Buhari travels to Scotland for climate change conference

*To participate in Paris Peace summit

*Hosts Tinubu, receives briefing from Chief of Naval Staff

Ukpono Ukpong

President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday departed Abuja for Glasgow, Scotland to attend the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The President is scheduled to deliver his national statement at the High-Level segment for Heads of State and Government at the conference on Tuesday, November 2.

President Buhari’s address is expected to highlight Nigeria’s key priorities and action to tackle climate change as well as progress on the country’s transition to low carbon economy, consistent with achieving the Paris Climate Agreement.

The conference, hosted by the United Kingdom in partnership with Italy, will bring parties together to help accelerate action towards the Paris Agreement as well as the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Given Nigeria’s leading role in taking climate action and as a signatory to the Paris Agreement, COP 26 will afford a unique opportunity for the Nigerian delegation to work with other parties to make progress on the main goals of the conference including securing global net zero by mid-century and keeping 1.5C within reach; adapting to protect communities and natural habitats as well as mobilising the much needed finances to meet the set targets.

In Glasgow, President Buhari will participate in some side-line events hosted by US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron.

The President will be accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of State, Environment, Sharon Ikeazor, National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (Rtd) and Director-General, National Intelligence Agency, Amb. Ahmed Rufai Abubakar.

President Buhari will thereafter travel to Paris, France on an official visit to reciprocate an earlier one to Nigeria by the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and also attend the Paris Peace forum 2021, the fourth edition to be hosted by the French President.

It will have Heads of State and Government and CEOs of major multinationals, as well as several civil society actors, gathering to advance concrete solutions to the enormous challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to improve global governance in times of COVID-19.

The Summit will focus on spurring a more solid and inclusive recovery by addressing the various gaps in global governance, offering initiatives to better tend to the global commons, and putting forward new principles of action for the post-COVID world.

While the President is in Paris, the Nigerian government will organize the Nigeria-Paris Forum.

The event is expected to pull a crowd of Nigerian and French investors, government and business leaders, diplomats and the media in the hope of showcasing opportunities on both sides as well as bringing enlightenment to bear on the prevailing security, economic and investment climate in Nigeria.

President Buhari is expected back in the country after the engagements.

Before departing Abuja for Scotland on Sunday, President Buhari hosted the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Sen. Bola Tinubu, at his official residence, State House, Abuja.

Speaking to State House correspondents after the closed door meeting, Tinubu dismissed the insinuation that he was in the presidential villa to discuss politics with the president.

He, however, stated that his Sunday’s mission to the seat of power was to thank President Buhari for visiting him when he was recovering from a surgery at his residence in London

He said: ”I came only to thank, first of all, the president for his visit to my residence in London when I was ……after the surgery, and wishing me well, lifting my spirit.

“Indeed, what an exceptional leader will do.

”That’s what I came for and to welcome him back from the trip from Saudi Arabia

”No politics, just courtesy call, thanking him in a big way, that’s all.”

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that President Buhari had on Aug. 13 visited the APC chieftain in London,

The president, who had stayed back in London after attending the Global Education Summit on Financing Global Partnership for Education (GPE 2021-2025), paid Tinubu what had been described in some quarters as a ”surprised and unexpected visit”.

NAN reports that the president also received briefing from Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Awwal Gambo, at the Presidential Villa on Sunday.

”I’m here to seek the blessings of Mr President for him to honour the Nigerian Naval in commissioning the indigenously built Boat 3, which is one of the three we are building by the Nigerian Naval dockyard staff in Lagos comes December this year,” he said after the meeting.

He stated that the president’s response was to the invitation was positive

” Yes, the response is positive because it prides us as a nation that we can build something from scratch to finish by our own shipyard.

”So, it’s a pride to us,” he added.