7 February 2010
By Salim Salihu Muhammed
Across the globe, poverty
had been a cankerworm against even growth and
development of the rural areas, notably in developing
nations including Nigeria. Poverty entails more than
the lack of income and productive resources to ensure
sustainable livelihoods. Its manifestations include
hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education
and other basic services, social discrimination and
exclusion as well as the lack of participation in
decision-making.
In an effort to fight these
menaces over the decades, government had embarked in
several reform programmes aimed at bettering the lives
of the common man and building a virile nation. One of
such initiative is the
Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), which has the United Nations’ commitment and
endorsement.
Nigeria endorsed the
initiative after its successful exit from the
Paris club Debt. The
boss of the agency responsible for MDGs in Nigeria
Hajia amina Az-Zubair discloses to online economic
magazine, the Economic Confidential that there are
eight goals being pursued in the country to address
poverty eradication,
primary education, women empowerment,
child mortality,
maternal health care, combating
diseases,
environmental sustainability
and a global partnership for development. She also
highlighted some of the achievement in attaining the
goals through execution of capital projects and
implementations of programme at all level of
government, states and
local government councils
inclusive.
Nevertheless, the
contribution of the growth process to poverty
reduction does not depend only on the rate of economic
growth, but also on the ability of the poor to respond
to, and confidently accept to work with an economic
plan aimed at bettering their lives. Since its
inception in 2000, the MDGs project had received a
significant acceptance and commitment, not only by the
beneficiaries, but also by the three tiers of
government who jointly access and utilize the debt
savings to provide infrastructure for the increasing
demand for labour in the more productive categories of
employment.
The carefully selected MDGs
goals can transform the living conditions of all
persons as well as
bridging the gap
between the rich and the poor nations of the world. In
rural areas throughout the world, poverty contributes
to unsustainable levels of resource use as a means of
meeting short-term subsistence needs. This is also the
case in rural Nigeria, wherein
population growth rates are particularly
high and income from agriculture is low, resulting in
high poverty and poor environmental protection. In
some rural areas, both absolute population size and
population growth rate have been shown
to be significantly associated with loss of vegetation
on which local subsistence families heavily depend.
For people with few agricultural resources, especially
the rural poor, high population growth rates undermine
the potential for economic development that would
otherwise occur with improved agricultural resources
and more rational
natural resource use.
Population-related issues
pertaining to natural resource use, agriculture, and
associated food security exacerbate existing
inequities between urban and rural areas, and between
rural subsistence families and those moving closer
toward the market economy. In short, overutilization
of resources and high population growth rates are
making the poor even poorer. The big challenge to the
implementation of the MDGs is one of complexity of the
Nigerian government; accountability and weak
institutions and deteriorated systems pose dangers
that lead to drop outs from school,
underrepresentation of women in key national decision
process, malnutrition and
health hazards,
lack of skilled medical personnel as well as sound
education on pandemics, and the ability to sustain a
friendly and healthy environment for the Nigerian
populace. An insight to the present situation also
indicates the country’s lack of global partnership
that could aid development and
improved production capacity of the
nation to boost technology and international trade.
Although, underlying
antecedents may perceive the attainment of the 15
years transformation plans as another economic tale
which, like most other programmes, may not be feasible
or fail from inception. The success of the 2007 and
2008 Conditional Grant Scheme (CGS) Projects by Office
of Nigeria MDGs attest to the positive growth for the
economy in the last quarter of 2009 by 7%. This is an
indication that there is a drastic achievement in the
area of eradicating
extreme poverty
and hunger with an all time fall to 28.78%. The Grant
Scheme had not only boosted the prowess of the poor in
agriculture, but had also improved the country’s human
capital development, infrastructure (which are indices
to growth), literacy, skills and technology needed for
development of the rural areas.
In the Copenhagen
Declaration and Programme of Action, social justice,
equity and equality reflect the concept of a just
society ensuring the equitable distribution of income
and greater access to resources through equity and
equality of opportunity for all. This
declaration stands to fix the disparity between male
and female where literacy rate stands in favour of the
male in Nigeria, and also extends to show that less
than 8% of female represents the country at
parliament. It is quite interesting to note that lack
of education among women hinders their participation
in socio-economic and political spheres of social
life. Improved MDGs initiative on this sphere in the
provision of enabling environment for the girl child
to seek and acquire education can broaden their
knowledge on scourges and other diseases that could
hamper their triumph in equalling the disparity that
had weighed down their progress over the decades.
One of the important
gestures of the MDG initiative is its recognition that
unemployment and underemployment lies at the core of
poverty. For the poor, labour is often the only asset
they can use to improve their well-being. Hence the
MDGs’ undertakings of Youth Empowerment (YEP) projects
for creating
productive employment
opportunities is essential for achieving
poverty reduction and sustainable
economic and social
development. The MDGs success at the
provision of Solar powered electricity to some
communities and villages has not only improved living
standard, but also helped the nation attained a
significant step towards saving energy,
technological advancement and
rapid economic growth that could
stimulate high rate of expansion of productive and
remunerative employment.
Many MDGs employment
strategies are often related to agricultural and rural
development and include using labour-intensive
agricultural technologies, it may be necessary to also
focus mote attention in developing small and
medium-size enterprises, and promoting micro projects
in rural areas that are easily accessible to dwellers.
Despite increasing
democracy and stability in sub-Saharan Africa,
corruption and conflict remain serious barriers to
ending extreme poverty on the continent. In addition
to the human and psychological toll corruption and
conflict take on African populations, they also cost
money -- the continent loses around $148 billion each
year as a result of corruption alone. We know the
damage of Jos crisis has done to image of Nigeria
apart from economic costs and the loss of lives. It
may not be out of place if MDGs engages in advocacy
towards peaceful coexistence, religious tolerance to
provide the enabling environment for MDGs projects to
be rooted all over the federation
Given the importance of
employment for poverty reduction, the MDGs should
continue to recognize the necessity of job-creation as
a central place in
national poverty reduction
strategies through the improvement and
development of
skills acquisition
centers across the country. Although the MDGs is said
to be an all government encompassing project, it
should engage other groups outside government
including NGOs and private organizations to play roles
in its mandates especially in monitoring projects and
provision of infrastructure. There is no denying the
fact that
public private partnership
can be the tool in the area of construction of
classroom blocks, health centres provisions of
relevant materials for those institution. The MDGs
Secretariat should also pay more attention to
publicity on some of the projects it executes so that
they are easily monitored from antics of lazy
politicians who may wish to claim for doing nothing.
To achieve these targets by
2015, collective supports of all Nigerians towards the
MDGs are needed to build a virile nation.
Salim Salihu Muhammed
salimmed16@yahoo.com
Jemaá
Street, Romi North, kaduna South,
Kaduna.
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EsinIslam.Com
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