Nigeria at COP28: Separating the facts from fiction
By Temitope Ajayi
The number of delegates from Nigeria attending the ongoing Climate Summit in Dubai otherwise called COP28 has generated a lot of controversies and strong social media conversations in the last 24 hours. It is important to set the record straight and provide some clarity. To begin with, the Summit is tagged COP which means Convention of Parties. The ongoing Summit in Dubai with over 97,000 delegates from more than 100 countries around the world is the 28th in the series since the issue of climate change and action took preeminent stage in global affairs. COP27 took place at Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt last year.
When the world comes together to take actions on achieving a common goal and proffer collective solutions to a nagging global concern, there are parties involved from government, private sector, civil society, media and multilateral institutions. The people coming together to advance their different agenda and interests from governments, businesses and civil societies are the parties to the convention who represent various shades of opinions and pushing for various mitigating actions.
In Nigeria like so many other countries, interested parties comprising government officials from both the Federal and sub-national governments, business leaders, environmentalists, climate activists and journalists are present in Dubai. Also participating. are agencies of government such as the NNPC and its subsidiaries, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, NIMASA, NDDC. Many youth organisations from Nigeria especially from the Northern and Niger-Delta regions whose lives and livelihoods are most impacted by desert encroachment and hydrocarbon activities are also represented. The President of Ijaw Youth Council, Jonathan Lokpobiri, leads a pan-Ijaw delegation of more than 15 people who registered as parties from Nigeria. Among delegates from Nigeria are also over 20 journalists from various media houses.
Their participation is very important. It is not for jamboree as it is being mischievously represented on social media.
It is important to state here that delegates from all countries whether from government, private sector, media and civil society groups attend COP summits and conferences as parties and the number of attendees are registered against their countries of origin. This does not mean that they are sponsored or funded by the government. It must be said also that the fact that people registered to attend a conference does not also mean everyone that registered are physically present.
As the biggest country in Africa, biggest economy and one with a bigger stake on climate action as a country with huge extractive economy, it is a no-brainer that delegates from Nigeria will be more than any other country in Africa.
Among the delegates from Nigeria are UBA Chairman, Tony Elumelu, Abdul Samad Rabiu, Chairman of BUA group, and other billionaires whose businesses are promoting sustainability and climate actions through their philanthropies. These businessmen and women and their staff who came with them to promote their own business interests are part of the 1,411 delegates. from Nigeria. Their trip to Dubai is not funded by the Federal Government.
United Nations Climate summit, by its very nature, commands attendance of big names from across the world – statesmen and women, politicians, lawmakers, corporate titans, journalists and activists, etc who promote big global agenda. So, people attend the summit for many reasons. And because climate issue is the biggest global issue of the moment, it is not surprising that over 97,000 people including Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, King Charles of United Kingdom, Prime Minister of Netherlands, Mark Rutte, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, US Special Envoy on Climate Change and former Secretary of State, John Kerry, President Bola Tinubu, United Nations Secretary General, Antonio. Guterres, World Bank President, Ajay Banga, International Monetary Fund President, Kristalina Georgieva, World Trade Organisation Director General, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Africa Development Bank President, Akinwumi Adesina, former US Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Al Gore and almost 100 Heads of States and Governments converged on Dubai for COP28. It is the first of its kind in the history of the summit because of the importance of climate change to global well-being.
After the opening and national statements by Heads of States which began from November 30 when the summit opened and up until Saturday December 2, 2023, the real work of COP28 which are the technical sessions and negotiations, financing, etc will begin from Monday, December 4 till December 12 where agreements will be reached on many proposals for consideration and ratification by the parties.
Those with sufficient understanding and knowledge on climate matters know that issues around the subject have. layers and multiplicity of factors that require experts from various fields. There are lined-up technical sessions on financing climate actions at sub-national levels, regions and local governments. State Governors from Nigeria such as Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, Umo Eno of Akwa-Ibom have been really busy with their officials at COP28, making presentations, speaking at panel sessions and pitching some of their sustainability projects to development partners and investors.
Multifaceted stakeholders from different countries including Nigeria are on ground in Dubai because they don’t want decisions that will affect them to be taken without pushing their own agenda. It is the reason delegates from China and Brazil are over 3000 respectively. China is one of the world biggest polluters and Brazil is at the centre of global climate debate with her Amazon rainforest. These two countries know important decisions that will affect them will be taken and they have to move everything to be fully on ground and ensure they are fully represented by their best brains at every level of discussion and negotiation.
Like former President Muhammadu Buhari and other African leaders who demanded fair deal and climate justice for Africa at previous UN Climate summits, President Tinubu is leading the charge at COP28 on behalf of Nigeria and the rest of the continent, demanding from the West that any climate decision and action must be fair and just to Africa and Nigeria in particular, especially the debate around energy transition. President Tinubu has been unequivocal in his position that Africa that is battling problems of poverty, security and struggling to provide education and healthcare to her people can not be told to abandon its major source of income which is mostly from extractive industries without the West providing the funding and investment in alternative and clean energy sources. President Tinubu and other officials on the Federal government delegation are in Dubai for serious business not jamboree. Our President has been very busy representing our country well. Since Thursday morning when he arrived Dubai, President Tinubu has spent not less than 18hours daily in attending very important sessions, pushing our national agenda whilst holding bilateral and business meetings on the sidelines.
-Ajayi is Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
DrTee1: The Pope came to Nigeria in March1998 for TWO reasons.
Everyone on this thread has repeatedly mentioned only one of the two.
First, as customary, he visited the Head of State, being that he is himself the Head of Government of an independent State - the Vatican.
Pope John Paul II took that visit to intercede on behalf of the many political prisoners in jail at the time. The included President Obasanjo and all those roped in the 1995 and 1997 "phantom" coups - but the most important political prisoner at the time was Chief M.K.O Abiola who had won the 1993 General election.
Thereafter, the Pope went to Aguleri in Anambra State for the Beatification of the late Monk who had died in 1960, Cyprian Iwene Tansi. Tansi is/was the first Nigerian to be so beatified.
In the Roman Catholic Faith, Beatification (from Latin beatus, "blessed" and facere, "to make" is a recognition accorded of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. Beati is the plural form, referring to those who have undergone the process of beatification; they possess the title of "Blessed", abbreviated as "Bl." before their names and are often referred to in English as "a Blessed" or, plurally, "Blesseds".
The question wasn't why did the Pope visit Nigeria. The question was why did he visit Abacha (and his family) and that's what I addressed. Of course I know that he came for the beatification of Cyprian Iwene Tansi.
id4sho: Nostalgic . Pope was at a three day crusade in Enugu. My father (RIP) went on special duty then . I was 8yrs then
MEN DON WAKA
Major-General Abdussalam Abubakar, General Sani Abacha, and Pope John Paul II in Abuja during the latter's papal visit to Nigeria, March 23, 1998. #HistoryVille
See the dreaded Major Hamza Al Mustapha behind
Naptu2 , who are those men behind
General Abdulsalam Abubakar, Colonel Abdallah and Major Al-Mustapha.
This was the second time that the Pope came to Nigeria. He came in 1982 and I remember everything that happened during the 1982 visit.
I think it's about time that out religious leaders do a background check of Nigerian politicians before paying them visits because the Late head of state, general sanni abacha is the biggest thief in Nigeria political history.
He came to give Abacha a list of detainees to release. There were a lot of political prisoners then and the Pope came with a list of people that he wanted Abacha to release.
Yampotatocarrot: Taking aside misinterpretation and the mischief that could be derived from what Jaafar said, he was correct... But looking at both sides, one realises it wasn't actually an unusual thing
That's exactly the point and it becomes very clear if you look at the reactions on the two threads and on other social media (in fact, look at EtinosaDLaw's funny post).
By the way, it's also not true that nothing was presented. The president usually submits just one hard copy, while the management of the National Assembly receives a soft copy with which it makes hard copies and distributes to senators and members.
Yampotatocarrot: But that also means the first report was correct, that said he presented an empty box... I don't see the confusion at all, did he present an empty box, YES... Next is to just explain that the hardcopy is still being printed for distribution...
So the reports weren't fake
I created both the first and second threads and these were the issues in the first report.
From Jaafar's tweet:
To my surprise, he said the president came with an EMPTY case! “
.
⬆️ That presented the idea that the President had done something unusual.
From the BBC report:
The budget presentation ceremony in Nigeria by the President of the country to the National Assembly has left behind dust, where some members of the parliament suspect that the President of the country deceived them and they said that he handed them the 2024 budget resolution.
However, credit to the BBC for also publishing the other side of the story:
'No cheating'
However, on the other hand, some members of the House of Representatives said that there was no deception in the presentation of the budget by President Bola Tinubu to the House.
Hon Sada Soli Jibia, who is a member of the House of Representatives, said that normally, the House must go through some steps before distributing the budget copies so that every member of the House can see what they contain.
However, Sada Soli said that as of Friday, they have not seen the budget, as according to him, "Until now, it is being printed in the printing house where documents are printed by the parliament."
He added that on Saturday the committee on the budget will meet with the leaders of the parliamentary committees, before each member of parliament will be given a copy of the budget.
As I said before, this controversy would not be a surprise to you if you have been following activities at the National Assembly for decades, as I have done. There have been similar controversies in the past.
In fact, there was a similar or even more serious controversy in December 2015, when President Muhammadu Buhari presented his first full budget to the National Assembly.
Just as President Tinubu has done, President Buhari presented one hard copy of the budget to the NASS after reading his speech. The President's aides then transmitted a soft copy to the National Assembly and this was printed and distributed to senators and members.
However, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki and other members of the National Assembly raised an alarm that the contents of the copy that was sent by the Presidency and distributed to senators was different from that of the copy that was presented by President Buhari. He blamed Senator Ita Enang, President Buhari's liaison to the Senate, for the difference.
As I said before, this controversy would not be a surprise to you if you have been following activities at the National Assembly for decades, as I have done. There have been similar controversies in the past.
In fact, there was a similar or even more serious controversy in December 2015, when President Muhammadu Buhari presented his first full budget to the National Assembly.
Just as President Tinubu has done, President Buhari presented one hard copy of the budget to the NASS after reading his speech. The President's aides then transmitted a soft copy to the National Assembly and this was printed and distributed to senators and members.
However, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki and other members of the National Assembly raised an alarm that the contents of the copy that was sent by the Presidency and distributed to senators was different from that of the copy that was presented by President Buhari. He blamed Senator Ita Enang, President Buhari's liaison to the Senate, for the difference.
You would know this if you have been watching "From The National Assembly" for more than 20 years (like I have).
Copies of bills and other such documents are printed by the National Assembly and circulated to members. Sometimes senators/members complain that they have not yet got copies of the bill that is being debated and the matter is stood down until everybody has a copy.
However, on the other hand, some members of the House of Representatives said that there was no deception in the presentation of the budget by President Bola Tinubu to the House.
Hon Sada Soli Jibia, who is a member of the House of Representatives, said that normally, the House must go through some steps before distributing the budget copies so that every member of the House can see what they contain.
However, Sada Soli said that as of Friday, they have not seen the budget, as according to him, "Until now, it is being printed in the printing house where documents are printed by the parliament."
He added that on Saturday the committee on the budget will meet with the leaders of the parliamentary committees, before each member of parliament will be given a copy of the budget.
naptu2: The bag is usually symbolic. The National Assembly usually prints copies and distributes to senators and members. All that has happened is that there has been a delay. That's all.
naptu2: That really doesn't matter. Much of the work on the budget will be done at the committee stage and I'm sure that they'll get it before then.
naptu2: The bag is usually symbolic. The National Assembly usually prints copies and distributes to senators and members. All that has happened is that there has been a delay. That's all.
naptu2: That really doesn't matter. Much of the work on the budget will be done at the committee stage and I'm sure that they'll get it before then.
President Tinubu didn’t present empty budget box – Doguwa
The Northern Caucus chairman in the House of Representatives, Alhaji Ado Alhassan Doguwa, has debunked as incorrect the report that President Bola Tinubu presented an empty budget box during his budget presentation on Wednesday.
“What people don’t know is that the President had submitted a flash drive of the whole budget before his presentation to the joint chambers,” he said.
In a statement he released titled “Stop the Misrepresentation of Facts: We Did Not Receive Empty 2024 Budget Box from President Tinubu,” Doguwa said the speculation is unfounded.
Doguwa said: “I write in response to the mischievous insinuations that Mr. President laid empty boxes before the National Assembly on the day he presented the Appropriation Bill 2024.”
“What people don’t know is that Mr President had earlier submitted a flash drive as a soft copy of the 2024 Budget, which is now being printed out in hard copies, and as usual, brought one single hard copy of the budget to the floor,” Doguwa stated.
“Be that as it may, senators and honourable members were satisfied and were conveniently guided by the verbal presentation and the way Mr President dissected the budget and gave a specific analysis of the funds allocated to the various sectors of the economy. I, therefore, want to say that any media or mischievous reports insinuating that Mr. President laid empty boxes were not true and unfounded.”
Doguwa, who is also the chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Upstream, insisted: “Such reports are only being perpetrated by mischief makers and opposition members who would always criticise the government with or without reasonable cause. I further wish to urge Nigerians to disregard such insinuations and condemn the perpetrators, as they are enemies of Nigeria’s progress.”
He further affirmed that the House Committee on Petroleum Upstream will start budget defence on estimates of agencies under its supervision next week.
U09ce: The bag can be symbolic. In this digital age, the budget can be transmitted electronically
The bag is usually symbolic. The National Assembly usually prints copies and distributes to senators and members. All that has happened is that there has been a delay. That's all.
That really doesn't matter. Much of the work on the budget will be done at the committee stage and I'm sure that they'll get it before then.
This guy below understands what's happening.
Adayi1: When issues like this comes up, it is then you will realize that many Nigerians are not informed including some of these lawmakers. That lawmaker that says empty budget was presented needs some knock on the head.
They usually distribute copies of the budget to each senator and member of the House, but it seems that has not yet been done and some senators checked the box that the president presented, but they found nothing in it.
Tinubu gave us empty budget book — Members of Parliament
1 December 2023, 04:49 GMT
The budget presentation ceremony in Nigeria by the President of the country to the National Assembly has left behind dust, where some members of the parliament suspect that the President of the country deceived them and they said that he handed them the 2024 budget resolution.
On Wednesday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu presented his first budget proposal to the Joint Session of the Nigerian Parliament.
President Bola Tinubu said that the budget for next year is based on the forecast of selling one barrel of oil at 77.96 dollars, and producing an estimated 1.78 million barrels of oil daily. And one US dollar on the exchange rate of 750 naira.
The budget has decided to spend 9.92 trillion naira in the field of daily activities. Then there is 8.25 trillion naira for debt repayment, while major projects will get 8.7 trillion naira.
However, the members of parliament said that "there is nothing in a small box that the president bowed down and placed in front of the parliament hall."
Hon Yusuf Shitu Galambi, a member of the Nigerian House of Representatives, told the BBC that there is no doubt that the president read his budget speech to them, but they did not see the budget statement.
He said, "The President read the budget for us, but yesterday the budget for each employee as usual was not brought."
The member of parliament said, "We checked the book he kept but we didn't see anything in it."
Hon Yusuf Shitu Galambi, said that in the history of the Federal House of Representatives, what has been done this time has never been done, and the constitution does not say that it should be done.
He said, "We, the members of parliament, this thing is difficult for us, because it is something that has never been seen and never expected or dreamed of."
"We think this thing is like a deception, since if it is not prepared, why should we come but I have finished everything, then we have to ask for more time until the time it will be finished, there is no rush in it."
The member of parliament said that since the budget is empty now, they have to wait until the President brings detailed information on the budget.
'No cheating'
However, on the other hand, some members of the House of Representatives said that there was no deception in the presentation of the budget by President Bola Tinubu to the House.
Hon Sada Soli Jibia, who is a member of the House of Representatives, said that normally, the House must go through some steps before distributing the budget copies so that every member of the House can see what they contain.
However, Sada Soli said that as of Friday, they have not seen the budget, as according to him, "Until now, it is being printed in the printing house where documents are printed by the parliament."
He added that on Saturday the committee on the budget will meet with the leaders of the parliamentary committees, before each member of parliament will be given a copy of the budget.
I spoke with a Nigerian senator last night to get the detail of sectoral allocations in Tinubu’s 2024 budget. To my surprise, he said the president came with an EMPTY case! “We sat yesterday to discuss the general principles of the budget but nobody got a copy. The truth is that the president came with an empty case,” he said.
Jaafar Jaafar
Fankon kundin kasafin kudi Tinubu ya ba mu — 'Yan Majalisa
BBC News Hausa
(Translation of the BBC Hausa text = The empty budget book Tinubu gave us — Members of Parliament)
Politics › Nigeria At COP28: Separating The Facts From Fiction by naptu2(op): 11:24am On Dec 03, 2023
is a recognition accorded of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. Beati is the plural form, referring to those who have undergone the process of beatification; they possess the title of "Blessed", abbreviated as "Bl." before their names and are often referred to in English as "a Blessed" or, plurally, "Blesseds".
. Pope was at a three day crusade in Enugu. My father (RIP) went on special duty then . I was 8yrs then 
