‘Nigeria won’t achieve SDGs by 2030 except …’

A developmental expert, Mr Michael Ale has expressed pessimism about Nigeria, among other African countries, achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

According to Ale, while speaking with journalists, the same inability of Nigeria to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 was set to play out again except the nation adapts SDGs to local needs.

Ale, who is National President, Association of Waterwell Drilling Rig Owners and Practitioners (AWDROP), noted that governments at various levels must domesticate the SDGs in line with their local peculiarities.

Noting that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was only a general template, Ale emphasized that different countries should go at their own pace in terms of their peculiar human resources, environment and infrastructural capacities.

He also harped on the imperativeness of strong political will, innovative thinking, idea and strategy if Nigeria is to achieve the 2030 SDGs.

Aside from the lack of strong political will, Ale also noted that inadequate funding by governments was also hindering the implementation of SDGs.

“I don’t want to be pessimistic that Nigeria can’t achieve 2030 development goals.

“The problem is that how possible can we domesticate the SDG when we don’t understand what it is all about? Many Nigerians don’t know what is SDG and something you don’t know, how can you achieve it?

“Even many state governors don’t understand anything about SDG and they are policymakers. Therefore, how can you work on SDG and domesticate it when you don’t even understand anything about it?

“What is hindering African countries especially Nigeria to reach the target is finance and other challenges follow. We have failed to work in accordance with the United Nations’ SDG targets.

“Just like the United Arab Emirates, they came up with a strong political will that they want to turn desert to the tourist centre and it was achieved. But this boils down to innovative thinking, idea and strategy.

“To achieve 2030 developmental goals, we must create our own goal adapted to our local need that will make develop at our space. The United Nations should not generalize development.

“Different countries are with different strategies and can’t reach the same goal because they don’t have the same human resources, environment, infrastructural capacities and therefore the countries can’t go on the same pace.

“This is the reason we must domesticate our strategies to suit local needs.

“The SDGs was developed by the UN after realizing that there are differential or inequality in the development of countries and came up with SDG policy for countries to key into the universal developmental goals.

“Millennium Development Goal (MDG) came in 2000 and expired in 2015. Nigeria keyed into this UN’s goals which were the global development strategy seven years after. Before this time, what we had in Nigeria was NEED and later SEED which is State Economic Empowerment Development strategies.

“MDG set out eight goals majorly to eradicate poverty but no African country including Nigeria was able to meet this target. The MDG goals which were 8 goals was later in 2015 became 17 goals under SDGs,” Ale said.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

STATE OF ECONOMY: How Nigeria Is Eating Its Future, Spent Over 90% Of Revenue On Debt Servicing
INDICATION that Nigeria’s economy is still in the throes of death has continued to emerge with the current low revenue it is generating from oil sale and increasing demands on its foreign debt obligation especially. The parlous state of the economy is heightened by the revelation that most of the revenue…Nigeria won’t achieve SDGs

FACT CHECK: Somalia President, Deputy DID NOT Fight In Viral VIDEO
CLAIM: Somalia President, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and his vice exchanged blows to the point of wrestling themselves to the ground.
VERDICT: MISLEADING
FULL STORY: Nigerian media space was abuzz on Saturday, August 15, 2020, with a viral video which claims to show President of Somalia, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo publicly exchanged blows with his vice…Nigeria won’t achieve SDGs

NBS Says 21.76m Nigerians Unemployed In 2020
THE National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has put the total number of unemployed Nigerians at 21,764,617. The figure is contained in the bureau’s Labor Force Statistics website entitled “Unemployment and Underemployment Report (Q2 2020) released in Abuja. It referred to the report as an Abridged Labour Force Survey under COVID-19 for August 2020. According to NBS, the unemployment rate during the period under review…Nigeria won’t achieve SDGs

Our Fears As 2020 WASSCE Beckons: SS3 Students Speak On Inability To Finish Syllabus, Other Issues
After a long unexpected delay occasioned by the lockdown from the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) will begin in 19,129 accredited centres nationwide on August 17. Some candidates hoping to write the examination spoke with IMOLEAYO OYEDEYI and ADEOLA OTEMADE on their fears and expectations…Nigeria won’t achieve SDGs