Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has declared that Nigeria cannot afford to fail in her efforts to attain the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Agenda.
This is just as he wants a home grown approach to boast efforts towards the attainment of the 17 identified goals under Sustainable Development Goals Agenda
The SDGs, with a number of time-bound targets and indicators against which national progress will be measured till 2030, the SDGs have begun to galvanize development planning and execution globally.
Osinbajo, while inaugurating the Presidential Council on the SDGs, at the Presidential Villa, declared that the nation is at the threshold of history, saddled with the responsibility of bringing about the change that will alter Nigeria’s development trajectory for the benefit of the people.
He noted that the Presidential Council on SDGs is expected to provide policy direction for the implementation of the SDGs in Nigeria, and ensure that there is coherence at the national and sub-national levels.
“This council’s work will be crucial for resource mobilization, prioritization of interventions, periodic assessment, as well as the overall oversight of SDGs implementation”
Recall that Nigeria had joined other United Nations member states to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda at the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015.
The SDGs Framework is a global partnership with poverty eradication as its deadline of 2030. The SDGs, encapsulated in the 2030 Agenda, are Independent and inter- related and are meant to galvanize development planning and execution worldwide for the next decade and a half.
According to Osinbajo, ” Audaciously ambitious as the goals may appear, they capture the urgency and range of the major challenges that confront humanity, especially developing nations. They underscore the reality that only a global partnership supporting home grown and inclusive solutions stands a chance of achieving the goals”
“Building on the millennium development goals, the SDGS open up new priorities such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace and justice. The goals are interconnected. Succeeding in one will involve dealing with issues fundamentally associated with another”
He declared that the current administration ” has taken the firm view that the implementation of the SDGs Agenda has and will have decisive implications for Nigeria’s development; which explains why the SDGs occupy a prominent place in our Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, which the President launched in April to guide Nigeria along the path of inclusive and sustainable economic growth”
” Progress on the Goals will have a positive effect on our poverty and unemployment numbers. It will reduce the number of mothers who die during childbirth and our children who are unable to mark their fifth birthday, and, of course, the figures also of out-of-school children” he said
“It will empower our girls and women, and bridge the gender inequality gap. Success with the implementation of the SDGs will have an impact on our cities, and on the quality of the lives of those who live within them”
“It is, therefore, clear that the achievement of the goals equals a quantum socio-economic leap for Nigeria. Failure to achieve the SDGs will have existential implications for our generation and for those yet unborn”
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals SDGs, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope Adefulire, said the Presidential Council on SDGs will leverage multi- stakeholders partnerships to accelerate progress on the SDGs.
She listed the terms of reference of the Council, to include the Provision of a strong political leadership and oversight function for the implementation of the SDGs in Nigeria, as well as creating opportunities for multi- level and multi-stakeholders consensus building, representation, partnership and feedback.
Others includes, leading resource mobilization efforts for the attainment of the SDGs, Periodically assess, monitor and review SDGs progress against pre-determined set of indicators, as well as Convening meetings of the Council at least once a quarter and appoint sub- committees, clusters and working groups as may be deemed necessary from time to time.
Onyinye Nwachukwu
