‘FG moving ahead in SDGs implementation’

Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, has said that Nigeria was steadily moving ahead in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Orelope-Adefulire told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in New York that the federal government was making progress in the implementation of the global goals.

NAN reports that the SDGs office organised an event at the UN General Assembly on: “Pathway to Localising a Global Agenda” on the margins of the ongoing UN General Assembly.

The SDGs are a successor programme to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with a collection of 17 global goals and 169 targets set by the UN General Assembly to transform the world.

It is also referred to as ‘the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, SDGs implementation is a 15-year plan, which commenced on Jan.

1, 2016 and would end on Dec. 31, 2030.

The SDGs cover social and economic development issues namely: poverty, hunger, health, education, global warming, gender equality, water, sanitation, energy, urbanisation, environment and social justice.

The presidential aide said: “We are making a lot of progress and we are not doing badly in the implementation of the SDGs.

“Within three years, we have bench marked ourselves as a government and know where we are.

“We are ahead of where we should be for now and we are in the process of coordination and mobilisation and advocacy and sensitisation of the Nigerian people to see SDGs as their own, to love SDGs, to dream SDGs and to promote SDGs”.

Orelope-Adefulire explained that Nigeria was not swallowing all the goals and targets hook, line and sinker but was prioritising the goals as they concerned Nigeria.

According to her, addressing some of the goals, like Goal 16, would also lead to addressing the others in some ways.

“We talk about 17 goals but there are other crucial goals among the 17 goals that would make other goals realisable – we talked about Goal 16, which is ‘Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions’.

“The strong institution that was embedded in Goal 16 is the major driver for the attainment of SDGs because if you have good laws and policies that align with SDGs, then your job is simple.

“Because if you don’t have a strong institution and you don’t align SDGs into policies and programmes both at private or government sector, then you are not going anywhere.

“If you align the policy and the frameworks to SDGs, then there would be peace because you know that if you look for trouble or create violence or promote violence, you are going to pay for it.

“There need for strong institution.

Strong institution talks about formation of law, that the vulnerable and the poor of the poor would have justice and anybody that want to trample on their rights would be put to justice.” The presidential aide explained that the Nigeria government had set up the SDGs platform with action plan and the framework developed, adding that government had also worked on the partners like the launch of the private sector advisory group that would work for two years beginning from February, 2019.

(NAN)

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