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Temitope Ajayi, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, has responded to the controversies surrounding the 1,411 Nigerian delegates at the ongoing Climate Summit, COP28, in Dubai.
Recall that the high number of Nigerian delegates, the third-highest at COP28, has generated a lot of controversies and social media conversations in the last 24 hours amid the economic suffering of the citizens.
Reacting to the criticism on Sunday morning in an article titled ‘Nigeria at COP28: Separating the facts from fiction,’ the presidential aide, Temitope Ajayi, stated that the 1,411 delegates are not all government-funded.
He said the delegates also include civil society actors, journalists, businesspersons, climate activists, and others who have different roles to play at the conference.
“In Nigeria, like so many other countries, interested parties comprising government officials from both federal and sub-national governments, environmentalists, climate activists, business leaders, journalists and agencies of government such as the NNPC and its subsidiaries, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, NIMASA, and the NDDC are present in Dubai.
“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,” he wrote.
However, the presidential aide did not state the exact number of delegates being funded by the government among the 1,411 delegates.
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