Nigeria and the challenges of MD

Nigeria and the challenges of MDGs

ACHO ORABUCHI

Dallas, Texas

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Is Nigeria on track in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) quantitative targets by year 2015? Is the government committed to the ideals and goals of the Millennium Declaration? Has the federal government adequately disseminated the MDGs information to the state and local governments, including other public and private agencies? Do state and local governments understand the import of MDGs? These are some of the questions that beg for answers if Nigeria intends to meet the quantitative targets of MDGs by 2015.

The eight MDGs—to reduce extreme poverty and hunger by half; achieve universal primary education; eliminate gender disparity at all levels of education; reduce child mortality by two-thirds; reduce by three-quarters the maternal mortality ratio, improve maternal health; halt and combat the spread of HIV/AIDS; combat the incidence of malaria and other diseases; ensure and enhance environmental sustainability, halve the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, improve significantly the lives of 100 million slum dwellers; and develop a global partnership for development with financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies, etc.—which have 18 quantifiable targets that are measured by 48 indicators, were all impressively articulated.

Global poverty and other human ailments had always been a concern to the international community. In order to respond to world’s development challenges, the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000 emerged with the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 189 nations and signed by 147 heads of state and governments. From the Millennium Declaration, the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were drawn up to be achieved by the year 2015.

Optimistically speaking, United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi A. Annan not too long ago said, "We will have time to reach the Millennium Development Goals – worldwide and in most, or even all, individual countries – but only if we break with business as usual. We cannot win overnight. Success will require sustained action across the entire decade between now and the deadline. It takes time to train the teachers, nurses and engineers; to build the roads, schools and hospitals; to grow the small and large businesses able to create the jobs and income needed. So we must start now. And we must more than double global development assistance over the next few years. Nothing less will help to achieve the Goals."

Addressing the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee in Brussels on September 23, 2004, Poverty Group Leader, United Nations Development Programme, Jan Vandemoortele aptly stated the dilemma in meeting some of the UN goals when he said, “The fight against global poverty yields inadequate progress in too many countries. If we are to meet the targets by 2015, strategies for reducing poverty must make a quantum leap in scale, in ambition and in imagination. For the sake of the MDGs, prudence is silver but ambition is golden.”

The prudence in MDG’s blueprint culminating in quantitative targets could not be overemphasized. However, the level of commitment of individual nations toward meeting the quantitative targets of MDG’s could be readily decipher by examining their adequately implemented plan and the accompanying monitoring and evaluating systems. In any case, some nations would have structural, cultural, and behavioral impediments that would drastically hamper the achievement of MDG’s. Such systemic impediments should be addressed first before human dimension programs could thrive.

Interestingly, President Olusegun Obasanjo has successfully reversed years of Nigeria’s pariah status in the international community due to military rule. However, reversing the vestiges of weak economy, poor political governance, incidence of corruption, and high level of poverty due to several years of military rule has proved a daunting and overwhelming task.

Nevertheless, it appears that the federal government is making concerted efforts to meet the MDG’s quantitative targets by launching reform agenda in May 2004, four years later, designed to be implemented and monitored by the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) and State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategies (SEEDS) collaborating with Department for International Development (DFID).

However, squandering of resources, misallocation of state and local governments funds, lack of accurate data, and capacity constraints of federal, state and local governments have not only impacted service delivery, but have also made “numerical and time-bound targets” very elusive. Though state and local governments have a relative fiscal and political autonomy, yet lack of responsiveness and accountability of these levels of governments, coupled with corruption and misallocation of funds, permeates the society. Worse still, all the tiers of government lack the fiscal discipline to adequately imbue the activities of NEEDS and SEEDS in their respective domains.

Nigeria must take prodigious steps toward achieving the quantitative targets of MDGs. The nation has resources and must work assiduously meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) quantitative targets by year 2015. We must have genuine programs anchored in rigorous monitoring and evaluating systems. There should be monthly evaluation of these programs aimed at accomplishing the 18 quantifiable targets that are measured by 48 indicators.

Nigeria needs to be transformed into issues-based change in order to facilitate meeting MDGs targets. As a result, those vying for office should use the MDGs blueprint to articulate their agenda for the nation and their respective constituencies. Sadly, in an era of broken promises, candidates for various elective offices should be forced by the electorate to show how such agenda items could be accomplished if elected.

The most ominous fear is the current political fragility emanating from the enormous pressures of present political activities. The smooth transition from one civilian administration to another in May 2007 would perhaps quell the undercurrents and anxiety of the masses and possibly refocus all efforts to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.