority: 11
NSIA: 9
Ministry of Environment & Climate Change: 9
Rural Electrification Agency: 9
Govt House, Kaduna: 9
Embassy of Nigeria Home-Based Office: 9
Ministry of Environment & Natural Resources: 8
Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs: 8
Ecologistics: 8
Zoetic Global: 7
NASENI: 7
NEA Engineers: 7
Nigerian Midstream & DPRA: 7
Federal Min of Transportation: 7
Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission: 6
Min of Niger Delta Affairs: 6
SMEDAN: 6
National Population Commission: 6
Sustainable Development Goals, Nigeria: 6
Niger State Govt: 6
North-East Development Commission: 6
Climate Wednesday: 6
Cross river State Govt: 6
DEPOWA: 6
Federal Min of Labour & Employment: 6
Federal Min of Power: 6
African Union Development Agency: 6
Formal Act Legacy Ltd: 6
Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project: 6
African Aviation & Aerospace University, Abuja: 6
Environmental Health Council of Nigeria: 6
Nigerian Maritime Admin & Safety Agency Vivacity: 5
Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones Program: 5
Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas: 5
Oando Clean Energy: 5
Nigeria Labour Congress: 5
African Finance Corporation: 5
InfraCorp: 5
Federal Min of Environ ACReSAL: 5
Borno State Govt: 5
Gas Aggregation Company Nigeria, Ltd: 5
FCCPC: 5
Office of the SSG: 4
National Agency for the Great Green Wall: 4
Presidency: 4
Natural Eco Capital Ltd: 4
Min of Budget & Econ Planning: 4
Sahara Group: 4
Zamfara State Govt: 4
#Statisense (COP28)
● Additional reports by Eagle Online, Businessday