Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals
Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire said the Federal Government will
establish a Presidential Council for the SDGs to provide high-level policy
guidance, leadership and direction for the realisation of the development
targets.
Orelope-Adefulire made the disclosure at the ongoing United Nations
High-Level Political Forum in New York while presenting Nigeria’s
Voluntary National Review on the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda and
Sustainable Development Goals on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Senior Special Assistant said the process for establishing the
Presidential Council had already started, adding that two standing
committees on the SDGs had been established in both the Senate and House
of Representatives to enhance the legislative and oversight roles of the
parliament.
Orelope-Adefulire told the UN forum that the Nigerian government remained
undeterred in making the required progress to achieve the laudable goals
of the SDGs in spite of the challenges of an already ebbing recession,
largely degraded crisis in the North-East, and resolving militancy in the
Niger-Delta.
The Senior Special Assistant said some of the Federal Government’s ongoing
pro-poor and pro-development interventions had made impacts in the fight
against poverty like the Social Investment Scheme targeted at the
extremely poor and vulnerable; Home Grown School Feeding Programme for
public school children; Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme
for unemployed youths and the Women Economic Empowerment programme.
She also listed the N-Power Programme for job creation for the youths and
the Conditional Grant Scheme as part of the Federal Government’s efforts
to ameliorate the conditions of the citizenry.
“I wish to reaffirm that Nigeria has clearly defined her path to the 2030
Agenda. We count on the strong patriotism and goodwill of the citizenry,
the commitment of the stakeholders as well as the support from the global
fraternity of nations to ensure that no Nigerian is left behind,” the
presidential aide added.
Orelope-Adefulire said Nigeria had also increased national awareness on
the global goals and put in place mechanisms for identifying and targeting
the poor through a “National Social Register’’ in order to ensure that “no
one is left behind.”
She called on the Global North to fulfil their commitment on Official
Development Assistance in line with the Addis-Ababa Action Agenda to
complement the country’s effort at expanding the government’s revenue
base, and the reforms aimed at enhancing domestic resource mobilisation.
The UN High-Level Political Forum offers opportunity for knowledge
exchange and sharing of best practices in the implementation of the new
global development agenda among countries.