Poverty eradication as millennium goal

from The Tide

President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua recently approved over $18 billion for the “Millennium Development Goals” The funds were approved under the conditional grant scheme to support projects in key areas such as primary health care, electricity, water supply, sanitation and projects that support public and private partnership.

The Millennium Development Goals are a set of Goals taken from the Millennium Declaration of the United Nations, which is committed to the reduction of poverty by the year 2015. These goals are recognised by millions of poor marginalised people of the world today with over 70 million of them in Nigeria.

Seven years ago, 189 World leaders, including Nigeria’s immediate past president; Chief Olusegun Obasanjo met and agreed that poverty should be reduced across the globe in fifteen years. At the United Nations Millennium summit, the world leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration, a commitment by them to reduce extreme poverty by half between 2000 and 2015.

This resulted in the setting up of the “Eight Millennium Development Goals” which are eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achievement of universal primary education, promotion of gender equality and development of women. Others include reduction of child mortality, improvement of mental health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, environmental sustainability as well as develop a global partnership for development.

In Nigeria, former President Obasanajo launched the country’s first MDGs report at a well-attended ceremony at Presidential Villa in Abuja in December 2004. According to the 70 page report which was presented to Government Officials, diplomats and donors, Nigeria has potentials for achieving the MDGs.

Despite Nigeria’s potentials in achieving MDGs the civil society in Nigeria has sounded an alarm that the country may lose the opportunity provided by the millennium challenge to break away from the shackles of poverty and underdevelopment.

However, Nigeria’s determination to realise the MDGs has been further demonstrated by the setting up of an inter-ministerial committee early 2005 to coordinate activities and monitor the progress of the programme.

Furthermore, the Federal Executive Council in December 2004 took a decisive step when it officially endorsed MDGs to be met by 2015 while sixty billion naira was approved for the programme’s health scheme designed to reduce infant and maternal mortality rate in Nigeria.

Maternal and infant health has remained an issue of serious concern as 700 out of 100,000 Nigerian women die during childbirth due to lack of necessary equipment and medications in hospitals. Already, $10 billion has been voted for the first phase of the project implementation out of which $3 billion was proposed in the 2005 budget.

Although, the programme has attained some appreciable progress the high level of poverty among Nigerians show that the country’s chances of attaining the MDGs in the next seven years are still slim. With about fifty-four percent of Nigerians wallowing in poverty, having to make do with less than one dollar per day, a situation worsened by lack of jobs, retrenchment and lay-offs, the target of reducing hunger in the country by 2015 is far from being the truth.

Nigeria’s educational needs are still very far from being met with lack of adequate facilities in schools, especially those in the rural areas. There are also problems of rising unemployment as well as abated expansion in the number of urban slums and environmental degradation resulting from poor sanitary and environment habits.

The level of aid from development partners is still very low despite commitments on paper to the attainments of the goals. There is near absence of commitment in the purposeful development by states and local governments which will address the issues of poverty and general development.

The fight against poverty and hunger should be taken to the grassroots where majority of Nigerians live while the present strategies adopted to implement the MDGs need to be redefined and articulated for the commitment of all tiers of government in the implementation of people-oriented programmes.

Since the MDGs provide minimum standard for development, the government should use them as an opportunity to develop the entire country without delay, giving the level or resources available.

Against this backdrop, it is imperative to suggest that while the government and the international community are expected to show more political will, Nigerians should remember that they also have a responsibility to demand for accountability and transparency in the use and management of resources and sustained political will from elected and appointed representatives.

Tubosia wrote from Port Harcourt.