Former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore has lashed out at the government of President Bola Tinubu over the reason it gave for taking over 1,000 delegates to COP 28 Climate Change Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Defending the 1,411 delegates on Sunday, the Presidency said only a handful of the delegates who registered to attend the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, were sponsored by the Federal Government.
This was, as it said, a bulk of the contingents comprised private sector players such as businesspeople, Civil Society Organisations and delegates from Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta region.
It also argued that the delegates are at the Summit to promote their respective causes and not for a jamboree.
“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 they are sponsored or funded by the government,” a statement signed by President Bola Tinubu’s Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, read Sunday.
Taking to the X platform on Monday, Sowore wrote: “Nigeria lives a lie, Nigeria loves lies! close to 1,500 Nigerians at the “highest levels” accompanied @officialABAT to #COP28UAE in Dubai just to sustain a lie that he’s healthy or well, or that he is aware of his environment or that he knows what he is doing, even when all these are lies. Every lie has an expiration date!”