An analyst on the Channels TV Sunday Politics Show, Jideofor Adibe, who is a Professor of Political Science has knocked the Presidency over its “bloated” number of delegates at the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Adibe said that 1411 Nigerian delegates that accompanied President Tinubu to the ongoing Climate Summit in Dubai cast doubt on the Federal Government’s ‘compassion’ for the suffering masses.
The professor said that going with over a thousand delegates to the summit was a clear depiction of the high cost of governance that the President has repeatedly vowed to cut down.
- He said, “Amid the binge on loans and borrowings, and the increasing hardship and increasing emigration of Nigerians, these things happening, is not just that it raises the question about fidelity to cutting down the cost of governance, but also the question of whether there is even compassion for suffering Nigerians because if there is compassion for what is going on in the country at the moment, people (government officials) should also be sensitive to the optics about the whole thing.”
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Adibe asserted that the government funded the transportation of the delegates from Nigeria to Dubai.
Also, the analyst said that the government will pay daily “Estacodes of about $900” for the delegates, as well as hotel costs for them for about two weeks of the summit.
According to the professor, delegates that ought to accompany the President should be experts on specific roles and no more than three ministers should accompany the president to international events such as the COP 28 Climate Summit in Dubai.
Adibe urged President Tinubu to walk the talk of cutting down the cost of government by sanctioning officials responsible for the large delegation in Dubai.
