Still far away

IN the year 2000, the UN, moved by the decrepit situation of the world’s poor nations and their downtrodden peoples, decided to do something definitive about the receding basic living conditions of man. In concert with her 193-country strong membership and about two dozen world bodies, she devised eight goals - the most basic of human needs, to be achieved by her mendicant member countries in 15 years.

Christened Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), they are: the need to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; to achieve universal primary education; promote gender equality and empower women and reduce child mortality.

Others are: to improve maternal health; to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; to ensure environmental sustainability and to develop a global partnership for development.

After over 10 years of implementing the MDGs initiatives world-wide, reports out of Africa indicate that the goals are far from being achieved, with Nigeria’s performance reportedly abysmal. In fact, a recent review of the MDGs implementation milestones shows that Nigeria has been most lackadaisical towards the initiative, making her one of the worst examples in Africa.

Speaking recently in Kaduna, a director in the MDGs office, which is under the Presidency, Mr. Oluwole Edun, noted that about N120 billion has been spent by the Federal Government on the MDGs in the last three years. This comes to an average of roughly N3 billion per state over this period. Considering the size and population of Nigeria, this is paltry.

With barely four years to the target date of 2015, one needs no elaborate statistics to prove that the level of poverty in Nigeria today is not markedly different from what it was 10 years ago. Child and maternal mortality is anything but in recession, while free primary education is still largely in the realms of political campaign promises; common diseases like malaria and cholera have not stopped ravaging parts of Nigeria.

One reason why the MDGs seem to have fallen far short of expectations is that Nigeria’s governments at all levels have shown little commitment towards giving Nigerians the very basics of social amenities and economic leverages. For instance, the most visible organ of the MDGs is a unit in the Presidency headed by a special assistant. For such an important and fundamental programme that affects the lives of the majority of the population, a stronger implementation organ ought to have been put in place over the years.

At the state level, most governors have been remiss in keying into the initiative while it is almost non-existent at the local government level where it ought to be rooted. Where the MDGs are implemented in some states, it is signposted by misappropriation of funds, substandard and non-functional projects, especially in water and health care projects. As a proof of the lack of seriousness in the MDGs initiatives, a team from UNESCO’s Institute of Statistics (UIS) which visited Nigeria recently lamented its frustration at accessing up-to-date data, especially as regards the MDGs. How could a project of this magnitude which is fundamental to the people’s existence achieve its objectives without quality data?

Little wonder that Nigeria perpetually ranks low in world’s human development index? Particularly intriguing is why the Federal Government has, in the last few years, embarked on another initiative to make Nigeria to rank among the 20 largest economies in the world in the year 2020. How can a country still grappling with poverty and common diseases grow to a high-end world economy?

With only about four years left to pursue the MDGs, we urge Nigeria’s governments at all levels to redouble efforts to achieve some, if not all the laudable goals of the MDGs.

http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/editorial/18382-still-far-away.html