The flagbearer of the Labour Party within the 2023 presidential polls, Peter Obi, has criticised Nigeria’s 1411-member delegation to the continuing UN local weather summit in Dubai.
In an announcement on Sunday by way of his X account, Obi stated, “In a twist of unhappy irony, let me congratulate the enormous of Africa, Nigeria, for matching the nice China, with the identical variety of contingents at COP28 in Dubai.
“While China’s budget for 2024 is about $4 trillion, Nigeria’s budget is about $33 billion. Most importantly, the vast majority of those in the Nigerian delegation…are either non-relevant civil servants or relations, friends and hangers-on of high government officials,” he lamented.
Obi queried the rationale behind the massive contingent attending the summit at public expense when “most of them hardly understand or have anything to do with climate change,” whilst “most Nigerians can hardly afford food and basic needs.”
The former Anambra State governor hoped “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 citizens out of poverty.”
“As we have kept emphasising, we must stop waste as a tradition of our government and nation. We need to tie spending to necessity and national priority,” Obi suggested.
He reiterated that “a new Nigeria is possible. We only need to do the reasonable and necessary.”
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