Dr Jimoh Ibrahim, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, has fired back at critics who has criticized President Bola Tinubu for not attending the just concluded 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, United States.
Ibrahim, speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday, maintained that he delivered on his promise to secure Nigeria a prominent position at the UNGA.
It would be recalled that, Ibrahim had earlier said he secured a seat close to United States President Donald Trump for Tinubu at the General Assembly.
However, Tinubu did not attend the gathering but delegated the Vice President, Kashim Shettima to lead Nigeria’s delegation to UNGA.
He defended Tinubu’s absence from UNGA, saying Nigeria retained its prominent seating position at the gathering despite the President’s absence.
He said the American President, Trump, did not sit in the General Assembly chamber after delivering his speech, arguing that he (Trump) would have been seated far behind Nigeria if he had remained in the chamber.
Ibrahim maintained that he would not have recommended that Tinubu travel to New York after it became clear that more than 60 per cent of those scheduled to speak were being represented by vice presidents or foreign ministers.
According to him, Tinubu had no need to leave other pressing national issues to come to New York to speak for about 15 minutes when many of the speakers were represented by senior officials.
While insisting that Shettima adequately represented Nigeria, Ibrahim also pointed out that the presidents of South Africa, China, Russia and other countries were not present at the gathering.
According to him, You have to thank me and commend my effort. I said Nigeria will be in the front seat, was Nigeria not in the front seat?
“I said Nigeria will sit with Trump, did he have any seat in the general assembly? He didn’t sit for a second, he just came in to the podium, delivered a guest speech and left from there. Did he go to sit on a seat?
“In fact, he would have been sitting far behind Nigeria. So, what are you talking about? I delivered on the fact that Nigeria will sit in the front row, number six, did you commend me for that?
“Do you think it is easy for a country to sit at number six in the front row? Don’t you know it is a country sitting at number 193 and your country is sitting at number six? When did I get here?” Ibrahim said.