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From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, (LP), in the 2023 Election, Peter Obi, has called out President Bola Tinubu over the large number of delegates that went with him to the COP28, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Reports from Dubai show that Nigeria equals China with 1411 contingents to the conference, the highest in the global event aside from the host UAE.
Reacting in a series of tweets via his X (formerly twitter) handle over the weekend, Obi 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.
The former Anambra governor decried the waste and wrong imitation of a country dutifully pulling their people out of poverty.
He noted that Nigeria has more people living in ‘Multi-Dimensional’ poverty than China, despite China having seven times our population.
According to him, “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.
“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 further stressed that the country needed to de-emphasize unnecessary ceremony and showmanship as a mode of government behaviour.
“We need to tie spending to necessity and national Priority pointing out that a New Nigeria is possible but we only need to do the reasonable and the necessary.” He stated.”
