President Umaru YarAdua and other top Nigerian government officials will be in New York on Sunday where they will attend United Nations General Assembly meetings, Empowered Newswire has reported.
Yar’Adua who is making his first official trip to both the UN and the US is being joined by three State governors, ministers and other top government officials. Yar’Adua would be speaking on Monday and Wednesday at the UN
Besides the UN meeting, there are some other events Nigerians are expected to attend this week in New York.
Yar’Adua would be participating first at the UN Summit meeting on Climate Change organised by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon on Monday.
On the same day, a global conference is being organised at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel by Thisday Newspapers themed: Nigeria Meets The World.
The governors in Yar’Adua’s entourage are Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola, Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara and Gov Emmanuel Uduaghan from Delta. The Governors and eminent Nigerians like Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, are also expected at the Thisday event. Soyinka has confirmed that he would be in New York on Monday.
On Wednesday, former External Affairs Minister and top UN official, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, would also be hosting the launching of a book on his contributions to the UN, edited and published by US-based Nigerian publisher Thomas Okpaku.
President Yar’Adua is believed to have been invited to both events.
The UN Climate Change Summit is one of the major highlights of this year’s General Assembly events. The idea is to accelerate a global response to climate change, and the UN Secretary-General who convened the summit is hoping that the event would send a “powerful political signal” with over 140 countries participating and more than half of that being represented at the level of heads of state. For instance, Nigeria is to be represented by President Yar’Adua who will be speaking at that summit.
Sep232007