A University Don, Prof. Awe Abel Ariyo, has tasked the Nigeria government to prioritise the Millennium Development Goals, MDGs and the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, to end poverty, unemployment, environmental issues and others challenges in the country.
Prof. Ariyo said this on Friday while delivering the 75th Inaugural Lecture of Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti with the theme: “Sustainable Development and You.”
He noted that the MDGs and the SDGs were put in place by the United Nations to overcome these challenges and fast track developmental issues across nations of the world.
Prof. Ariyo went further to recommend that SDGs must be integrated into government plans, goals and policies down to the local government level.
“It is obvious that Nigerian government has not demonstrated the drive needed to ensure that SDGs become feasible except collaborative measures are designed to enable players including government integrate the goals into policies down to the local government level, Nigeria is not likely to achieve these goals.
“The SDGs must be integrated into the government plans, youth must be at the heart of engagements to act as bridge between the older and younger generations even as more work needs to be done at the state and local government levels.
“SDGs are the output of working institutions; Nigeria needs to do more to get our institutions strengthened and working with the right application of public resources. To achieve the SDGs, Nigeria must promote economic, social and environmental development.
“The attainment of SDGs at the micro level calls for Nigerians to develop a vibrant saving and investment culture for personal financial empowerment to meet the SDGs. Our consumption propensity for imported goods that have local substitutes needs to be reduced to encourage local production of goods where we have competitive advantage.
“In the height of the socio-economic as well as environmental challenges permeating the Nigerian economy, Nigerian government needs to concentrate on key areas that can boost or sustain its developmental objective such as massive investment in ICT and Research development of infrastructures, human capital development and diversification of the productive and revenue base of the economy.”
In his remark, the vice Chancellor of EKSU, Professor Edward Olanipekun commended the inaugural lecture, saying the lecture was apt at this period of economy hardship.
He called on the concerned government agencies and individual to key into recommendations of Prof. Ariyo to boost sicio economic development of the country.
