The alleged reason for President Bola Tinubu‘s failure to address world leaders at the 28th edition of the Conference of Parties (COP 28) Climate Change Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has surfaced.
Truetells Nigeria reports that President Tinubu was billed to speak at the Summit on Friday alongside other heads of state but did not, which raised questions about the country’s position at the conference.
It is understood that Heads of State and Governments are expected to deliver their national statements, plans and commitments in the fight against climate change at the summit.
This year, the high-level segment for world leaders was tagged the ‘World Climate Action Summit’ and was scheduled to be held on December 1 and 2, with over 80 world leaders scheduled to speak.
One of the scheduled speakers was President Tinubu of Nigeria, who was number 36 on the list.
The first day of the conference ended without the Nigerian leader, who was flanked by the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, delivering a speech.
President Tinubu did not deliver remarks on the second day, while other leaders delivered their national statements.
According to The Cable, Tinubu was slated to speak on the first day after President of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, delivered his speech.
However, at about 4:10 pm, an insider told the news platform that Tinubu left the plenary room for the presidential lounge for a scheduled meeting with another president.
The source later said the meeting never took place, so the president left for his hotel room and returned at night to sign an agreement with the Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, to expand Nigeria’s grid capacity and boost electricity supply in the country.
In a twist of events and to show that Nigeria was still represented at the plenary, the Minister of Environment, Balarabe Lawal, sat on the president’s chair. Lawal was expected to speak on the president’s behalf.
However, after Christodoulides delivered his speech, Nigeria was skipped, and the next leader was called to the rostrum.
The organisers told TheCable that a representative can only read the president’s speech on day 9 of the session.
Recall that the Minister of Foreign Affairs had said the president did not deliver a speech because Nigeria wanted more action and less talk at the event.
However, it was gathered that this was not the case because all parties who did not wish to speak did not sign up for the UN’s list of speakers.