The Federal Government, on Tuesday, expressed its commitment to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), noting that such required a lot of new investment.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, said this in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, at the 2016 international conference of the School of Management Studies of the Kogi State Polytechnic, tagged “Sustainable Development Goals: A new direction for global development.”
She said achieving the 17 goals of the SDGs by 2030, would involve huge investments in new infrastructure, water, energy, transport, education, health and other critical areas.
Orelope-Adefulire, who spoke through a director in the organisation, Yahaya Hamza, said the office of the senior special assistant to the President on SDGs, had since commenced a number of activities to kick -start the implementation of SDGs in Nigeria.
Special Adviser to the Kogi State governor on SDGs, Ahmed Okara, however, said the state government might declare emergency in the education sector to be able to achieve the education aspect of the goal.
He lamented the appalling state of schools in some parts of the state, adding that there was a lot of infrastructural decay in the system.
Okara said that some schools in the state had no classrooms as their pupils were being tutored under the tree or on bare floor.
He, however, said the state was ready to work with other levels of government and agencies to facilitate the achievement of the SDGs.
Delivering the lead paper for the conference, a professor of sociology from the University of Jos, Etannibi Alemika, said the achievement of the goals might be constrained by many challenges in the country.
He listed the challenges to include bad governance, weak institutions, wide spread and entrenched corruption and impunity, crime, conflicts and violence.
Alemika noted that effective implementation of the agenda and realisation of the goals and targets within the specified period, would depend on how the critical challenges are addressed.