ASSIGNMENT

CHOOSE ANYONE OF THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS AND

EVALUATES THE IMPLEMENTATION SUCCESS OR FAILURE IN NIGERIA.
MAKE SUGGESTIONS OR SOLUTIONS.

BY

FIRADAUSI ..........

KASU/17/ECN/..........

28TH SEPTEMBER, 2021

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1.1 INTRODUCTIONS

Sustainable development goals are design to build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable
industrialization and foster innovation’. Infrastructure includes transportation (by road, rail, air,
water and pipelines), healthcare, water supply and sanitation services, electricity and
telecommunications, waste management and disposal etc. By resilient infrastructure, we mean
that these systems are so designed that in the event of any disaster, whether man-made or natural,
at least some basic levels of services can be quickly restored.

Sustainable industrialization refers to the manufacturing sector with an eye on employment

generation, efficient use of natural resources and energy, while attempting to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions as a mitigating measure for climate change. The Addis Ababa declaration of (July
2015) is relevant for this goal, and emphasizes ‘knowledge-sharing, innovation and social
inclusion’.

Innovation has many meanings, but for the purpose of this SDG, it is closely related to
technological Research and Development (R&D) as we may conclude from the following two
targets and their respective indicators for this goal: Enhance scientific research, upgrade the
technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries,
including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research
and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development
spending.

The 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) to transform our world:

GOAL 1: No Poverty

GOAL 2: Zero Hunger

GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being

GOAL 4: Quality Education

GOAL 5: Gender Equality

GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

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GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality

GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

GOAL 13: Climate Action

GOAL 14: Life Below Water

GOAL 15: Life on Land

GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions

GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal

1.2 ANALYZING THE FIRST GOAL 1: No Poverty, the failure and the situation status in
Nigeria

Omoniyi, Victor, toeing in Ekpe’s direction, has opined that:“The Nigerian situation has been
described as a paradox. This is because the poverty level contradicts the country’s immense
wealth… Rather than recording remarkable progress in socio-economic development, Nigeria
retrogressed to become one of the 25 poorest countries in the world (Ekpe, 2011).

Thus, rural communities mostly are faced with the consequences of such mismanagement;
people in rural communities are denied quality life. The following pictures illustrate the typical
life of the people in some rural communities.

African rural communities will be worse than the real situations portrayed in those pictures if
proper steps are not taken to end the miseries.

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1.3 EVALUATING THE FAILURES AND CHALLENGES

The implementation of the SDGs has been confronted with stiff hindrances, and these are
categorically explained below:

1. Poverty

The extent and severity of poverty in the country has worsened in recent years to the extent that
the country now ranked as one of the 25 poorest countries in the world in spite of the resources
(both human and natural) abound in the country.” As a result, it retards the upward mobility of
viable development not just in rural communities, but in the country in general. This indeed is an
obvious challenge that threatens the hope of our precious land.

2. The Absence of Good Governance

The quality of life of any given society depends not just on the availability of resources but the
management of such resources Okereke (2010). There obviously is a confident correlative liaison
between good governance and SD. In effect, where there is an absence of democracy and
responsive government, the full implementation of SDGs will be quite impossible. This clog
fuels high unsustainability in most communities in Nigeria. A country where party and personal
interests outstrip social securities, a country where political sit-tightism is common, and a
country where there are no consequences for the neglect of governmental functions, cannot
effectively bring SDGs to reality. Indeed, government is brought to the grass root for active
political participation and rural development, but how often do the grass root leaders make
independent and long lasting decisions, which will foster rural development and refute the selfish
instructions of the higher leaders, who dictate the tune of their governance? This generally is a
common trend in African societies, and that is a concrete reason why it seems difficult to achieve
sustainable development.

3. Lack of Quality Education and Literacy Skills

One fundamental benefit quality education fetches is the improvement of the conditions of
individuals and communities towards SD. There is no country or continent that has achieved SD
amidst illiteracy and ignorance. According to statistics, 59.6% of Nigerians have literacy skills,
and most of these Nigerians are found in the urban settlements. This is not sufficient enough!

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Quality education creates strong awareness basically on the need to create a world that will
accommodate everyone. Where illiteracy is the king of a community, the goals of SD will not be
identified much less their implementation. So, pooreducation is a great challenge to the
implementation of SDGsin African rural communities.

4. Inadequate Financial Resources

Almost every rural community is confronted with the challenge of inadequate finance in
maintaining sustainability; the existence of a sustainably developed community is dependent
upon the adequate availability and sufficiency of financial resources. The financial statuses of
rural communities in Africa have obviously challenged the implementation of SDGs because the
concerns of the goals have made adequate finance indispensable. For instance, how can the goals
of infrastructure and institution be realized when there is not even enough money to provide
good food?

5. Environmental Disaster

An inimical environment is never a tripod to the implementation of SDGs. The hostile

environmental conditions tend to affect livelihood and viable maintenance. “Rural areas
experience a number of environmental problems like pollutions of air, water and land, land
degradation and urbanization.” Inhabitants, as a result, are often exposed to noxious
environmentalvulnerabilities which have eventually instituted a great threat to rural development
in Nigeria.

6. Urbanization

Urbanization simply is a population shift from rural to urban areas. In highly industrialized
societies, the social concept of urbanization is a concrete tool for rural development. But in
Nigeria, reverse is the case - it is rather, a challenge to achieving sustainability in localities. Here,
some cities are overpopulated with homeless and jobless individuals, whereas the rural
communities are an abode for old peasant farmers. SDGs cannot be effectively realized without
adequate manpower.

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1.4 SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATION

The solutions to the implementation of SDGs in African communities are discussed in this
section. On the issue relating to democracy and good governance, present prevalent prospect
points to the keen efforts of the governmental institutions to promote reasonable acts, strategies,
and policies that will aid sustainability in our democratic society. Leaders should act
constitutionally and perform their functions as responsively expected. Nigeria has all it takes to
win SD and so does Africa entirely. But until our leaders recognize the need for them to act
democratically to free Africa from the mess of suffering, high death rate, poverty, and brutality
will continue to unite the continent.

Moreover, illiteracy is a chronic disease that can be cured cheaply using the appropriate and
applicable implementable stratagems. The UNECA (2012) Report argues that progress towards
Universal Primary Education has been a steady success in some African countries. Such
countries include: Burundi, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, etc. However,
there is still more to do to raise the standard of quality education to a height that will guarantee
SD in rural communities. This is premised on the concrete proposition that the necessity of
education is to transform and improve the conditions of both the learner and the community
towards SD (Association of African Universities, 2009).

The government needs to invest in infrastructural facilities so that value can be added to locally
produced goods. The small business entreprises must be encouraged to achieve sustainable. This
will create more jobs, hence improve quality of life to achieve sustainable development.

Furthermore, many scholars have written over financial issues that the resources with which
Nigeria is endowed can be used to turn her to the centre of world attraction. This implies that
basically, we are rich, but we are practically into financial muddles because of want of
appropriate management and equitable resource distribution. There are many industries,
institutions, and persons who really can help to improve the availability of finance. In short, a
proper harnessing of natural resources makes this very possible.

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REFERENCES

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/infrastructure-industrialization/ Accessed on
September 18 2020 09:32 IST

How industrial development matters to the well-being of the population final.pdf

https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/indicators-list/ SDG Index Dashboard

https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/#/IND Accessed on May 28 2020 11:10 IST

Sachs, J., Schmidt-Traub, G., Kroll, C., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G. (2019): Sustainable
Development Report 2019. New York: Bertelsmann Stiftung and Sustainable
Development Solutions Network (SDSN).

Sachs, J., Schmidt-Traub, G., Kroll, C., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G., Woelm, F. 2020. The
Sustainable Development Goals and COVID-19. Sustainable Development Report 2020.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.