In September 2000, former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, joined other world leaders to attend the Millennium Summit to map out some developmental goals that the country should achieve. Many Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief thinking that the prayers of their founding fathers were about to be answered. But little did they know that their dream was still far from reality.
During the summit, eight goals were set by the 189 United Nations member states at the time (there are about 193 currently), known as United Nations Millennium Declaration. These goals were referred to as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
The Millennium Development Goals include: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; to achieve universal basic education; to promote gender equality and empower women; to reduce child mortality; to improve maternal health, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; to ensure environmental sustainability and to develop a global partnership for development.
It was, however, projected that by 2015, the member states must have achieved, if not all, a reasonable success within the 15 years life span it has.
With all the supports given by agencies such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Agricultural Development Bank and others, and with the current
state of Nigeria, one cannot be far from wrong if concluded that achieving the set goals seems impossible with barely a year to go and none of the goals has been satisfactorily achieved to the benefit of the common man.
As of 2013, progress towards the goals was reported to be uneven. Some countries achieved many goals while others were not on track to achieve any. A.U.N conference which was held in September, 2010, reviewed the progress and concluded with the adoption of a global plan to achieve the eight goals by their target date. New commitments targeted women and children’s health and new initiatives in the world wide battle against poverty, hunger and disease were made.
Nigeria who claims to be the giant of Africa is undoubtedly behind some other African countries in their bid to achieving the set goals.
Many Nigerians still live on less than $1 per day. With this, how can it say that goal 1 has been achieved?
One will normally expect a country like Nigeria, which is blessed with abundant human and natural resources not to have any problems with achieving the goals. What is the use of the resources it has if not to put it into use such that it will benefit the masses? In a country where corruption is the order of the day, every other thing remains either stagnant or regressing.
How much have we empowered women when our girls who will become mothers of tomorrow had been kidnapped for about three months and the President has not taken his time to visit Chibok in order for him to show his sympathy to the affected? Can we say that an environment that is riddled with terrorism is sustainable?
For Nigeria to achieve the MDG, it needs selfless leaders. I mean leaders that will serve this country as if their lives depend on the state of the nation, leaders that will distribute the state’s resources equally between the elites and the masses. I believe Nigeria is yet to have these types of leaders.
Nigeria is far from achieving any of the goals. To others, the country might have achieved something. Assessing the government’s effort is based on individual opinions.
MUBARAK IBRAHIM
Department of Animal Science,
Usma Danfodio University,
Sokoto, Nigeria
