… an SDGs foundation.
SDGs-Based Manifestoes in Nigeria’s 2023 Elections.
It’s refreshing and exhilarating to see the Sustainable Development Goals become focal in the Nigeria 2023 presidential race.
Often, candidates reeled out literally appealing words and promises in their campaign manifestoes. They even left crucial matters to appeal to regional, ethnic, religious, and primordial sentiments.
But I was please when the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi stated that his plan for Nigeria if elected president is hinged on the 17 SDGs, mapped out by the United Nations.
This translates to ensuring no poverty, zero hunger, good health, quality education, and 12 others.
International organizations have called Nigeria the “poverty capital of the world” after the nation recorded about 80 million, the highest number of people living below poverty line. That’s below $1.25 a day.
With that figure, Nigeria with about 210 million people exceeded India of about 1.3 billion people. That makes it easy to see the urgent need to act on goals 1 and 2: no poverty and zero hunger. Our performance is below the global record of more than one person in every nine people being undernourished.
SDG 3 is as crucial too. A nation with high rate of poverty and extreme hunger will definitely experience poor health and well-being. Therefore, Nigeria is dire need of good health system to get above the world average of six million children who die before fifth birthday.
The importance of SDG 3 cannot be more emphasizd by any other means than the periods the incumbent president Muhammadu Buhari have spent in Medical tourism to London. About six months of his 8 years in office have been used to access medicare in the UK. In 2017, it’s a period of 3 months at a stretch.
All the candidates need to understand how crucial SDG 3 is, even as the All Progressive Congress candidate Bola Tinubu frequents hospitals in UK and France for undisclosed ailments. It should point them to ensuring quality medicare for all citizens. Healthy citizens beget healthy nation. Mr. Peter Obi hinging his manifesto on the SDGs is commendable. The goals have key measurable indicators. We can say the government did well or not based on the goals.
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