Reuben Abati Lied: President Jonathan Did Lead 600-Man Delegation To 2013 UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Confesses


Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bashir Wali, has confirmed that President Goodluck Jonathan did lead a massive 600-man delegation to the United Nations General Assembly last year, as reported at that time by SaharaReporters.

It was the world’s largest, he also confirmed.  He described the size of Nigeria’s delegations to the General Assembly every year as “embarrassing.”

Mr. Wali, a former Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, made the startling disclosures yesterday in Abuja while addressing heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

In the Minister’s words, 80% of the people in the delegation have no business being on them, and do not add any value.

SaharaReporters broke the story on September 22, 2013, disclosing disclosed that the delegation included including an inner circle of about 26 people.  It was bloated by about 547 civil servants drawn from the MDAs, who overran some of New York City’s priciest hotels. 

Our story was immediately denounced by presidential spokesman Reuben Abati as lacking “substance,” and “a continuation today by Saharareporters.com of its usual scurrilous and baseless attacks” on Mr. Jonathan’s administration.

“There is also no substance to the rehashed charge of profligacy which Sahara reporters annually make against the President when he leads Nigeria’s delegation to the UN General Assembly,” he said in a statement, asserting that the delegation was “less than 30” persons.

“Other than them, the only other persons who are in New York for the UN General Assembly with the President’s knowledge and approval are relevant ministers and few essential aides,” Abati said, adding that Mr. Jonathan’s delegation was not out of proportion with Nigeria’s size, role and relevance in Africa and the global community.

“Sahara Reporters’ claim that the President’s delegation is the largest at this year’s General Assembly is an unjustifiable fabrication which can never stand any rigorous test of truthfulness,” the spokesman said.  “We are certainly aware that many Nigerian citizens are currently on visits to New York. These persons are here for their own purposes and neither President Jonathan nor his administration has any responsibility for the presence of these persons in New York.

“We will not be surprised if it is such persons who include Nigerian businessmen who are here for an African Business Roundtable event, members of non-governmental organizations and tourists that SaharaReporters  has been counting, for the sole purpose of mischief-making, as “members of the Nigerian delegation,” he also said. 

Mr. Abati dismissed what he called “SaharaReporters’ usual fare of mischief, outright falsehood and erroneous speculation,” saying he wanted to “affirm for the benefit of the unwary that there is absolutely no truth in the allegation that the President took a 600-man delegation to New York.”

Shoving Abati’s very words back at him, Ambassador Wali’s remarks not only vindicated our report, it put it in perspective. 

“The size of Nigeria’s delegation to the United Nations General Assembly last year was 567; that is something that is certainly way, way out; certainly it is unacceptable. On that basis I asked that they send me the list of three countries: Germany, South Africa and Egypt, to compare with what we in Nigeria have. None of them is up to one third of our own delegation,” the Minister said.

He regretted that not even China with a population of over one billion people can compare with the number of delegates that Nigeria sends to the event annually, confirming that Nigeria did have the largest of all the delegations to New York in 2013.

What is worse, the ambassador observed that 80 per cent of Nigeria’s vast delegations to the General Assembly do not add any value to the team’s work at the assembly.

“So, you can see that there is certainly need to really take a second look and see that those of our delegates that go the UN General Assembly do have value. It is not a question of having a jamboree, but indeed, it is more like a jamboree.

“I happen to have observed for four years as Nigeria’s ambassador to the UN, the delegation of Nigeria to the UN General Assembly. So, I know and if we are going to be honest to ourselves, I know that 80 per cent of the delegates that go from Nigeria do not add value to our team to the UN.”

Mr. Wali assured that his ministry was working to ensure that the country has value for money, stressing that there ought to be some measure of accountability and responsibility on the part of Nigeria’s delegates.

He is now awaiting the approval of President Jonathan to place a ceiling on the number of delegates that will be in New York this year, he said, declaring that Nigeria can “certainly” not afford a 567-man delegation.

“It is certainly something we will have to take a second look at again and see how we can look credible when it comes to issues like this,” the minister said.

It is an open secret that Nigeria’s public servants seize every opportunity to travel abroad on bogus official assignments, including meaningless workshops, seminars and conferences, as a ruse for collecting generous travel allowances known as estacode. Some of them do not even bother to show up at such events, preferring to shop, visit relatives or attend to other private businesses.

The 69th General Assembly opens next Tuesday, September 16.  The annual general debate will begin the following week, and President Jonathan is expected to be there.   

Nigeria’s 2014 budget proposal presented to the National Assembly on December 19, 2013 by Finance Minister Ngozi Ikonjo-Iweala showed capital expenditure of only 27 percent of the total.  The other 73 per cent would go into feeding the recurrent monster, including greedy and corrupt officials.

Source: http://saharareporters.com/2014/09/10/reuben-abati-lied-president-jonathan-did-lead-600-man-delegation-2013-un-general-assembly

People, are about throwing tantrums at SaharaReporters now!

A word is enough for the wise... Nothing will stop me from voting out this govt.

All lies

Sahalie reporters and their lies again. Soon you'd see the minister say he never said anything like that.

They knew we have caught them out on their Boko haram propaganda now they have resorted to the BS of 600 man propaganda.

Sahalie reporters, I know you'd see this as you've got several monikers on Nairaland. Have you run out of Boko haram news already? Yele Sowore shall be judged not just by posterity but by the punches from people he has deceived.