Jonathan's Delegation In Brazil Outnumbers Obama's
The Federal Government once again decided to impress everyone in the world with Nigeria’s oversized delegations. A huge group of governmental officials is currently burning budgetary funds in Brazil for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
* Senate President, governors, ministers, others are in Brazil. Photo credit - Vanguard
According to report by PremiumTimes, the difference becomes even more shocking if a person compares the size of the delegations approved by President Goodluck Jonathan and by his counterpart from the United States, Barack Obama.
In fact, the presidential delegation of the U.S.A. will be represented by four persons only, unlike the mega-sized team of Nigerian officials, which includes governors, ministers, lawmakers and other dignitaries. The list of those who travel on governmental cost is not limited to those included to the presidential team.
On June 6, 2014, Obama approved travel of an advisor, a diplomat and two former athletes to the Mundial. The team is headed by Daniel Pfeiffer, Senior Presidential Advisor. Others on the list are US Ambassador to Brazil Liliana Ayalde, former member of US Women’s football team Michelle Akers and ex Beach Volleyball World Champion Gabrielle Reece.
Nigerian delegation has landed at the Guarulhos International Airport, Sao Paulo, Brazil, on June 11, 2014, Wednesday, at about 5 pm, local time. They participated in the opening ceremony of the tournament.
The official mission of the group is to convey “a presidential message” to the Super Eagles ahead of their first match in Group F against Iran, on June 16, 2014, in Curtiba.
PremiumTimes further learnt that the details on FIFA World Cup spending are not available in this year’s budget of the Nigerian Football Federation. Therefore, it is not clear how much the Federal Government has budgeted for this event.
However, the information on previous spendings on top sporting events is available. N900m were spent for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, and N2.2 billion for the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games.
Two years ago five Senators and five House of Reps members travelled to London as a part of the official delegation of the Ministry of Sports. According to details seen by the reporters, the officials got far more money than the athletes at the London Olympics.
More examples of huge presidential teams
Sending large delegations has been one of the features by President Jonathan since 2010. Despite strong criticisms, he keeps doing it almost since his first day in office. In 2010, he reportedly travelled with at least 120 people to New York.
The number of officials who travel with the president for an African Union Summits usually averages 200 persons. None of the other African governments match with this.
Around 600 Nigerians travelled to New York for together with GEJ for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2013.
When asked about the size of the team, the presidency informed that there had been no irrelevant members, and the size of the official delegation was less than 30 people. Moreover, in his statement commenting official visit to New York, the Presidential Aide, Reuben Abati, declared that other people who were spotted in New York with the delegation were there “for their own purposes”.
Neighbours learn from Nigeria
This time Nigeria is not alone, as Ghana has also sent a huge group of officials to Brazil.
A Ghanaian transparency organization, Alliance for Accountable Governance, tagged the 13-person official delegation as “profligate and unnecessary”.
The bulk Ghanaian governmental team included officials of the sports ministry and members of the country’s football federation. It sparked public outrage for being full of unnecessary members.
Source: Legit.ng
