Obi to FG on COP28 team: Your citizens are world’s poorest, you are most wasteful

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Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 Election, Mr. Peter Obi has lambasted the federal government for wastefulness, wondering why Nigeria competes with China on the volume of delegation to the COP28 world climate change conference in Dubai.

Obi chided the Nigerian government and challenged it not to just imitate China in sending a large delegation, but also copy them in being productive.

He questioned why China which is buoyant enough to operate a $4 trillion budget came with a large team and Nigeria was the next with its paltry budget that even runs on deficit from the outset.

In a series of tweets in his X handle on Sunday, the former Anambra State governor accused the federal government of “waste and wrong imitation of a country dutifully pulling their people out of poverty.”

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.

Accordingly, the 2023 main contender in the presidential election 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 behavior.



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