Former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi has berated Nigeria’s 1411-member delegation to the ongoing UN climate summit in Dubai.
In a series of tweets posted on
his X handle on Sunday, Obi expressed a sad irony, stating, "Allow me to
extend congratulations to Nigeria, often referred to as the giant of Africa,
for equalling the significant presence of China at the ongoing COP28 in Dubai,
United Arab Emirates. Nigeria's contingent at COP28 numbered 1411, mirroring
the quantity of Chinese participants."
Obi said 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.
He stated that China has a high
Human Development Index, HDI, with a ranking of 79 out of 191 countries
measured, and that 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 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,” he said.
According to Obi, “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. A New Nigeria is possible. We only need to do
the reasonable and the necessary.”
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