The Presidency on Sunday defended the size of Nigeria’s delegation to COP30, saying the climate summit requires broad representation from multiple ministries and agencies.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, said climate negotiations touch on energy, finance, environment, security, agriculture, transport and other sectors, making a wide delegation necessary. He argued that government officials must be present in all key sessions to protect Nigeria’s interests.
His comments followed criticism from Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, who described the 749-member Nigerian delegation as wasteful. Obi noted that Nigeria, with high poverty levels and a low Human Development Index, should not field a delegation close in size to China’s 789 representatives. He also highlighted the vast economic gap between both countries, arguing that Nigeria should prioritise funding for health, education and social welfare rather than sending hundreds of officials abroad.
A delegate list from the UNFCCC shows that 749 people were registered under Nigeria’s “party badge”, though only about 423 were from federal and state government entities. The rest included private-sector representatives, civil society groups, academics, and project-affiliated participants who registered under Nigeria but were not funded by the government.
Ajayi stressed that COP events naturally attract large numbers of non-state actors whose names are counted under their home countries. He said business leaders, NGOs and activists attending the conference are not government-sponsored. Another presidency official also denied that all listed delegates received government funding.
Despite earlier criticism of the 1,411-member delegation to COP28, Nigeria’s total registrations grew to 1,453 for COP30. These include officials from core climate agencies, energy regulators, transport and blue-economy institutions, state governments, the National Assembly, universities, NGOs, and private-sector organisations. Many were listed as guests, partners or contract staff of various entities rather than federal delegates.
The Presidency maintained that Nigeria must have a strong presence in global climate discussions, especially on issues like climate finance, carbon markets and energy transition.
