SDGs: Why Nigeria Walks A Tightrope – The Nation

The ultimate goal of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to end poverty, save the planet and ensure peace and prosperity in the world by 2030. But, nine years to the 2030 target, Nigeria still walks a tightrope with regard to attainment of the SDGs. The country has not made any appreciable progress in industrialisation, which, according to experts, has the capacity to address a good number of the 17 SDGs for her as it did for the industrialised countries. Also, poor funding, lack of coordination and ineffective implementation are said to be hurting her chances of achieving the SDGs. The Nation Assistant Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports.

Nine years to the 2030 target for the attainment of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Nigeria is nowhere close to achieving the SDGs.

Top on the issues hurting Nigeria’s chances of meeting the SDGs, which, brought together, are a global call to action to end poverty, safeguard the planet and ensure all people enjoy peace and prosperity, was failure to sufficiently galvanise her manufacturing sector and accordingly, make appreciable progress in industrialisation.

It is easy to see the imperative of an industrialised Nigeria to the attainment of the SDGs.

For a start, industrialisation is widely acknowledged as the singular most driving force for economic growth and development. There is hardly any developed economy in the world today that achieved enduring growth and development without an advanced manufacturing capability.

In fact, no country can attain the status of being developed without a virile manufacturing base.

Sadly, however, Nigeria’s rate of industrialisation has been slow and unimpressive. This is evidenced by low industrial capacity utilisation, modest manufacturing activities and constrained export of manufactured products.

For instance, according to the 2018/2019 World Bank Report, Nigeria’s share of world output of 0.41 per cent, which ranked 29th in the world, is very small considering its size and structure, when compared with India’s 3.1 per cent, South Korea’s 3.0 per cent and, of course, incomparable with China’s 28.7 per cent.

Yet, industrialisation is credited by most development experts as having the immense capacity to address a good number of the 17 SDGs for Nigeria same way it did for the industrialised countries.

For instance, industrialisation is directly linked to SDG-9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), which incidentally poses severe challenge to Africa, particularly Nigeria.

In turn, SDG-9 is critical and related to SDGs –1 (no poverty), 2 (zero hunger), 3 (good health and well-being), 4 (quality education), 8 (decent work and economic growth), 12 (responsible consumption and production) and 17 (partnership).

But at the moment, Nigeria is yet to make appreciable progress in its quest for industrialisation. Weak manufacturing base has made it difficult for Africa’s most populous and largest economy to leverage industrialisation to achieve the SDGs.

The United Nations (UN) General Assembly (UNGA) had, on September 25, 2015, set the 2030 Agenda for SDGs, which recognised that ending poverty required strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth, while managing climate change and working to preserve the oceans and forests. With the adoption of the SDGs, world leaders set bold and ambitious targets for an inclusive, prosperous, equitable, just, and peaceful world.

The ultimate goal of the SDGs was to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.

But the SDGs Centre for Africa and the Sustainable Development Solution Network in the 2020 edition of the Africa SDG Index and Dashboard Report, which was accessed by The Nation, showed that SDG 3 (good health and well-being), SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure) and SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) were the greatest challenge facing Africa, Nigeria inclusive.

While the first four goals, namely, SDGs –1, 2, 3 and 4 prioritised human welfare in the course of development, experts say attaining these first four goals serves as launch pad to realising the other goals. Nevertheless, Nigeria, which commenced the implementation of the SDGs from January 2016, has yet to record any significant progress in the first four goals much less achieving the other SDGs.

Evidences of the negative impact of Nigeria’s slow industrialisation on the attainment of the SDGs are telling. For instance, the country is yet to deliver a deadly blow on poverty, under SDG-1. Poverty still walks with four tows, literarily.

Africa’s largest oil producer, in 2019, maintained an unenviable record as the global poverty capital, with an estimated 91.8 million of its population languishing in extreme poverty.

The World Bank, last year, brought the depressing reality of Nigeria’s poverty level nearer home when it projected that 95.7 million Nigerians would live below the poverty line in 2022.

Nigeria is also nowhere close to achieving SDG-2 (i.e. zero hunger), as the country is currently faced with probably her worst food insecurity ever. Millions of its citizens can barely afford three square meals a day. The crisis foisted on the country by the activities of insurgents, particularly in the Northeast, bandits, kidnappers and other shades of criminality has worsened food insecurity and extreme hunger.

Farmers across the country can no longer go to their farms because of rising insecurity.

In 2019, the World Bank raised an alarm over Nigeria’s frightening food security crises. The pang of hunger and starvation is more in several Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps scattered across the country, especially the Northeast that has been rendered desolate by the bombing campaigns of the Boko Haram blood hounds.

Quality education, under SDG-4, has also continued to elude Nigerians; No thanks to poor funding of education in the budgets, high number of out-of-school-children, especially the girl-child particularly in the Northern part of Nigeria as well as prolonged neglect of learning environments and facilities, according to United Nations Sustainable Development report.

For instance, at the last count, over 15 million school-age children are said to be out of school.

Persistent outcry by academic staff unions at various levels of education over poor quality education caused by inadequate funding has refused to abate. The quality of education in both public and private schools has been consistently declining, even as high cost of accessing quality private education leaves many Nigerians without a chance to access quality education. And as things stand, hopes of changing the narrative and meeting the SDG target on education ahead of the 2030 timeframe are dim.

The situation is the same in the health sector, where Nigeria is evidently missing out in the global push to meet the SDG target on ‘good health and well-being.’

Poor funding and mismanagement have left the country’s primary and tertiary health institutions almost in ruin. Incessant industrial actions by health workers have forced a good number of Nigerians who can afford it to turn to health tourism abroad, leaving the poor and downtrodden with debilitating diseases such as diarrhea, malaria, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and tuberculosis, among others to their fate.

While Nigeria, admittedly, walks a tightrope as far as attaining the SDGs is concerned, the situation, disconcerting as it were, throws up a number of posers.

For instance, apart from Nigeria’s slow rate of industrialisation, which ordinarily should have helped her address a good number of the SDGs, are there other constraints against the achievement of the goals? Where exactly did Nigeria get it wrong? And what are the required interventions to turn things around and hopefully, meet the SDGs within the remaining nine-year time frame?

The Nation learnt that other factors that have contributed in leaving Nigeria behind in the global campaign to end poverty and achieve other SDGs include poor funding, lack of coordination and ineffective implementation.

Others include multiple taxation and inadequate support to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Lack of sustained political will on the part of the government, working with its relevant agencies, to close some of the identified gaps in the implementation of the SDGs is also a factor.

Experts weigh in on the matter

To examine the aforementioned posers, identify where Nigeria missed it and suggest drivers for recovery ahead of the 2030 timeline for achieving the SDGs, experts and stakeholders from the public and private sector gathered at a ‘High-Level Conversation with MS Amina Mohammed,the United Nations (UN) Deputy Secretary-General on Sustainable Development Goals to have a robust conversation on how to upscale industrialisation in order to achieve the SDGs in Nigeria.

Held in Lagos, recently, with the theme “Industrialisation: A Pathway to Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),” the conversation was at the behest of the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN).

The event, which was both physical and virtual, was the last leg of activities that marked the Association’s 50th anniversary. And it proved a veritable platform for experts to appraise the current state of SDGs implementation in Nigeria with a view to identifying prevailing challenges, weaknesses and strengths.

MAN President Mr. Mansur Ahmed explained that “the interactive session was premised on the urgent need for us as industrialists to examine and prioritise the nexus between industrialisation and sustainable development.” He said it was in alignment with the UN SDGs.

For the moderator of the Roundtable, Prof. Tunji Olaopa, it was significant that MAN focused a discourse on the critical nexus between industrialisation that is done sustainably through a growth model rooted in eco-friendly practices.

According to Olaopa, who is currently Directing Staff at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, Plateau State, no other theme would have been more appropriate in any reflection of the future of the Nigerian economy.

The University of Ibadan-trained political scientist, however, said there are indeed, two angles to any conversation on policy and business remodeling to drive Nigeria’s economic growth on to sustainable industrialisation.

The first angle, he said, must necessarily focus on reconciling the discrepancy between Nigeria’s productive capacities and her developmental consumerist culture.

He stated that since the 1956 when Nigeria struck oil, “we have reached an unenviable point where we consume what we do not produce as a country.

“This is the most significant and counter-intuitive occurrence in Nigeria’s development. And in economic theory and the principle of comparative advantage, a country ought to produce more and consume less of products for which she has a comparative advantage.”

Prof. Olaopa said since Nigeria remains the biggest economy in the region, she must, as a matter of national survival, and with redoubled urgency, creatively confront and resolve our country’s high-consuming mono-cultural economic structure that is driven by “negative production” – a weak productive capacity that ensures that, in order to feed her growing consumption pattern and unproductive proclivities, the country imports what it possesses the capacity to produce.

The expert was emphatic that “this economic structure is not sustainable now, more so, as the global demand for crude oil is disappearing with a global accelerating shift to greater adoption of clean and environmentally-friendly technologies and industrial processes that rely on alternative energy sources instead of oil in the global existentialist concert to save the planet earth.”

The erudite scholar and consummate technocrat, therefore, said as a country, going forward, it means that the country’s entire policy architecture must be redirected much more creatively and urgently to reverse the consumption-production discrepancy.

“This implies a rigorous attention to implementing the Local Content Act, especially the clauses on value creation, development of the private sector production capacity and utilisation of local resources in industrial activities,” he said.

While sharing his perspective on sustainable industrialisation in Nigeria, natural resources management expert and Director-General of Nigeria Conservation Foundation, Dr. Muhtari Aminu-Kano, harped on the need for industrialists to pay equal attention to economic, social, and environmental aspects of sustainability.

He said this is in view of the current impact (positive and negative) that is building up, especially with Nigeria’s exploding population, its heavily urbanised character and what all of that mean for extreme weather events arising from global warming and shifting weather patterns.

The Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the President on SDGs, Princess Victoria Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire said there are three dimensions to ending poverty, namely economic, social and environmental.

“To make progress on SDG-1 (poverty) and 2 (zero-hunger), we have to make progress on SDG-8 and 9 (infrastructure, industry, and innovation),” she said, adding, however, that Nigeria would continue to struggle on the provision of decent jobs and economic growth until her economy is diversified from oil and gas.

UN Deputy Secretary-General MS Mohammed, who joined the Roundtable virtually, assured that the UN would support Nigeria to harness its industrial capacity to contribute to the SDGs through jobs creation, noting that inclusive and sustainable industrial development were important to achieving the SDGs.

She, however, urged Nigerian industrialists to promote sustainable industrial production through efficient use of resources in a manner that would promote the attainment of zero-waste as stated in the 2030 agenda of the SDGs 7, 9, and 12.

She also said sustainable recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic must be guided by the SDGs.

The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha said the choice of a contemporary theme as “Industrialisation: A Pathway to Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)” could not have been more apposite than now when the global community, including Nigeria, is reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He acknowledged the fact that despite being in existence as a country for 61 years and despite all efforts by various administrations, “we are yet to become an industrialised country as was the dream on attainment of independence.”

He blamed the situation on “the interplay of international conspiracy aided by local collaborators that have ensured Nigeria does not develop capability in steel production, for instance.”

The SGF, therefore, said the forum was an opportunity to critically review issues inherent in Nigeria’s quest for industrialisation, identify innovative mechanisms for improving the current situation and come out with a clear strategy as well as roadmap on how to galvanise the manufacturing sector, with effective stakeholder involvement, to put Nigeria on the track of industrialisation.

“This is not only for attaining the SDGs, but most importantly, to have a country where growth is not only measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but focuses on the whole spectrum of the Human Development Index (HDI),” he said.

Mustapha, however, gave a broad and detailed review of the country’s journey in the implementation of the SDGs and the role the manufacturing sector and the larger private sector must play to achieve the goals. He said since the commencement of the implementation of SDGs in Nigeria from January 2016 to date, some modest achievements have been recorded.

He listed some of them to include the establishment of the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs as the Coordinating Office for the SDGs in Nigeria; retention of the Conditional Grant Scheme (CGS); integration of the SDGs into the Nigeria’s National Development Plan (NDP) (2021-2025); supporting federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support (MAPS) and 36 States and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on SDGs based planning.

The SGF identified the launch of the NYSC/SDGs Champions in 2017, as a continuation of the NYSC – MDGs for training and developing Nigerian youths with agro-enterprise, entrepreneurship and digital skills needed for growing high-impact sustainable businesses and global competitiveness, as well as for food security and wealth creation in preparation of their post-service period.

Others are the development of Nigeria’s SDGs Implementation Plan (2020-2030) as a coherent roadmap for the “Decade of Action” for the global goals; domestication and customisation of the Nigeria Integrated Sustainable Development Goals (ISDGs) Policy Simulation Model – 2019; re-alignment of the National Statistic System (NSS) with the requirements and indicators of the SDGs – completed in December 2020.

Mustapha, however, pointed out that the successes have not been without some challenges, such as poor funding of education in the budgets, high number of out-of-school-children, especially the girl-child as well as prolonged neglect of learning environments and facilities. Others identified by experts in the course of the discussions included lack of access to electricity, lack of coordination, ineffective implementation, multiple taxation and lack of support to MSMEs.

The SGF, however, assured that government would keep working towards resolving the observed challenges.

He said SDGs are principally a wakeup call for the developing and less-industrialised countries of the world, especially Nigeria, which is the most populous Black Country.

“In reality, the goals are not, to a large extent, designed for developed, industrialised and high-income countries because these countries are highly industrialised and significant proportion of SDGs are already subsumed in their wealthy states,” he stated.

He, however, urged Nigerian industrialists to embrace the green ideology in order to mitigate the growing effect of industrialisation on climate change by reducing the use of fossil fuels and other climate change inducing production and consumption habits and systems.

The Managing Director of Unilever Nigeria Plc., Mr. Carl Cruz, said despite the challenging business environment, Nigerian industrialists have managed to balance the tripod of profitability, sustainability, and environmental protection.

“We have collaborated to develop recycling of plastics while more businesses are reducing their carbon footprint and are using solar energy in various parts of their operations,” Cruz said.

According to the Unilever boss, the industry strongly believes that it is imperative to innovate and transit to blue eco-friendly models.

“There is a clear need for businesses to make a positive social impact in communities they operate in and while at the same time making financial sense with stakeholders, otherwise you would not have the planet in the very near future,” he stated.

While the forum may have proffered clear strategy as well as roadmap on how to change Nigeria’s de-industrialisation narrative and ultimately, achieve the SDGs, the preponderance of opinion at the event was that without sustained political will by the government, achieving the feat may not be possible.