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By William Odewale
In 2000, at the United Nations Millennium Summit, 189 world leaders, including Nigeria’s, adopted the Millennium Declaration to overcome poverty through a set of eight mutually reinforcing interrelated time-bound goals (MDGs) with related targets.
According to the agreement reached, one of the stated objectives of the “Goals” was to provide an “accountability framework”.
The attractiveness of having goals is that simple statements can be made and communicated on, if they were achieved or not. The MDGs were at the forefront of the global development agenda to eradicate poverty by 2015.
In Nigeria, specifically in 2005, the Federal Government created the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the Millennium Development Goals, with directors, officers and a huge budget to provide guidance, coordination and oversight on the attainment of the MDGs.
Looming back and despite the billions of naira the Nigerian government pumped into the programme, of the 16 indicators relating to three MDGs relating to health, 15 were not met and only one was met.
With the transition to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the appointment of Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, Nigerians had expected some appreciable progress.
The global call to action to end poverty, protect the earth’s environment and climate, and ensure that people everywhere can enjoy peace and prosperity, have been a far cry since her appointment.
With the exit of President Buhari, Orelope-Adefulire’s tenure also expired. Though a sigh of relief for many stakeholders in the development sector, it appears she’s fighting hard to find her way back.
Nigeria’s 2020 Voluntary National Review (VNR) on SDGs focuses on the key issues of poverty (SDG-1) and an inclusive economy (SDG-8), health and wellbeing (SDG-3), Education (SDG-4), Gender equality (SDG-5), and the enabling environment of peace and security (SDG-16), and partnerships (SDG-17).
This focus was based on Nigeria’s current development priorities and the development objectives of Buhari’s administration. President Bola Tinubu is yet to unveil his priorities.
Orelope-Adefulire, no doubt, may have done her best. From available records, her records are a far cry from acceptable norms. Her eight years in office, unfortunately, had no direct impact on vulnerable Nigerians who ought to have benefited from her tenure.
As President Tinubu settles down, he needs to be reminded that Nigeria is beyond the South West. As a truly pan-Nigerian leader, Tinubu, we’re certain, will not repeat the mistakes of Buhari.
In the House of Representatives, the chairman, Committee on SDGs, is Wale Raji. He hails from Lagos State. Similarly, in the Senate, the committee chairman on SDGs is Idiat Oluranti. Like Raji, she hails from the South West, too.
Orelope-Adefulire, who served for eight years as Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, is a former deputy governor of Lagos State. For an administration that wants to be fair to every component unit of Nigeria, a new scribe from another part of Nigeria needs to be considered for the position of the Senior Special Assistant or Adviser to the President on Sustainable Development Goals.
Nigeria also needs someone who understands what SDGs entail and how to implement them dutifully. Constructing defective classrooms, unoccupied primary healthcare facilities and other misplaced priorities should be discontinued. Unfortunately, those are the only insignificant projects Orelope-Adefulire executed.
As head of the SDGs office, Orelope-Adefulire localised the implementation of the goals and restricted her interventions to only Lagos State. The poor and vulnerable people in rural communities were completely ignored by Orelope-Adefulire when she held sway.
On three fronts, there are reasons why the SDGs Office needs a breath of fresh air. Orelope-Adefulire has done her eight years. Pushing for any extra time in office or any reappointment should be discouraged by any legitimate means possible.
Again,Lagos State has got its fair share of offices and positions since Tinubu was appointed. Appointing another Lagos State person to hold that office will be unfair and insensitive.
With Lagos State producing chairmen of the Senate and the House of Representatives on SDGs, another geopolitical zone should be allowed to produce the next presidential aide on SDGs.
The new person needs to target the vulnerable, the poor and ensure that the goals are fully achieved. Allowing politically-exposed people occupy such a position will only do more harm than good.
As a patriotic leader, Tinubu will not disappoint Nigerians. On this issue, we’re assured that the right person will be appointed to head that important position of the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals.
This is the right thing to do and we can’t wait to join hands with the next appointee to make Nigeria great again and achieve all the goals.
•Odewale is a developmen expert and sent this piece from Ogun State
