ETN24 can now report that the viral criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari over his performance at a UN Climate Summit is half the story as video evidence reviewed by this publication shows that not only was it the format for all 5 participants in his panel to read a prepared speech, the President answered the question he was meant to answer.
The 2019 Climate Action Summit which held on 23rd September saw the Nigerian President along with 4 others on the morning session’s panel. This panel held just after speeches were made. The UN said,
“to boost ambition and accelerate actions to implement the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, UN Secretary-General António Guterres is asking leaders, from government, business and civil society, to come to the 2019 Climate Action Summit on 23 September with plans to address the global climate emergency.”
This defined how the panel went. The Anchor asks the same question about “resilient future” which refers to how the leader hopes to manage climate change.
Introducing the session, the Anchor says “the next presenters from member States and the private sector will highlight actions that will lead to CLIMATE RESILIENT FUTURE“. When she asked President Buhari for his presentation, she omitted the word “Climate” because it was already known that the discussion was about Climate, and it is the norm to say “resilient” in place of “Climate Resilient”.
President Buhari was not the first to be asked. The Prime Minister of Fiji, Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, was the first to answer the question of resilient future and his speech, which he read from a prepared document, as did ALL the panelists, was about Climate Change and steps his government is or will take regarding it. Just like President Buhari did after him.
Fiji’s Prime Minister spoke in the same format as did the Nigerian President, starting with “On behalf of Figi I rise to answer the call of the Secretary-General….”
After the Fijian Minister finished reading his prepared speech, the Anchor pushes the same questions to President Buhari saying “Nigeria has a very young population, perhaps you can highlight what a pathway for resilient future looks like”. For context, she was talking of the resilient future of climate change as clearly stated in the UN programme. It was in line with this that the President also read his prepared speech stating Nigeria’s commitment to climate change.
President Buhari promised that Nigeria will keep to the Paris Agreement, include youths in climate change architecture, plant 25,000 trees, diversify its energy generation, and wants to get to 30% renewable energy by 2030. By this, he says, 179 million tonnes of carbon dioxide will no longer be emitted every year. He spoke of climate-friendly agricultural practices which the government plans to sustain and promised to lead in the effort to replenish the Lake Chad.
The President closed his remark to a round of applause from both observers and fellow panelist as well as a handshake from the Prime Minister of Netherland who sat next to him.
To further show that the viral idea that the President answered the question wrongly is out of context, the Anchor is seen extending the same question to the Prime Minister of Netherland without any reference to “Climate Change”, as she says,
“The Netherlands are doing a lot on adaptation and resilience at home and abroad, Prime Minister Ruttes, you have the floor”
She was referring to the Prime Minister of Netherland, Mark Rutte, who took the floor reading a prepared speech just like President Buhari. His speech was also all about climate change. Just like Buhari, the Prime Minister rolled out his country’s plans and progress so far.
After him came the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, who spoke extensively about “funding resilience”. Reading a script as well, he made his own suggestions stating progress and plans as well as challenges, as did others.
Introducing the last panelist, the Anchor again uses the word “resilient” to refer to Climate Change Management saying,
“Mr. Harley, the Secretary-General is delighted that you are here today to launch a private sector initiative to strengthen the market for resilient investment, you have the floor”
John J. Haley, Chief Executive Officer, Willis Towers Watson, is the Chairman of a group called Climate Resilient Investment.
To further demonstrate that “Resilience” is the normal word for Climate Resilience, renowned Environmental Scientist Professor Carl Folke, who is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, titled his 2016 book “Resilience: The emergence of a perspective for social-ecological systems analyses”
Ignorant of this, twitter went agog with insults and shaming of the President,
God, no! This is painful to watch. The question wasn’t about climate change. He was asked about the place of the youth in Nigeria’s future, and, unfortunately, he read out an unrelated script as a response. You, the President’s media handlers, are his biggest undoing. https://t.co/Nwu9Qctf9r
— Gimba Kakanda (@gimbakakanda) September 25, 2019
Please someone tell me this is an old video. Please this can’t be yesterday. This is a torture no one should have to bear.
What a catastrophe!
This is what we have as President?!
Calling Muhammad Buhari @MBuhari incompetent inept and clueless is actually a compliment! He is worse https://t.co/44l6y5hlA9— Aisha Yesufu (@AishaYesufu) September 25, 2019
Since the summit is about climate change, they already assumed they can’t ask Buhari anything aside climate change, so Tolu, Bashir & the rest of d team prepared a speech & put baba in autopilot mode, now they asked baba about plans for d future, he was saying something else, smh https://t.co/jFx53oqpwb
— Olorunshola Emmanuel (@iamimanuel) September 25, 2019
Samuel Ogundipe of Premium Times, who has been arrested at some point by the Buhari government, wrote a piece about the issue linking the President’s response to his health.
As the Morning Session was over 4 hours, commentators were not interested in reviewing the full session before publishing deductions from a section of the video and their perception of it as fact. ETN24, however, considered and reviewed the whole 4 hours and is presenting extended cropping of the video in question for better context.
