President Bola Tinubu travelled to the United Arab Emirates for a climate summit with over 1,400 delegates from Nigeria.
According to the United Nations, this year’s Conference of the Parties will be held from November 30 to December 12 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
By taking 1400 delegates, Nigeria has the highest number of registered delegates from Africa at the ongoing COP28 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
According to a list published by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Nigeria is also third-highest overall in number of delegates at the conference.
The body released a list of participants from Nigeria who would be taking part in the event, which ranged from people in the president’s office to private, non-governmental groups in Lagos and other parts of the country.
Of these, at least 589 people followed the president directly to the conference, including cabinet ministers and their aides. Civil servants are also on the list, including some officials whose purviews did not cover climate policy, like an interior ministry aide in charge of personnel management.
The UAE accounted for the largest-ever registered delegation of any country, with 4,409 badges, followed by Brazil with 3,081.
Nigeria and China are joint third with 1,411 badges each.
The president’s son, Seyi, who has no official designation and was recently warned by his father to stop meddling in government functions, was also at the conference on public dole.
While the list also includes the media and non-governmental organisations, it was unclear how many of them were funded by the public.
But representatives of media organisations like the NTA, NAN, VON, and Radio Nigeria, among others, are already government employees and would be funded by the taxpayers of the UAE.
The UN said Nigeria has the third-largest delegation to the event, behind only China and Brazil, which both have significant input in global climate policies than Nigeria. Nigeria’s delegation surpassed the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, according to UN disclosures.
