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POOR POLICY IMPLEMENTATION IN NIGERIA:

IMPLICATIONS ON THE ATTAINMENT OF THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS (MDGs) BY 2015.

BY

NDU UCHENNA MAUREEN

PG/MSC/08/48359

A RESEARCH PROJECT PRESENTED TO THE DEPARTMENT

OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT (PALG), FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF

NIGERIA, NSUKKA, IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF M.SC IN PUBLIC

ADMINISTRATION.

SUPERVISOR: PROFESSOR FAB. O. ONAH

CHAPTER ONE

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INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The problem of development according to Igbuzor {2005} has

occupied the attention of scholars, activists, politicians,

development workers, local and international organization for

many years with increased tempo in the last decade. Though

there are different perspectives to development, there is a general

consensus among scholars that development will lead to good

change manifested in increased capacity of people to have control

over material assets, intellectual resources and ideology and

obtain physical necessities of life (food, clothing, and shelter)

employment equality, participation in government, political and

economic independence, adequate education, gender equality,

sustainable development and peace. This is why some people

have argued that the purpose of development is to improve

peoples’ lives by expanding their choice, freedom and dignity.

However the reality of development all over the world is that

many countries are underdeveloped with precarious development

indices. More than 1.2 billion people or about 20 percent of world

population live on less than one us dollar per pay. Wealth is

concentrated in the hand of a few people. The UNDP (1988)

documented that the three richest people in the world have

assets that exceed the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the 48

least developed countries. Similarly, the 1000 richest people in

the world have personal wealth that is greater than that of 500

million people in the least developed countries.

Nigeria, which was one of the richest 50 countries in

the early 1970s, has retrogressed to become one of the 25 poorest

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countries at the threshold of the twenty first century. It is ironical

that Nigeria which is the sixth largest exporter of oil, at the same

time hosts the third largest number of poor people after China

and India. World Bank (2001) statistics show that the incidence

of poverty using the US one dollar per day increased from 28.1

percent in 1980 to 46.3 percent in 1985 and declined to 42.7

percent in 1992 but increased again to 65.6 percent in 1996. The

incidence increased to 69.2 percent in 1997. The National

planning commission (2004) report indicates that the poverty

level has decreased to 54.4 percent. Nigeria fares very poorly in

development indices. The average annual percentage growth of

GDP in Nigeria from 1990 to 2000 according to this report was

2.4 percent. This is very poor when compared to Ghana (4.3) and

Egypt (4.6) percent

NBS (2007) reports that Nigeria is among the 20

countries in the world with the widest gap between the rich and

the poor. The Gini index according to this report remains one of

the highest in the world. Nigeria has a Gini index of 50.6. This

compares poorly with other countries such as India (37.3),

Jamaica (37.9) Mauritania (37.8) and Rwanda (28.9). The Gini

index measures the extent to which the distribution of income

among individuals or household, within an economy deviates

from a perfectly equal distribution. A Gini index of zero

represents perfect equality while an index of 100 implies perfect

inequality.

In order to address the global problem of poverty and

promote sustainable development, 192 members of the United

Nations and at least 23 international organizations in September

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2000 adopted the United Nation Millennium Declaration on

poverty eradication, universal primary education, promotion of

gender equality, peace, democracy and environmental

sustainability. The eight main targets using 1990 as a base line

are:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

2015 target: Halve proportion of people living on less than

One dollar, a day and those suffering from hunger.

2. Achieve universal basic education.

2015 target: Achieve Universal Primary Education.

3. Promote Gender Equality.

2005/2015 target: Eliminate gender disparities in primary

and secondary education enrolment by 2015.

4. Reduce child mortality.

2015 target: Reduce by two-third the child mortality rate.

5. Improve maternal health.

2015 target: Reduce by three-quarters the proportion of

women dying in child birth.

6. Combat AIDS, malaria and other Diseases.

2015 target: Halt and begin to reserve the incidence of

HIV/AIDS, malaria and other major diseases.

7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability. Integrate the

principles of sustainable development into country policies

and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental

resources.

2015 target: reduce by half the proportion of people

without access to clean drinking water and basic

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sanitation. By 2020 achieve a significant improvement in

the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.

8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development. There are

no measurable but Goal 8 commits North and South to

working together to achieve an open, rule based trading

and financial system, more generous aid to countries

committed to poverty reduction and relief for the debt

problems of developing countries.

It draws attention to the problems of the least developed and

landlocked countries and small Island developing states, which

have greater difficulty competing in the global economy.

Following the slow pace of progress in achieving the above

goals by these underdeveloped countries, especially Africa, the

United Nations held another World summit in September, 2005

to review the rate of progress. Representatives of the 192 member

states met in New York city for what the united Nations described

as “a once-in-a-generation opportunity to take bold decisions in

the areas of development, security, human right and reform of

the United Nations (world summit outcome:2005). In his opening

address, Brockmann (2005) reminded delegates that the cry of

African people did not require new commitments; rather “the

courage to live up to the words we have spoken many times

“over”. Africa cannot move ahead on its own, he said, stressing

that it was now time to move from promises to concrete action,

and for donors and Breton woods institutions to fully honour

their pledges. Addressing the summit also, Ban Ki-Moon (2005)

stressed that $72 billion per year was needed in external

financing to achieve the Millennium Goals by 2010. While that

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figure might seem daunting, it was, in fact, affordable,

particularly considering the $267 billion spent the precious year

by organizations for Economic Cooperation and Development (O

E C D) Countries on agricultural subsidies alone. “No one is more

alarmed than you at the current trends, which indicate that no

African country will achieve all the Goals by 2015, he said, but

emphasized that he was nonetheless convinced that through

concerted actions by African Governments and their development

partners, Millennium Development Goals remained achievable.

Kikwete (2005) speaking on behalf of the African Union,

underscored that Africa was determined to wrestle itself from its

predicaments, all it needed was help to complement its efforts. A

lack of resources stood in the way, and he was disappointed at

the failure of developed nations to follow through on their

commitments.

The MDG Report (2009) revealed that although development

assistance rose to record levels in 2008, donors are falling short

by 835 billion per year on the 2005 pledge on annual aid flows

made by the group of Eight in Gleneagles. More than half way to

the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals

(M D G), major advances in the fight against poverty and hunger

have begun to slow or even, reserve as a result of the global

economic and food crisis. The assessment, launched by UN

secretary general in Geneva warns that, despite many successes,

overall progress has been too slow for most of the targets to be

met by 2015.

Therefore, judging from the perceived global trend in the

progress or lack of progress in the achievement of the Millennium

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Development Goals, what is the position of Nigeria in achieving

these targets by 2015 in the face of our peculiar economic

environment? In my view, Nigeria has sufficient resources to meet

the MDGs in 2015. But for this to happen, the country will have

to change course in the conceptualization and implementation of

policies and programmes. This is necessary because according to

Egonmwan (1991), policy implementation has been described as

one major problem confronting developing countries such as

Nigeria. The implementation problem in developing countries is

the problem of a widening gap between intentions and results.

Implementation gap manifest in the widening of the distance

between stated policy goal and the realization of such planned

goals. In the words of Honadle (1979), no matter how beautiful

the blueprint of a programme is, a defective implementation of it

will make nonsense of the whole programme.

Nigeria has a chequered history in the area of policy

formulation and implementation. It very clear from records that

Nigeria over the years has initiated so many development policies,

many of which did not see the light of the day due to poor

implementation or non-implementation. There were policies such

as Operation feed the Nation, Better Life for Rural Women (B L P),

Family Support Programme (F S P), Green Revolution, Child Care

Trust (C C T)etc.

The failure of these programmes notwithstanding the huge

amount of resources that have been committed to their

implementation has provoked the desire of the researcher to

embark on this research effort. Attempts will be made to examine

thoroughly the prospects and fears in the policy formulation and

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implementation machinery in Nigeria that will either make or mar

the chances of our country in meeting the millennium

development targets by 2015.

1.2. Statement of the Problem

The Millennium Development Goals represent a global

partnership that has grown from the commitments and targets

established at the world summits of the 1990s. Responding to the

world’s main development challenges and to the calls by civil

society, the MDGs promote poverty reduction, education

maternal health, gender equality, and aim at combating child

mortality and other diseases. Set for the year 2015, the MDGs are

an agreed set goals that can be achieved if all actors work

together and do their part. Poor countries have pledged to govern

better and invest in their people through health care and

education. Rich countries have pledged to support them through

aid, debt relief and fairer trade.

However, 2015 is just four years away and the global

situation has remained slow resource commitment by donor

countries and slow progress in achieving targets by these poor

countries. In Nigeria situation going by MDGs (2005) report, the

challenges are enormous but some appear to be more critical.

First, the system of information gathering and management in

Nigeria is daunting. Second, good governance is necessary for

achieving the MDGs by 2015 but these are virtues that have

eluded Nigeria since her independence. Third, although several

reforms have been undertaken at the federal level, inadequate

complementary efforts from state and local governments limit the

impact of these reforms.

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The Report goes further to show that there is the challenge

of accurate, reliable, credible and believable statistics, coupled

with the fact again that development strategy planning in Nigeria

has been essentially external focused.

In the face of all these challenges that are standing on our

way, what is the likelihood that we shall join the rest of the world

in celebrating the millennium targets by 2015? Nigeria by

October last year rolled-out redcapets to celebrate her golden

jubilee as a sovereign nation. But four years away from 2015

targets of global fight against poverty and disease, the nation has

not much on ground to show for the resources and aids it has

received for this global project Ban Ki-moon (2009) put it this

way. Time is shot. We must seize this historic moment to act

responsibly and decisively for the common good”

Considering Nigeria records in policy formulation and

implementation, shall we in our characteristic feature of policy

failures due to implementation gap act responsibly and decisively

in achieving these set targets by 2015? For a long time in Nigeria

especially during colonial era and immediate post independence

period, policy making was not guided by scientific models or

principles but by incrementalism i.e an experimental process by

which government reacted to problems and situation as they

arose (Akpan, 2000). Although the situation has since improved

as reflected in certain key policies and programmes, many

economic and social problems in the country have subsisted

because of weakness in public policy formulation and

implementations. Some of the weaknesses and problems are due

to inadequate information and data leading to “planning without

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facts” and also most policy decisions and statements are not

predicated on sound analysis.

Akpan[2000] summarized his fears in journey towards the

attainment of the MDGs target by 2015 in the following words

“when you take a look at the Millennium Development Goals and

examine the priority attention given to poverty eradication, basic

education, sustainable development and public health related

issues like maternal and child mortality, eradication of infectious

disease like Malaria, HIV/AID, in Nigeria situation, it will be

obvious that we are not making any headway “No nation can

attempt to attain these lofty goals without a well-thought out,

well consummated and implemented national policy. The fears

expressed here are real and I equally feel the same way and these

shall form the focus of this research effort.

1.3. Objectives of the Study

a. General Objectives: The general objective of this study is to

examine holistically, judging from the slow pace in resource

commitment by these developed nations and slow progress in

achieving targets by these poor countries, the possibilities of

attaining or achieving the global target set on or before 2015.

b. Specific Objectives: The specific objectives of this research

are to;

1. ascertain the extent to which Nigeria has been able to make

progress in the attainment of the eight goals set by UN general

Assembly.

2. examine the level of resource commitments by the donor

countries visa –vis Nigeria’s access and effective use of such

resources in targets attainment.

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3. find out the efficacy of policy instrument that have been

designed towards the attainment of these millennium

development goals.

4. propose a way forward towards ensuring full attainment of the

eight millennium goals by Nigeria.

1.4. Significance of the Study

A. Theoretical Significance: This research is theoretically

significant in the following ways:

i. it will give a comprehensive overview of the global trend and

state of art in the journey towards the attainment of the

millennium development goals by 2015.

ii. the world is a global village and as such just like the political

system theory, what affects one country will also go to affect

other member countries of the system. The global financial

crisis has affected the economy of many nations and this study

will provide information on the situations of many donor

countries as way of guiding poor countries like Nigeria on how

to make some adjustments in her policy instruments as to

withstand the global financial fever in order to work towards

attaining the set target by 2015.

iii. this study again will be theoretically significant because it will

employ information gathering techniques that will provide a

concise position of Nigeria in the area of millennium

development goals attainment. It will briefly summarize the

level of attainment of each stated target and the prospects or

otherwise of full attainment of these targets by 2015.

B. Empirical Significance:

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This study will be significant empirically in the following ways:

i. the data that will be generated from this study will be of such

a value that will enable one to make some projections or

postulations into the future prospects of these poor countries

especially Nigeria in meeting the global targets by 2015.

ii. the statistical data/findings of this research will be such that

will provide in quantitative terms the relative performance of

Nigeria in the eight target areas as provided by the united

Nations. With this it will be possible to make such prediction

about Nigeria position before 2015.

iii. With the data that will emerge at the end, one will be able to

make a comparative assessment o f Nigeria in relation to other

countries in the attainment of these global initiatives.

iv. Conclusions of this work will be objectively based on the

theoretical as well as empirical data that will be collected from

all the sources of information to be used.

1.5. Scope/Limitations of the Study

This study is analytical in nature and as such will cover the

performance of the eight millennium goals as set out by the

United Nations as it affects Nigeria situation. The study shall

examine the Nigerian performance in the attainment of the set

goals right from inception of the programme.

However due to the time constraint and limited resources,

the study will not be able to cover other countries of the world

who are also involved in this programme.

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CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Introduction

In order to arrive at both theoretical and empirical

conclusions in this research effort, the researcher reviewed a lot

of literary works that have direct bearing on the subject under

study. The literature revered were those that have to do with

such aspect of the topic and are in the areas of:-

- Concept of public policy

- policy formation/implementation in Nigeria situation

- problems of policy implementation in Nigeria

- review of Nigeria’s progress in the M D Gs as set by united

Nations.

- Prospects of Nigeria in meeting the set target by 2015.

2.2. The Concept of Public Policy

The Longman’s Dictionary of Contemporary English defines

policy as “a plan or course of action in directing affairs, as chosen

by a political party, government, business company, etc. In

political science, In this sense according to Akpan (2000), policy

answers questions such as “what do you do in this organization

and what kinds of issues or problems do you deal with? “He went

further to opine that public policies the policies of governments-

entails both conceptions in terms of the “what” and “how” of

government activities. Thus, public policies relate to

government’s decision making. In the words of Suberu (1999),

policy may be conceived as the course of action by government

towards an aspect of the economy, including the goals of

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government methods to pursue such goals. In general terms,

policy implies state intervention in the economy. They are

purposeful statements, written or oral, aimed at solving a

particular problem. The point that some, policies could be oral

statement is important to note because very often policies are

pronounced even when they have not been articulated in writing

or are enacted without being written (Gitu, 2001).

In practical terms according to Ekaete (2001), public policy

consist of a course of actions and measures deliberately taken in

other to direct the affairs of society towards the realization of pre-

determined goals or objectives of development. Public policies

here aim to promote societal well-being, good governance and

development. Accordingly, they deal with a wide range of societal

issues- economic, political, social cultural, scientific social

welfare, environmental, political structures and organizations,

law and order, regulation of economic and social activities.

(Seburu, 1999)

At the economic level, Bolt (1991) views public policy as

comprising of two or more categories; on the one hand, there are

the economy –wide or macro-economic policies, which are

consigned with how the economy as a whole could fare better in

terms of high level of employment, relatively low and stable

general high price level, higher and sustainable economic growth,

fair distribution of income, stable exchange rates, favourable

balance of payments position etc. Then there are the sectoral or

micro-economic policies, which are concerned with how

individual sectors of the economy can perform better. There are

nevertheless other vital aspects of public policy which are not

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necessarily directly linked to economic considerations as for

example, policies that have to do with education, health, the

environment, population, social welfare, science and technology

etc.

Then, of course, there is the political dimension of public

policy (Seburu, 1999) which may be directly concerned with

issues of reorganization, redistribution, or national symbolism.

In the opinion of Egomnwam (2000:1), there is lack of

consensus over the meaning of public policy. This lack of

consensus derives from disagreement “over the boundary of what

should constitute public policy should it be posited at the level of

decision –making intention or action of the government?”

According to Abdusalami (1998:1) public policy “ refers to hard

patterns of resource allocation represented by projects and

programmes designed to respond to perceived public problems or

challenges requiring government action for their solution” Implicit

in the above definition is that public policy is what governments

actually do and not what they intend doing. In other words, mere

declaration of intentions, wishes, principles or expression of

desires cannot be regarded as public policy. A policy has wider

ramifications and longer time perspective than a decision.

Policies provide the guiding framework for day to- day decisions

required in the application of resources towards the attainment of

organizational goals (Nwosu; 1980).

In his view about the concept of public policy, Dye (1981:8)

defines public policy as “whatever government chooses to do or

not to do. A major flow of this definition is its failure to recognize

the divergence between what governments decide to do and what

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they actually do. In his critic of the two definitions above

Egonmwan (2000:2) maintained that they failed to provide basis

for distinguishing policy formulation from policy implementation.

Again they failed “to provide any basis for evaluating the overall

success or failure of policies as the assumptions in the

definitions are that each decision or actions of government is

supposed to be an independent policy of its own”.

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In his contribution to this concept definition Ezeani (2005)

opined that public policy should be seen as a proposed course of

action which the government intends to implement in response to

a given problem or situation confronting it. It is a statement of

what government wants to do or what it will do. Public policy can

in this sense be regarded as general rules, regulation, guiding

practices or actions in a particular activity or problem area.

Public policy, therefore, has to do with selected choice of action

or programme by government which will guide it in achieving

governmental objectives of essential service rendering, citizen

protection, promotion of individual and general societal welfare

and external representatives. Public policy is government’s long

range plans and values and the principles and practices that

should be adopted in various fields of national life.

Public policy from the opinions above, include government’s

action and in action and the effects such actions and inactions

have on the target audience. In this regard, one may align his

ideas to the definition of public policy as authoritative allocation

of values for the whole society”. This authoritative value

allocation covers a wide range of areas or activities such as

welfare education, health, labour, rural development,

transportation, communication, agriculture etc.

In a very broad definition, Dye (1981) likened the term

public policy to whatever governments choose to do or not to do”.

In this definition, the most important word in so far as it

concerns public policy is “choose”. For government to make its

choice on what to do or, not to do, it must have, first of all

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consider the issues involved and the total ramifications of its

actions or inactions upon other related issues. In other words,

government must have to take a decision in one way or the other.

Essentially, therefore, the “existence of a policy means that

there is also an articulated and clearly defined public issue

requiring solution on a continuing basis through the commitment

of substantial public sector resources and efforts within the

context of government programme”. According to Ibrahim (1998)

government actions which can be referred to as public policy

include the provision of public goods and services such as

education, health, highways, electricity, social welfare, among

others, the control and supervision of personal and group

activities through law-making, law enforcement, inspection of

personal and business premises, quality control etc. Government

usually makes a decision on each of the forgoing and then take

active steps towards the enforcement of their observance or non-

observance by members of the public. That then, not only

represents government policy, but also becomes public policy on

such issues or problems. One can then conclusively say that even

though policy is somehow related to the word decision, “a policy

usually has wider ramifications and longer time perspective than

a decision. While the former may be a continuing process, the

later is terminal action.

2.3. Categories of Public Policy

Anderson (1975) categorized public policy into five main

policy agenda depending on the political environment where such

policies are to be executed. But in Nigeria situation, he classified

them as:

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i. Policy demands: These are demands or claims made upon

public officials by other actors in the political system for

actions or inaction on some perceived problem. Such demands

may take the form of insistence that government ought to do

something” to a proposal for specific action on the matter.

Orewa (1997) puts it that the demands for the solution of a

public problem are usually made as input into government’s

policy process. Sometimes, these problems may change and

the groups affected by them will subsequently modify their

demands and desires in form of further inputs. Therefore,

policy makers have to adapt their policies to suit the changing

input of their stakeholders.

ii. Policy Decisions: Policy decision according to Anderson

(1975) are decisions made by public officials that authorize or

give direction and content to public policy actions. Examples

are decisions to enact statutes, issue executive orders or edict

promulgation, decrees etc. As it appears according to Orewa

(1997), government may take a decision on certain issues but

does not support or pursue that decision either with its

resources allocation or it may fail to follow up its decision for a

long time. That decision of government then stops short of

being a policy. Thus, decision has been described as “mere

declaration of intentions, wishes principles or expression of

desires.

iii. Policy Statements: Policy statements, according to

Anderson (1975) are the formal expressions or articulations of

public policy. They include legislative statute, decrees,

presidential orders, administrative rules and court opinions, as

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well as indicating the intention and goals of government, and

how to realize them.

iv. Policy Outputs: Policy outputs, according to Anderson, are

tangible manifestation, of policy, ie the things actually done in

pursuance of policy decisions and statements. They are

therefore, what government does as distinguished from what it

says it will do. Examples are health centres actually built,

roads constructed, schools built etc. It is worthy to note, that

policy outputs may sometimes differ from what policy

statements indicate they should be. Orewa (1997) Cited the

poverty alleviation policy to give assertions to the claim above.

According to him, the poverty alleviation programme/policy of

former president Obasanjo’s government had the objective of

reducing poverty through a welfare package to the poor and

the unemployed in the society. They were to be paid stipends

and allowances on a monthly basis. These supposed stipends

only succeeded in lining up the pockets of the ruling party’s

local stalwarts and politicians who merely stuffed the poverty

alleviation registers with fictitious names of their longer- on

and relations whose entitlements ended up in the private

purses of the former. So rather then alleviating the problems

of poverty among the very poor Nigerians the Obasanjo

administration merely acted on the problem, while the

influential persons in the society seized the opportunity to

satisfy their personal selfish interests, thus widening the

poverty gap amongst Nigerians, resulting, in the exact opposite

of what the policy was intended to solve.

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v. Policy Outcomes: These are the consequences for society that

resulted from action or inaction y government both intended

and unintended. For example, the intended consequences, of

the current privatization policy being implemented in Nigeria

are efficiency and higher profit of the privatized firms, removal

government subsides for public enterprises thereby saving

billions of Naira worth of public funds spent on them over the

years etc. but the unintended consequences are inflation and

the consequent hardship for families due to low purchasing

power of the naira. Again the capitalization policy and the

merging of banks being currently implemented by the central

bank of Nigeria might achieve the intended consequences of

strengthening the banks thereby securing public funds, but it

has led to the retrenchment of workers of banks that were not

able to meet up.

2.4. Policy Formulation in Nigeria-Nature and Problems.

Policy formulation according to Orewa (1997) refers to the

development of proposed courses of action for dealing with public

problems. Existing studies of the policy process in several

countries show that policy making is a complex exercise which

involves a large number of actors. Taiwo (2005) for instance

distinguishes between “proximate policy makers and more remote

policy makers and policy influencers. By proximate policy

makers, he refers to those who have legal authority to make

public policies. Remote policy makers and policy influencers refer

to persons or group of persons, not within the orbit of the

“proximate” policy makers, who influence and determine the

content of public policies.

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According to Ugoo et al (2004), policy formulation has to do

with the selection of the principles and rules of action that are to

govern a type of activity. New policies are to be formulated when

a new function is performed, when new conditions changes, when

a policy gap is discovered or when supplementary policy is

carried to lower levels. Policy making according to Ekaete 2001),

can be defined as the elaboration of policy in terms of formulation

and implementation. It is the process by which the government or

enterprise develops and implements an effective strategy to meet

desired objective. The policy formulation process entails the

determination of the policy problem, policy content, design of

implementation strategies and monitoring, review and revision of

strategy. For any policy to achieve its goals, it must be predicated

on a clearly identified and articulated strategy.

In Nigeria, the principal actors in the policy formulation

include the following:

- the legislature who is traditionally recognized as a policy-

making organ in Nigeria especially in the current democratic

process. The legislators according to him have sponsored many

bills which address pressing problems of their constituencies

and the nation at large. Most of these bills have been passed

into laws and are now public policies. However, policy making is

no longer the exclusive preserve of legislators. According to

Leeds (1983) the “congress has found it necessary to delegate

substantial legislative power to agencies and departments:

- The executive is another important source of public policies in

Nigeria. The president and his cabinet have been the major

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source of initiative in the development of policy proposals. In

Nigeria situation, Adebayo (1981:74) has observed that

“responsibility for policy rest with the political chief Executive,

who should lay down policy guidelines, and set the broad lines

of policy to be pursued.

Anderson (1975:39) remarked that “we live in what has been

called an “executive “.

- Centred era”, in which the effectiveness of government, depends

substantially upon executive leadership, both in policy

formulation and in policy execution.

- Administrative Agencies. He also remarked that quite a

substantial number of policy proposals are developed by career

bureaucrat in the administration departments and agencies.

These are forwarded to the executive and the legislature for their

consideration. Thus the popular and traditional view that policy

is the responsibility of political functionaries, whilst career

officials are mere policy executors is now unrealistic (Anderson,

1975). The permanence of the career officials, their experience

and expert knowledge of and skills in modern management

combine to put them in an advantageous position in the

determination of government policies.

- The Courts according to Adamolekun (1983) have often played

an important role in policy formulation, by affecting the nature

of and content of public policy through the exercise of the

powers of judicial review and statutory interpretation in cases

brought before them. Judicial review is the power of courts to

determine the constitutionality of actions of the legislative and

executive branches and declare them null and void, if such go

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contrary to the provisions of the constitution. The trust of policy

is usually affected by such decisions.

Then finally comes the interest groups who Jones (1984)

opined that they have crucial roles to play in the policy

formulation process. According to him, they submit to the

legislature specific proposals by government to suit their interest.

The influence of interest groups, however, depend on the size of

the group, its monetary and other resources, cohesiveness and

the skills of its leadership etc.

Public policies are aimed at addressing the numerous

problems and concerns of society. They can be simple or

complicated, depending on the nature of the problems. Economic

policy making, for example, is much more complicated than

promulgating laws or regulations. While some major policies can

be changed by the “stroke of pen”, most require a continuous and

difficult period of formulation analysis and implementation. For

example, privatization policy and civil service reforms require

high degree of technical competence to go along with political

will. But because public policy is an aggregation of a people’s

collective hopes, wishes and aspirations, development decision-

making should not be a top-down but a needs-motivated people-

supported, community-involved, botton-up process. This requires

wide consultation prior to the initiation of policy and involvement

of stakeholders in policy implementation.

But it is saddening to note that in Nigeria today, majority of

the people whom this public policy is meant for are not well

informed because of their lack of reading habits and lack of

awareness of government intentions and programme. In the word

25

of Badwi (2004), majority of the population cannot afford the

least access to information on what the government does or

intends to do for the generality of its citizens not to talk of

making positive inputs to issues that will directly affect them. A

policy must be conceived before it is formulated, it must be

formulated before it can be implemented or executed.

As pointed out by Ogunsola (2004), the problem of policy

formulation hinges more poor representation of the people in the

policy formulation machinery or process. The principle of

delegation or representation requires that there should be a kind

of input, output and feedback provisions in our new democratic

system. But the issue remains that those that are being

represented do not have say as soon as the election are over and

so denies the vast majority of the people the opportunity of

taking parts in matters that have direct bearing on their future,

children and general welfare.

The obvious gap in policy formulation process according to

Akpan (2000) has led to the failure of most policies which did not

see the light of the day in Nigeria. Most of these policies even died

in the formulation stages and some during the stages of

implementation. He went further to say that for a long time in

Nigeria, especially during colonial era and immediate post

independence period, policy making was not guided by scientific

models or principles but by incrementalism ie an experimental

process by which government reacted to problem and situation as

they arose. Gitu (2001), concluded this assertion by saying that

although the situation has since improved, as reflected in certain

key policies and programmes, many economic and social

26

problems in the country have subsisted because of weakness in

public policy formulation and implementation. Some of the

weaknesses and problems are due to inadequate information and

data leading to “planning without facts” and so most policy

decisions and statements are not predicated on sound analysis.

2.5. Problems of Policy Implementation in Nigeria

It has been observed that policy implementation is one of

the major problems confronting developing nations. According

to Adamolekun (1983), policy implementation refers to the

activities that are carried out in the light of established policies.

It refers to the process of converting financial material, technical

and human inputs into outputs-goods and services (Egonmwan,

1991)

Edward (1980) defines policy implementation as a stage of

policy making between the establishments of a policy - such as

the passage of a legislative act, the issuing of an executive order

or the promulgation of a regulatory rule and the consequences of

the policy for the people whom it affects. It involves a wide variety

of action such as issuing and enforcing directives, disbursing

funds, making loans etc.

Egonmwan (1991), points out that policy implementation is

programme implementation. The implementation stage has been

identified as the most difficult stage in policy making process.

This stage according to him is made more difficult because of

certain assumptions that are generally made by policy

formulators which include that implementing agencies will

faithfully adhere to the policy handed down to them, that the

policy handed down is implementable meaning that resources

27

like knowledge or technical know-how, money men and material

are available to implement a given policy. In line with the

thinking, Adamolekun (1983) has identified the following

subjects, that deserve attention in a policy implementation

situation: first it is essential that the policy to be implemented is

clear and specific, second, there is the question of the

implementation organization, ie the structure of the organization

and the quality of its personnel, third, there is the question of the

target group to be affected by the new policy to be implemented.

Ezeani (2005: 6) notes that the content of policy and its

impact on those affected, may be substantially modified and

elaborated, even negated during implementation. He identified

the following relevant actors in the implementation process.

- Administrative agencies

- The judiciary

- Interest or pressure groups

- The legislature

- Community based organization etc.

Policy Implementation Problems-The Nigerian Experience

According to Taiwo (2005), implementation problems occur

when the desired result on the target beneficiaries is not

achieved. Wherever and whenever the basic critical factors that

are very crucial to implementing public policy are missing, there

is bound to be implementation problem. Edward III (1980) in

Taiwo (2005), identified these critical factors to be

communication, resources dispositions or attitudes and

bureaucratic structures. These four factors operate

28

simultaneously and they interact with each other to aid or hinder

policy implementation.

Stripped of all technicalities, implementation problem in

developing nations is the problem of a widening gap between

intentions and result. Honadle (1979) tried to identify the

problem associated with policy implementation as that of social

carpenters and masons who fail to build to specification and this

distort the beautiful blue print. Here he was equating with a

building plan.

Quoting him, he said:

Implementation is the nemesis of designers, it conjures

up images of plan gone away and of social carpenters

and masons who fail to build to specifications and

thereby distort the beautiful blue prints for progress

which were handed to them. It provokes memories of

“good” ideas that did not work and places the blame on

the second member of the policy and administrative

team …

The above quotation shows the importance that is attached

to policy implementation and those that are responsible for

implementing these policies. It also shows that no matter how

beautiful the blue print of government programme is, a defective

implementation of it will make nonsense of the whole programme.

Unfortunately, the situation as described by Honadle above

is what goes on in most developing countries, Nigeria inclusive.

As stated by Egonmwan (1971), implementation in these

countries often turns out to be the graveyard of policy where the

intentions of the designers of policies are often undermined by a

29

constellation of power forces of politics and administration in

cooperation with people. Little attention is paid to the subject of

policy implementation by policy decision makers while it is often

taken for granted that once a policy is adopted by government, it

must be implemented and the desired goals achieved. The above

lapse has resulted in poor policy implementation, which in effect,

gives rise to implementation gap. There is policy failure when

there is a sizeable gap between a policy decision and its

implementation.

2.6. Review of Nigeria’s Progress in MDGs

According to the MDGs Reports (2005-2009] Nigeria has the

potential to achieve some of the outlined goals in the millennium

Development Goals combating HIV/AIDS, ensuring

environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership

for development ahead of the target time. However, there are

serious challenges in the area of reducing child and maternal

mortality.

In the same development, Igbuzor (2006:6), said, a review of

the Nigeria Millennium Development Goals 2005 report will reveal

a number of problems. As given by the report itself:

The challenges (facing the achievement of the

millennium Development Goals in 2015) are enormous,

but some appear to be more critical. First, the system

of information gathering and management in Nigeria is

daunting. Secondly, good governance is necessary for

achieving the MDGs by 2015. Continued process is

needed on this at the federal level while a lot more

needs to be done at the state and local government

30

levels to live up to up the challenge of ensuring

transparent, accountable, and responsive governance.

Thirdly, although several reforms have been

undertaken at the federal level, inadequate

complementary efforts from the state and local

governments limit the impact of the reforms. This

underscores the need for adequate coordination among

the three tiers of government.

A review of Nigeria progress on the achievement of the MDGs can

be thus seen.

Goal 1: Eradication of Extreme Poverty

Target: halve, between 19990 and 2015, the proportion of people

whose income is less than one dollar a day.

- Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people

who suffer from hunger.

The core welfare indicators survey (2004) conducted by the

National planning commission (NPC) shows that the

proportion of population living in relative poverty reduced to

54%. The data equally show that the proportion of

population living in extreme poverty was 35% while the

percentage of under weight children was 30%.

Following the above development, policy reform and

macroeconomic stability have created a platform for strategic

investments in agriculture and other pro-poor sectors. The

problems associated with poverty in Nigeria are multifaceted .

Therefore, investments must be undertaken by the tiers of

government, the private sector and international community.

Goal 2: Achieving Universal Primary Education

31

Target; ensure that by 2015, children everywhere, boys and

girls alike will be able to complete a full course of primary

schooling.

Poverty in Nigeria has more devastating effect on women

and the unskilled and the uneducated in terms of lack of access

to health care and income generation activities (NEEDS

Document, 2004). With the achievement of Universal primary

education with a focus on gender balance and skills acquisition

the people can, better be empowered to find better jobs, access

health care and other social amenities that will greatly improve

their lives.

Primary educational enrolment in Nigeria is a success story.

Accordingly MDGs Report (2006) notes that about 84% of school

age children attend school and an increasing number stay there

though to Grade 5. Net enrolment ratio in primary education was

84. 26% in 2005 as against 81.1% in 2004. The literacy rate of

15-24 years old also improved from 76.2% in 2004 to 80.20% in

2005.

This success has been bolstered by improved policy and better

intergovernmental coordination. The Universal Basic Education

(UBE) programme has improved access to schools. In another

situation, the increased enrolment rate have created challenges

to improving educational outcomes as resources are spread more

thinly across increasing number of students. Therefore,

concerted efforts are needed to improve the quality of teaching

and schooling, ensure value for money in the use of educational

resources, and sustain political commitment to the

implementation of UBE.

32

Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empowerment of

Women

Target: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary

education, preferably by 2015, and in all levels of education not

later then 2015.

Over 50% of the population in Nigeria are females, yet they

are underrepresented in public life and decision making,

discriminated against, denied equal access to basic social

amenities, and bear the brunt of poverty and all its related

negative effects .

According to the National Bureau of statistics Report (2006),

the ratio of girls to boys in primary education (ie girls per 100

boys) improved from 79% in 2004 to 81.0% in 2005. The

proportion of women in non-agricultural wage employment rose

to 79%in 2005 while the proportion of seats held by women in

national parliament was 5.76%. In 2005, women in Nigeria still

face inequalities in political participation and control of

household resources.

A sustained programme of action that focuses on

empowerment of women would be highly beneficial in reducing

poverty as more educated women can get better jobs, earn higher

incomes, and contribute more to society. They can also take

charge of their sexual and reproductive rights, thereby producing

healthier children and reducing their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.

As Okpanachi (2007) remarked.

Empowered women will also be able to access and use

the land for the benefit of themselves, then children

and their communities as studies have shown that

33

when women gain access to resources, they tend to

invest in improving the health, education, and

opportunities of their children.

On this note, therefore, the incentive for parents to send

their girl- children to school and keep them there must be

strengthened. The states need to reduce the cost of schooling and

make school environment more girl-friendly. Gender issues must

be mainstreamed into development strategies and budgets. The

government at the federal, state and local must pay attention to

schooling, political participation, employment and formulation of

gender responsive policies to fight the feminization of poverty.

Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality

Target: Reduce by two thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under

five mortality rate.

The NEEDS Document (2004:98) focuses on the welfare of

the child through the enforcement of the child Rights Act, 2005.

Emphasis is placed on child nutrition and immunization and the

issue of safe drinking water as it affects child health as addressed

in the document.

The reduction of child mortality remains one of the major

challenges facing Nigeria today. In MDGs Report (2006:2), as

against the global targets of 30/1000 live births in 2015, Nigeria

had 110/1000 live birth in 2005 with wide disparities which

subsist between rural and urban centres and among geographical

zones. Low maternal education, low coverage of immunization,

weak primary Health care (PHC) system, high incidence of

poverty, inequality, and poor household practices, among other

things accounted for high mortality rate in Nigeria.

34

The rate of child mortality in Nigeria (201/1000 live births)

remains very high when compared with other sub-Saharan region

countries (173.9/1000live births) and this ranks Nigeria as

highest country with the prevalence of polio in the world.

However, under-5 mortality rate improved marginally from

201 per 1000 births in 2003 to 197 per 1000 live birth in 2005

while the percentage of one year olds fully immunized against

measles also improved from 31.4% in 2003 to 50% in 2005

(MDGs Report, 2006). In 2005, the three tiers of government

showed appreciable signs of better collaboration in the provision

of health services. There are indications that decentralization of

immunization management has started to pay off. Continued

advocacy across the three tiers of government and traditional

institutions better household practices, access to safe drinking

water and adequate sanitation, will be key opportunities to

improving child health. Improving the federal system between the

primary and secondary health facilities is also paramount. Goal

5: Improve Maternal Healthcare

Target; Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the

maternal mortality ratio.

The MDGS Report (2006:3) says:

Maternal mortality continues to be high (800/1000)

live births in 2004). It is even higher in rural area and

the northern part of the country. About 15% and 46%

of urban and rural dwellers do not go for antenatal

care, and only about 44% deliveries are attended by

skilled health care personnel. About 2 million women

35

of reproductive age do not survive pregnancy or

childbirth.

In making progress, one of the aims of NEEDs is to reform

institutions such as teaching hospitals, federal medical centres

(FMC), and primary health care development agencies as well as

states and local government health system towards improved

maternal services. Implementation of National Health Insurance

scheme (NHIS) is working to make health care affordable and

accessible for all citizens. Encouraging private sector involvement

in maternity homes and support to existing government

structures will help to improve health services.

In a midst of the above following developments, long-

standing cultural, social and economic factors are challenges to

rapid improvement in these statistics, as rural dwellers

considered cost to be the greatest challenge to accessing health

care.

According to NEEDs document (2004), 1999 figures shows

that Nigeria has a maternal mortality rate of 704 per 100,000 live

births among the highest in the world. In the acknowledgment of

this, the Nigerian government currently put in place the following

programmes:

The national safe Motherhood partner which helps

to support expectant women in local communities.

National policy on VVF eradication, and

Programmes on the prevention of mother to child

HIV transmission are supported by UNICEF and

USAID throughout the country in tertiary

institutions.

36

In a nutshell, improving maternal health requires

addressing the cultural practices and social norms that limits

women’s knowledge and access to skill services. In addition to

overhauling the basic health infrastructure, training of health

workers and care givers as well as addressing financial barriers

to improved health care system deserve urgent attention. There is

also the need to improve availability and management of health

services, and promotion effective partnership, collaboration and

coordination.

Goal6: Combat HIV and AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases

Targets;

- Halt by 2015 and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

- Have halted by 2015 and begin to reverse the incidence of

malaria, tuberculosis, polio and other childhood killer

Diseases.

Since the identification of the first- HIV/AIDS case in mid 1980s,

the HIV prevalence rate has continually been on the increase.

Substantiatively, NEEDs document (2004:40) asserted that;

HIV/AIDS is a cross-cutting issue, with links to

education, health agriculture, defense, labour, and

other sectors. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Nigeria has

extended beyond high-risk groups. More than 2.7

million Nigerians are now infected with the virus. An

estimate based on a 2001 sentinel survey

conservatively puts prevalence at 5.4 percent of the

population. The figure suggests that the nation is in

real danger of facing explosive growth in the epidemic,

with dire consequences for economic growth, health

37

and social development. HIV/AIDS is already having

disastrous impact on social and economic development

in Nigeria.

The main drivers of HIV in Nigeria include blood

transmission, unsafe sexual practices, while stigmatization and

discrimination against people living with AIDS (PLWAs) still

remain rife.

In the submission of MDGs Report (2006), Malaria and TB

are still a major public health problem in Nigeria because,

malaria accounted for 60% of all outpatient attendance, 30% of

all hospital admissions and responsible for 300,000 death

annually. The Report says, Nigeria ranked fourth among the 22

high burden countries in the world.

Poor sanitation and lack of access to clean water are some

of the major causes for the spread of malaria and other

communicable diseases in Nigeria. In the view of Okpanachi

(2007:14), Nigeria has only 54% of its urban population and 45%

of the rural population having access to improved sanitation

facilities and 62% of its urban population and 49% of the rural

population with access to improved water sources as at 2000.

Nigeria is still at high risk of a vast percentage of its population

being vulnerable to malaria and other communicable diseases.

Nigeria is one of the 20 countries most burdened by

tuberculosis as well. Although many of the cases of TB are

curable by relatively affordable drugs, only 19 percent of these

cases are treated .

Effective decentralization of HIV/AIDS programming to state

and local governments (in collaboration with non-governmental

38

stakeholders), addressing the problem of stigma and

discrimination, value for money in the use of public resources,

and sustained awareness creation among youths are central to

dealing with HIV/AIDS. In addition, the Roll Back Malaria

initiative needs to be strengthened and its interventions scaled

up. Improved reporting network and continuous public education

on TB coupled with stakeholders collaboration on its

managements is required.

Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

Targets:

o integrate the principles of sustainable development

into country policies and programmes and reverse the

loss of environmental resources.

o Halve by 2015 the proportion of people without

sustainable access to safe drinking water.

o By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement

in the live of at least 100 million slum dwellers.

Nigeria’s rich environmental resources base is being undermined

by unsustainable practices. Deforestation is high (3.5% annually)

and is being encouraged by use of fuel wood for cooking, a

common phenomenon in rural area. Oil companies pollute water

in the Niger Delta while gas flaring, though on a declining trend,

still remains high. Access to safe drinking water and sanitation is

improving but housing has reached a crisis point with only

31.1% having secured tenure (MDGs Report, 2006:4).

The NEEDs document (2004) presents a figure of over 90%

of the rural populace depending on the forest for livelihood and

domestic energy. The document also recognized desertification,

39

deforestation and oil spillage as sources of high risk to the

environment, so it proposes environmental measure to stem

pollution, tree planting, agro-forestry incentives to convert to

alternative energy use, enforcement of standard oil field

practices.

Nigeria is endowed with a rich and diverse natural

environment but over the years it has reaped its riches with

insufficient care for the livelihoods and well being of future

generations. There is a lot of environmental degradation in the

Niger Delta and other parts of Nigeria due to the activities of oil

prospecting companies and other mineral exploration

corporations. These unsustainable practices have led to conflicts

between the rural communities the companies and government

with the communities often becoming the economic and social

consequences of these conflicts.

Goal8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Targets:

- Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-

discriminatory trading and financial system.

- Address the special needs of the least developed countries

- Address the special needs of land locked developing countries

and Small Island developing state.

- Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing

countries through national and international measures in

order to make debt sustainable in the long term

- In cooperation with developing countries, develop and

implement strategies for decent and productive work for

youth

40

- In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide

access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries,

and

- In cooperation with the private sector, make available the

benefits of new technologies, especially information and

communications (UN General Assembly Report, 2001:58).

Nigeria like every other developing country needs as much

assistance as it can get from global partners as it strives to

achieve sustainable development. The country is blessed with

rich natural and human resources but years of military rule,

corruption and mismanagement have left the society under

developed and its people severely impoverished .

In the Nigeria’s MDGs progress report (2006:4)

The debt services as a percentage of exports of goods

and services improved from 7.4% in 2003 to 3.4% in

27% in2005 are indicators of improved partnership.

However access of Nigeria’s agricultural and semi-

processed goods to industrial countries’ markets

remain weak.

While over 70% of the population living on less than $1 a

day, high rate of unemployment among the youth, high levels of

illiteracy, high infant and maternal mortality rates, low life

expectancy, high HIV, and malaria infection rates, high

percentages of the population living in slums in unsanitary

conditions with poor access to clean water etc, the future looks

black indeed. Therefore, the government has through NEEDS

articulated a comprehensive plan for addressing poverty and the

general underdevelopment of the nation. The government has

41

also to an extent demonstrated the political will to carry through

the implementation of NEEDS but the process cannot be entirely

successful without securing the partnership and commitment of

the more developed countries.

Improved and sustained macro economic management and

promoting transparent and accountable governance are central to

fostering strong partnership for development. The sustenance of

the economic and structural reforms already initiated at the

federal level and widespread replication at the state level is

paramount. Commitment to the implementation of the policy

support instruments will also improve international credibility.

2.7. Can Nigeria Meet Targets by 2015

Africa is a continent in despair. Despite its enormous

natural and human resource endowments, the continent has

been trailing in all socio-economic indices of development when

compared with other third World Regions. Despite considerable

progress made by some countries in Asia and Latin America

between 1990 and 2002, Africa as a whole suffered immensely,

recorded the lowest progress overall and in some vital areas, it

suffered reverses. In sub Sahara Africa (SSA) nations, the

number of people living in absolute poverty, ie US $1 or less per

day, soared from 2.7 million in 1990 to 290 million in 2000

(Economic Commission for Africa, 2005:1). It is disheartening

that women form the bulk of this number and, adult life

expectancy also declined. Following these developments, the

Addis Ababa-based ECA (2005:1) argues that, based on the

trends of the past 15 years, SSA will not achieve the MDGs on

time.

42

In relating the above scenario to Nigeria, Taiwo (2005)

exclusively put that:

The situation in Nigeria does not fare better as the

continent’s most populous country has been

confronting development challenges and crisis of

governance especially with the foray of military on its

political sense. Nigeria, Africa’s crippled giant, was

among the world’s 50 richest countries in the early

1970s but slumped to find itself among the 25 poorest

countries in the world at the dawn of the 21st century.

Putting the attainment of these goals in Nigeria context, it is

clear that they are real challenges. Flowing from the review of the

progress of Nigeria at achieving the MDGs above, the Nigeria

government is obviously overwhelmed by the tasks. The positive

social impacts that the implementation of the MDGs can make in

the lives of Nigerians were considered by the International

Financial Institutions (IFIs) in giving debt relief to Nigeria. The

Vanguard (2009) highlighted that, so far, the Nigerian

government score sheet is unimpressive to the extent that the

House of Representatives has threatened to stop financial

allocation to any ministry or parastatal that has failed to

implement the MDGs.

Considering the possibility of achieving the MDGs in Nigeria

by 2015 the actual challenge that militates against the

attainment is that of lack of policy implementation because

adequate budgetary allocations have been made by the

government. Furthermore, the implementation of MDGs has been

characterized by deeply entrenched corruption and gross

43

inefficiency, and wastefulness. For example, the senate report on

MDGs described the MDGs office as a “cesspool of corruption and

shady deals” (The Guardian, 2004b). Borrowing stance from the

NEEDS document (2004:100)

Corruption and abuse of positions and privilege have

long been features of Nigeria.. Systemic corruption and

low level of transparency and accountability have been

major source of development failure.

The disadvantage of the above development in the

realization of the MDGs in Nigeria by 2015 in the worlds of UNDP

Report (2004) stipulates that, it makes the country unattractive

to investors as it raises the cost and risk of doing business in the

country.

In addition, speculations point to the fact that there is

problem of duplication of projects in the same areas by the

federal Government, and multilateral donor agencies. In the same

vien, even the senior special Assistant to the President; Az-zubar

is skeptical about the possibilities of Nigeria meeting the MDGs

by 2015 in spite of the huge funding which amounts to N320

billion deducted from the Debt Relief Gains (DRG) devoted to

MDGs projects all over Nigeria. Although analysts believe that

Nigeria can overcome the odds and achieve the MDGs in the

areas of universal primary education, the fight against the

scourge of HIV/AIDS, and improve on the sustainability of its

environment, and partner in global development, the fact still

remains that reduction of child and maternal mortality, as well as

lessening poverty remain problematic (NPC, 2007).

44

According to Igbuzor (2006:8), the question of whether

Nigeria can or cannot meet the MDGs, is a crucial one that

should agitate the minds of politicians, government bureaucrats,

civil society activist and development workers. Despite the great

natural wealth, Nigeria is impoverished and social development is

found wanting. In summary analysis, the NEEDS document

(2004: xiii) emphasized that;

If present trends continue, the country is not likely to meet

the millennium Development Goals (by 2015).

2.8. Theoretical Framework: - This study applied the systems

theory as its theoretical background. The Millennium

development goal initiative is a global programme designed to

achieve progress around the world. A system according to

Hellriegl (1996) is an association of interrelated and

interdependent parts. The systems perspective according to Abba

et al (2004) represents an approach to solving problems by

diagnosing them within a framework of inputs, transformation

processes output and major premises as efficiency and

effectiveness of the subsystems as well as the synergic

relationships within the subsystems.

One of the global treats to the achievement of the goals set

by the United Nations was the recent financial crisis that affected

some members/donor countries within the United Nations. The

MDGs as global programme operatives within the subsystems of

United Nations general body.

45

2.9. Research Questions: - This study used mainly the

secondary data and as such the researcher relied on the research

questions set from where data on the progress and challenges in

each target and indicators were gathered and analyzed.

The research questions include:-

1. To what extent has Nigeria been able to make progress in

the attainment of the MDGs target?

2. Has Nigeria been able to access funds from donor countries

and how committed are the agencies concerned?

3. How effective are the agencies like NAPEP, NACA, UBE etc

in ensuring the attainment of MDGS in Nigeria?

4. In amidst of the enabling policy environment, what is the

possibility of Nigeria achieving the set target by 2015?

5. How will Nigeria be able to surmount the challenges facing

the realization of MDGs come, 2015

46

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 The Methodology

This chapter describes the procedure used for carrying out this

research work. In the words of Oguonu and Anugwom (2006.33),

methodology refers to the framework of activity or operation of

the research. Furthermore, seen purely in terms of method of

study, it denotes the range of approaches used in research

together and interpretation on which to anchor explanation and

predictions. These approaches include design of the study, area

of the study, sources of data and method of data analysis.

3.2 Design of the Study

The design that was adopted for the study was observation

method. The structural design of this research is in such away

that it allows for comparison of results and the progress towards

the goal and to assess the possibility of Nigeria in attaining the

set targets by 2015, given the current activities in policy

environment of the federal government in collaboration with other

tiers of the government.

3.3 Area of the Study

The research work was carried out in Nigeria. The country has

thirty – six (36) states, the federal capital Territory and seven

hundred and seventy four (774) Local Government Areas.

However, the researcher gathered from what the Nigeria

Presidential Senior Special Assistant on MDGs Az- Zubair (2010)

cited in Nwosu (2010:30) that at the inception of the MDGs,

projects were executed through the Federal Government

47

ministries whose responsibilities synchronize with the

millennium Development Goals objectives. It is necessary to co-

fund MDGs projects with state Governments and local

Government so as to have the desired impact at the grassroots

where poverty, hunger and diseases are highest. It then became

obvious that a change in strategy was necessary to involve states

in order to cover more grounds and reach Nigerians at the lowest

poverty ladder.

3.4 Sources of Data

The research used secondary Data to carryout analysis of

the eight goals collected from variety of sources including the line

ministries, Department and Agencies of the government

responsible for monitoring the MDGs issues and indicators in

Nigeria. The line ministries directly involved in the monitoring

and generation of data for the MDGs include the ministries of

Health, Education, woman Affairs and Social Development,

commerce and industry, youths and sports.

Agencies that provide very critical and useful

information/data include National/Action committee on Aids

(NACA) UNICEF, UNDP, World Bank Reports, National Poverty

Alleviation Programme (NAPEP) National Bureau of Statistics

(NBS) National Population Commission (NPC). Other sources

include official government leading documents and reports such

as NEEDS, Nigeria MDGs Reports and Nigerian Statistical year

Book. Other Government Agencies that helped in the generation

of data are Universal Basic Education Commission Enugu Area

office and Nnamdi Azikiwe Library, University of Nigeria Nsukka.

3.5 Method of Data Analysis

48

The data gathered for this study was presented in tabular form

and percentages. The major findings and discussion of the

indicators of the goals were based on the status and trend,

supportive policy environment and the problems challenging the

attainment of the MDGs in Nigeria by 2015. The data gathered

from these major areas formed focus of analysis and projections

covering the period under review.

49

CHAPTER FOUR

DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

4.1 Introduction

In this chapter the data obtained are organized and

presented in tables as they related to the research questions that

guided the study. Frequency and percentage tables were used in t

he presentation. Analysis and discussion was done on the three

element of investigation: The levels and direction, enabling policy

framework and the problems facing the implementation and

realization of each of the Millennium Development Goals policy in

Nigeria by 2015.

Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Indicators 2000 2004 2009 Target

@2015

Progress

towards target

% of population living in

relative poverty

66 54 54 21 slow

% of population living in

relative poverty

(consuming 2900

Calories or lower daily)

- 35 35 - Insufficient

data

% of underweight

children (under five)

31 30 30 18 Slow

Sources: NBS (2005): poverty profile Nigeria

Word Development Indicators, various years.

Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

Indicators 2000 2004 2009 Target

@2015

Progress

towards target

Net enrolment ratio in 81.1 81.1 84.26 100 Good

50

primary education

Proportion of pupils

starting Grade one who

reach Grade five

71 74 80 100 Good

Literacy rate of 15-24

years old

- 76.2 80.20 100 Good

Sources: federal Ministry of Education, Abuja

Universal Basic Education Commission, 2006

Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Women Empowerment

Indicators 2000 2004 2009 Target

@2015

Progress

towards target

Ratio of girls to boys in

primary education (girls

per 100 boys)

82 79 81 100 Good

Ratio of girls to boys in Secondary (girls per boys)

106 79 81 100 Good

Ratio of Girls to boys in tertiary education (girls per 100 boys)

106 79 81 100 Good

Share of women in wage employment in non-agricultural sector (%)

46 72 79 - Insufficient data

Proportion of seats held by women in National Assembly (%)

1.0 5.76 5.76 30% Slow/weak

Sources:

National Planning Commission (NPC): Nigeria’s MDGs Report, 2005 Federal Ministry of Education, Statistics Dept

51

Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality

Indicators 2000 2004 2009 Target

@2015

Progress

towards target

Infant Mortality rate (per

100 live births)

91 100 110 30.3 Worsening

Under five mortality rate

(per1000 live births)

191 201 197 63.7 Marginal

Improvement

% of one year- old

children fully immunizes

against measles

46 31.4 100 100 Achieved

Sources: NBS. 2005

UNICEF (2006) progress for Children; A card on Nutrition

NPI (2010): The progress report for the year 2009

Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health

Indicators 2000 2004 2009 Target

@2015

Progress

towards target

Maternal mortality rate

(per 100,000 live births)

- 704 800 >75 Worsening

Proportion of birth

attended to by skilled

health personnel

45.0 36.3 44 >60 Weak data

base

Sources: Nigeria Demographic and Health survey, 2003

Federal Ministry of Health (2006) Health suney

National Hospital Bulletin 2010, Vol 2 No. 4

52

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS Malaria and other Diseases

Indicators 2000 2004 2009 Target

@2015

Progress

towards target

HIV prevalence

among pregnant

woman aged 15-24

5.7 5.2

4.4

100 Good

% of young people

aged15-24 reporting

the use of condom

during sexual

Intercourse with a

non-regular sexual

partner

Female

24.0

Male

49.7

Female

39.5

Male

49.7

100 Slow

Insufficient

data

Number of children

orphaned by AIDS

1.8

Million

1.97

million

Insufficient

data

prevalence of HIV

among Tb patients

(%)

2.2 19.1 27 Worsening

TB defection rate 14 27 70 Slow

TB Treatment

success rate

79 80 85 Good

Source: Federal Ministry of Health 2006. National Situation

Analysis of Health Sector Response to HIV/AIDS in Nigeria

Report of the National Aids and STI control Programme

53

Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

Indicators 200

0

200

4

200

9

Target

@2015

Progress

towards target

Proportion of land area

covered by forests

14.6 13.0 12.6 20 Worsened in

2005

Proportion of gas flared 53.8 43.0 40.0 - Good

Proportion of total

population with access

to safe drinking water

(%)

54.0 57.0 60.0 80 Slow/weak data

base

Proportion of total

population with access

to basic sanitation (%)

39.0 38.0 - 100 Insufficient data

Carbon dioxide

emissions (per capita)

0.3 0.2 0.1 - insufficient data

proportion of people

with access to secure

tenure (%)

- 31.0 - 100 Insufficient data

Residential Housing

construction Index

(ACI)(proxy)

45.8 50.4 - - Improving/insuf

ficient data

Source: NBS (2006) Socio-Economic Fact Sheet. Federal Ministry

of Environment

54

Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development

Indicators 1996 2000 2003 2005 Target

@2015

Progress

towards

target

Debt services as a

percentage of

exports of goods

and services

22.3 8.9 7.4 3.4 Good

Private sector

investment (US $m)

- 50 - 6080 Slow

Tele–density (per

1000 people)

0.45 - - 15.72 Insufficient

data

Personnel computer

(per 1000 people)

70 - 30 30 Insufficient

data

Internet access (%) - 0.1 - 1.9 Insufficient

data

Sources: CBN (2005) Annual Report and statement of accounts

National information Technology Development Agency (NITDA)

Abuja.

4.2 Analysis and Discussion Based on Level, Enabling Policies

and Problems Facing the Attainment of each of the Goals

from the Data Presented Above

Goal: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

Nigeria continues to be one of the Africa’s most endowed

countries. According to the MDGs reports (2005:13), despite its

vast oil wealth and national and human resources, 35% of the

population live in extreme poverty while as much as 54% are

55

poor in relative terms. The report said, almost 52% live on less

than a dollar a day and they feel it.

Poverty is wide spread but unequally distributed. There is a

clear North –South divide with the highest incidence of poverty in

the North East Zone (67.3%). North West (62.9%) North central

(62.3%) South (51.1%) South West (42%) and South East (34.2%)

(NBS, 2006). A poor family living in the North Western Nigeria

faces challenges for more numerous and daunting than their

counterparts in the south East. For example, immunization rates

are three times lower, maternal mortality rates stands at 2.5

times higher and literacy rates half those of the south East.

Poverty incidence is significantly greater and the depth of

poverty deeper in rural areas. About 63% of people living in the

rural areas are poor compared with 42% in urban centres. The

primary livelihood of the rural populace is agriculture (85%); the

majority of the farmers are uneducated and they use few inputs

to support their farming (MGDs Report 2005:13). For many a

Nigerian, life has been stagnant for decades.

The intense poverty of the people feeds into widespread

vulnerability. The most commonly reported response to economic

shocks is to reduce food consumption. While hunger is not as

widespread in Nigeria as in other parts of Africa, many are not far

from its grasp. Poor house holds state that in addition to

reducing consumption, they sell assets and pull their children

out of school, both having long-term consequences.

56

Enabling Policies

The validation of NEEDS Document (2004:100) that

Government effort at reducing poverty has taken the form of an

anti-corruption drive, economic sector reform, reforms in

government work procedures to achieve greater efficiency and

increased international support stands to justify decisive political

attempt at eradicating poverty in Nigeria. Also, Nigerian

government embarked on a comprehensive poverty reduction

strategy known as National Economic Empowerment and

Development Strategy (NEEDS) in 2004 (together with SEEDS

and LEEDS, as its State and local government counterparts)

which served as a medium –term strategy (2003-2007), which

equally drives from the country’s long-term goals of poverty

reduction, wealth creation, employment generation, and value re-

orientation. Full implementation of these programmes will reduce

unemployment, poverty and lay a solid foundation for sustained

development. In addition, government projects that the economy

should grow at a minimum of 10% with a strong emphasis on

public – private partnership in project implementation. Indeed,

the private sector is expected to function as the engine of growth

and driver of the economy. The completion of the medium– term

plan document spanning 2007-2011 is set to usher in NEED II,

which is commendable on the part of the government. The

reasons for this are many. First, government is demonstrating

that NEEDS will a be a continuous process; and second, with the

birth of NEEDS II, it will be feasible to consolidate and improve

the actions from the implementation of NEED I.

57

In another development, with the assistance of World Bank

(2001/2002), Nigeria formulated poverty reduction strategy

programmes and policies through the Interim Poverty Reduction

Strategy Paper. (IPRSP), which aims at building on the gains of

the earlier efforts on poverty alleviation progammes. Further

efforts of the civilian government to reduce poverty include the

Poverty Alleviation Programme (PAP) targeted at correcting the

deficiencies of the past efforts. This programme metamorphosed

into National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) to make

poverty reduction programme more participatory.

To ensure that the macroeconomic reforms translate welfare

enhancement, priority projects in reaching food security targets

have focused on agricultural development. In addition to different

presidential initiatives on such products as coca, rice, cotton,

and cassava, efforts have also been focused at rehabilitation of

moribund dams and irrigation facilities. Other initiatives include

rural infrastructure, land management, poultry production,

development of agriculture, and organic fertilizer development.

Problems:

One the identified problems that bedeviled the achievement

of MDG goal one is the interrelated nature of the MDGs and, thus

the various dimensions of poverty. Households headed by

persons with little elementary or non formal education have the

highest poverty incidence, depth and severity. Also, Nigerian

economy has traditionally been heavily reliant on the oil sector

thereby relegating agriculture to the background. The country’s

massive agriculture sector’s workforce is dominated by aged

people that substantially rely on crude implements. Efforts to

58

attract youths into this sector by promoting agricultural

mechanization have failed. Therefore, putting all these into

consideration has made poverty eradication attempts as mirage.

Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education.

Level:

At the moment, the level in the net enrolment ratio at the

primary school witnessed considerable fluctuation from 2000-

2004 according to table 4.2. The enrolment ratio increased from

81.1% in 2000 to 84.26% in 2009. The enrolment later peaked at

95% now. One quick explanation for the high increase in net

enrolment is government’s effective campaign for and

implementation of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) launched

in 1999, the UBE is government’s strategy to fight illiteracy in the

country.

Like any other data supplied by the Federal Ministry of

Education (2007), the number of pupils starting grade I who

reach grade 5 in Nigeria has experienced serious fluctuations.

The proportion was 67% in 1990 and rose to 80% in 1994, fell to

71% 1996% and shot up again to 97% but declined to 84% in

2002 while 74% and 80% each was recorded in 2004 and 2009,

respectively.

On pupil enrolment by sex, it is obvious that male

enrolment was consistently higher than the female by over 10%

between 1994 and 2004. Also, although 1994 recorded an

improvement in the primary six completion rate (74.5%), this

declined in 2002, falling steadily to 69% and 75% in 2004 and

2009 respectively as given in table 4.2. Further observation

shows that the proportion of pupils who reached grade 5 in 2009

59

was 80% while the primary six completion rate was 75%. The

main reason for the decline in the grade six completion rates was

that some primary five pupils gained admission to Junior

Secondary Schools. There is a good reason to hope, then, that,

the 100% target set for the junior secondary school completion

rate will be achieved by the year 2015.

The literacy level in the country is inherently unsteady,

especially among the 15-24 year-olds. The literacy rate for this

age group was 64.1% in 2002, 6.4% in 2002 and 76.2% 2004.

The literacy rate was, however, higher in urban area (84.9%) than

the rural (62.1%). Following the NBS (2005) survey, literacy rate

for this group stood at 80.2%.

Enabling Policies:

Again, one quick noticeable factor that is responsible for the

high increase in net enrolment is government’s effective campaign

for and implementation of the Universal Basic Education (UBE)

which was launched in 1999. The UBE is government’s strategy

to fight illiteracy in the country. Due to Stakeholders appreciation

of the importance of UBE project and their commitment to

support its implementation, there is the hope of achieving the

100 percent target in 2015. One other contributory factor to this

is the favourable political climate in this dispensation.

Problems

Following the launching of the UBE in 1999 and its

implementation, one major challenge is the enormity of the

primary and junior secondary education systems. Experience has

shown that poverty is a significant barrier to enrolment when fees

and related expenses apply. It is also an obvious fact that the

60

management of 36 independent states is a significant

undertaking and represents a constant problem.

There is also the problem of incessant wage –related strikes

by teachers in public schools. Such strikes were sometimes

prolonged by official insensitivity leading to withdrawal of pupils

from schools and dampening the morale of a number of them

even when the crises were finally resolved.

Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empowerment of

Women

Women in Nigeria continue to face inequality in many

aspects of life. The proportion of girls enrolled in primary school

is still lower than that of boys, though the trend is positive. The

ratio of girls to boys, (girls and boys) in primary school, rose from

79 in 2004 to 81 in 2009 (see table 4.3). There continues to be a

clear North-South divides in female participation. In a number of

Southern states, girls out-number their male counterparts in

school, while in the Northern state of Zamfara there are 2.5 boys

to every girl.

The trend is not as positive for secondary school enrolment

with the percentage share of female enrolment reducing from

48% in 1999 to 44% in 2003. Again young women in the south

fare better than their counterparts in the North. The net

attendance ratio is abysmally low for females in the North West at

10% against 60% in the South West. At the tertiary level, the level

is once again positive, with increasing numbers of female being

enrolled in University. The literacy level has deteriorated steadily

between both sexes in the 15-24 year group. While it declined

from 81.35% in 1991 to 68.8% in 1999 among the females, the

61

rate of decline among the female was from 62.49% to 59.3%

during the same period. By 2004, these figures had dropped to

60% and 45% for the males and females.

The challenge for both boys and girls in Nigeria is using that

education after graduation. According to MDGs Report (2005:24)

available employment data indicates that woman have become

increasingly favoured in wage employment in the non-

agricultural sector.

There is a gradual increase in the proportion of woman in

the National Assembly, State Houses of Assembly and local

Government legislative councils in Nigeria. However this is clearer

at the national level than at the states and local government

levels. Although the number of Deputy Governors rose from one

in 1999 to three in 2003 and now (ie 2010) more than four.

Majority are from southern part of the country (except plateau

State) from the North central zone. Out of the 774 local

government Chief executives, only five are women in 2003, up

from one in 1999 (MDGs Report 2005). Woman need to make the

jump from their strong representation in the executive arm of

government to the legislative organ.

62

Fig 4.1 National Primary Enrolment by Gender 1999-2005

Source: MDGs Report (2005:25)

Enabling Policies:

Through the strategy for Acceleration of Girl’s Education in

Nigeria (SAGEN) and the Child Friendly initiative, there is an

increased focus on advocacy, partnerships and resource

mobilization and the provision of girl child friendly schools. The

National Policy on Woman (NPW) adopted in 2000 articulates

gender mainstreaming in relevant sectors. It also supports the

formulation of policies in relation to social, economic and political

actions towards the equality of rights. The policie thrusts of

equality and social well-begin are designed to remove the social

menace associated with gender inequality and thereby promote

activities that empower woman to achieve sustainable

employment.

The Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) is responding to the

plight of illiterate and poor rural woman of childbearing age

through a female Functional Literacy for Health (FFLH) project.

The project whose objective is to enhance the health status of

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

16

Millio

ns

63

rural woman and their families, uses a three-pronged approach

of functional literacy health education and poverty alleviation

through viable income generation.

At the moment, women are well represented in key

ministries, parastatals and agencies of the Federal government.

Some women are now ministers and also occupy key leadership

positions in the Federal Inland Revenue Services, Small and

Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN),

Export Promotion Council, Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE)

and MDGs. The State Governments have ample opportunity to

learn from the Federal Government in the appointment of woman

into position.

Problems:

One of the greatest challenges to achieving gender equality

is the limited political will at the state and local government levels

to reduce gender disparities in education. Also female

participation in parliamentary activities is still beggarly.

Goal 4 Reduce Child Mortality

Level:

The reduction of child mortality represents a major

challenge for Nigeria. From the table 4.4 above the national infant

mortality rate has worsened relative to 2000. The trend continues

to worsen with the rate increasing from 100/1000 live births in

2004 to 110/1000 in 2009. This trend is moving far away from

the target for 2015 of 30/1000. Nigeria’s youngest citizens are

becoming more, not less, vulnerable. However, the under five

Mortality Rate (U5MR) made marginal improvement from

64

201/1000 live births (LB) in 2004 to 197/1000 live births in

2009.

In addition, table 4.4 shows the regional disparities which subsist

in 2009. Therefore, there is a wide variation between rural and

urban centers and among geographic zones in Nigeria, North

West, North East and South-South zones recorded the highest

IMR and UMR (se figure 4.2)

Fig4.2: Infant and Under -5 Mortality Rates by Zones

Source: National Planning Commission: MDGs Report (2005:31)

The coverage of vaccinations is highly correlated with

improved mortality outcomes. Vaccination coverage varies across

the regions and states. In the northern zones, vaccination

coverage ranged from 25% to 41% in 2005 whereas in the

southern zones coverage ranged from 43% to 48%.

On average, females constitute a larger portion of the

coverage (as shown in figure 4.3 below). According to MDGs

Report (2005:30), an examination of the immunization coverage

National Urban Rural North

East

North

West

South

East

South

South

South

West

North

Central

65

across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)

shows that the exercise is biased against males for Bayelsa,

Anabra, Ebonyi, Ondo and FCT while the opposite holds true for

Jigawa and Imo states.

Fig 4.3 Immunization Converge by Gender

Source: NBS (2005.85) the Nigerian Statistical Fact Sheet on

Economic and Social Development.

In 2005, the different tiers of government showed

appreciable signs of better collaboration in the provision of health

services. Federal MDAs indicated the need to coordinate planning

processes with the state and local governments.

Nigeria’s debt relief has provided an opportunity for a

conditional grants scheme that also targets the health sector and

empowers sub-national tiers of government. Such condition will

be key to the achievement of all the health MDGs in Nigeria.

Specifically, improved woman status, increased access to safe

46 47 48

49

50

51

52

BCG

Measles

Polio

DPT

66

drinking water and sanitation and improved household practices

are central to improving health status of children.

Enabling Policies:

The Integrated child Survival and Development Strategic

Framework and Plan of Action (2005-2009) serves as reference to

guide implementation of child survival interventions by

Government at all levels. Similarly, the National Programme on

Immunization (NPI) lays out a plan of action to achieve total

coverage. The development of a national policy on Integrated

Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) has the potential of

setting the pace for availability of comprehensive information on

basic health. The expansion of the Integrate Management of Child

Illness (IMCI) strategy from 6-21 states is a welcome

development. Thus Nigeria has the plans.

Commitment of the National Agency for Food and Drug

Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to eradicating fake drugs

and adulterated food materials in the country will reduce the risk

associated with the use of fake drugs across the country and its

implications on child morbidity and mortality. The current

economic reform on health sector and the National Health

Insurance Scheme (NHIS) should serve as a good instrument for

improving child and maternal health in the country.

Problems:

The weakness of the country’s primary health care system

continued to be one of the major problems to child health.

Primary health centres usually lack skilled and motivated staff,

drugs and equipment. This is worsened by a limited referral

system between primary and secondary health facilities coupled

67

with the existence of fake drugs (even though government has

performed gallantly on this in recent times).

Also, there is low maternal education, weak primary health

care system, poverty and inequality, poor household practices,

lack of antenatal and delivery care and shorter birth intervals are

strongly associated with increased child mortality risk.

Diseased such as malaria, diarrhea, acute respiratory tract

infection and various vaccine-preventable diseases contributed to

high levels of child mortality. Mother-to –child transmission of

HIV usually contracted in the womb or through breast milk from

HIV-positive mothers, has become a threat to child survival. At

the core of the high rates of child mortality are high levels of

malnutrition, unhealthy environment, and limited access to and

utilization of quality health care services. These factors account

for higher rates of child mortality in Nigeria’s rural areas where

access to adequate nutrition, quality health care and other basic

social services is even more limited than in the urban areas,

particularly for women and children.

Further more, child survival also depends on parent’s

abilities to understand and react appropriately to child needs, a

factor which is strongly influenced by female literacy levels,

empowerment and status. Family income and household

practices also determine key factors, such as access to safe water

and adequate sanitation. Interventions at promoting universal

immunization coverage exist, but they are not reaching many of

the poorest children who need them most. In some areas like

Northern Nigeria, social factors such as early marriage and

68

inadequate birth spacing, increase the risk of mortality among

children.

Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health.

Level:

Together with child mortality, maternal mortality continued

to be one of the most serious development challenges in the

country until now. The MDGs Report (2005:35) said, maternal

mortality in Nigeria is extremely high representing one of the

country’s most significant development challenges. From table

4.5 above, it worsened from 704 in 2004 to 800/100,000 live

births in 2009. There is wide disparity across the six geo-political

zones. Arranges from about 165/100,000 live births in the North

Eastern part of the country, with higher incidence in the rural

areas. One in every 13 women dies from childbirth – related

cause.

About two million of the 27 million women of the

reproductive age do not survive pregnancy, childbirth or the

immediate six weeks after delivery. Direct causes such as

hemorrhage, sepsis, complications of abortions, pre – eclampsia,

eclampsia and prolonged or obstructive labour accounted for 80%

of maternal mortality while indirect causes such as malaria,

anemia, hepatitis and AIDS account for the balance.

Patronage of Antenatal care (ANC) is low in the country.

Some 15% of urban dwellers and 46% of rural dwellers do not go

for antenatal care. Poverty and level of education account for the

low attendance. About 60% of respondents with no education and

those from the lowest quintile did not attend any ANC. The

distribution of pregnant women who shun ANC ranges from

69

South East (0.8%) and South West (2.3%) to North East (47.1%)

and North West (59.0%) (MDGs Report, 2005:37).

Skilled personnel such as doctors, nurses and midwives

attend to only about one third of deliveries. This varies by age

group with women- 20 years old or less being more disposed to

using the services of non-skilled birth attendants. Traditional

birth attendants delivered 20%, relatives or untrained individuals

delivered 25% while 17% were by self – delivery.

Enabling Policies:

As discussed under Goal 4, the heath policy environment

has seen substantial improvement in recent years. Concerning

access to maternal health care, the Health Sector Reform

Programme (HSRP) seeks to strengthen the national health

system, improving availability and management of health

resources, expanding access to quality health services, and

promoting effective partnership, collaboration and coordination.

In addition, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has

become operational in the country. The scheme provides the poor

with a source of stability in their health expenditures. However

for these initiatives to facilitate better access to health care for

Nigerians, it should be implemented vigorously by succeeding

administrations.

So far, policy has not adequately catered for reproductive

health. The country needs a national policy on this subject. Such

policy would empower relevant institutions responsible for

coordination and collation of accurate national statistics on

reproductive, prenatal and gynecological health of women in

Nigeria. Given the seriousness of maternal mortality and

70

morbidity, there is an urgent need to establish Maternity Care

Monitoring Committee to conduct confidential investigations into

the causes of maternal deaths. Each of these initiatives will give

much needed focus to the debate.

Problems:

Long-standing cultural, social, political and economic

factors have contributed to the poor state of maternal health in

the country. Maternal morbidity and mortality, for instance, have

been associated with high level of poverty, low-education,

distance to health facilities, ignorance, and outright lack or

limited access to health care services. These are further

complicated by poor state of health facilities and, until very

recently, lack of political will to reform the health sector. Most

Nigerians are yet to appreciate the importance of ANC, or the

potential benefits of caesarean section, Even women with life-

threatening complications refuse to go through caesarean

section, resulting in only 1.7% of live birth being performed by

caesarean section.

Goal 6: Combat HIV AND AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases

Level; HIV/AIDS:

One could argue that Nigeria has achieved Goal 6 with

regards to HIV prevalence. In. 2001, the prevalence was 5.8%.

This declined to 5.2% in 2004 and further fell to 4.4% in 2009

(see table 4.6 above).

Although prevalence rates are generally higher in urban

centers, they are higher in rural areas in 12 states across the

nation. The prevalence rate is highest among unmarried people,

commercial sex workers along distance drivers. Evidence from

71

the 2005 sentinel survey shows that the main drivers of the

pandemic in Nigeria include blood transmission, unsafe and

denials against People Living with AIDS (PLWA) still remain rife in

the country.

The number of people living with HIV in 2005, according to

MDGs Report (2005:44) was estimated at about 2,86 million,

comprising 2.62 million adult (15 years and above) and 238, 000

children. The report further stated that, as at 2005, only 50,000

PLWHA had access to treatment while the 2005 Sentinel Report

indicated that over 400,000 people require ARV. The attention

and care provided to HIV and AIDS – OVC is still very inadequate.

Annual death resulting from AIDS was put at 220, 750 with

females constituting about 63.5% in 2005. Cumulative deaths

were estimated to be 1.45 million at the end of 2005.

It should be noted that while Nigeria has a decreasing

prevalence rate, it’s huge population means that a significant

number of people are affected. Therefore, winning the war on

AIDS in Nigeria is key to winning it in West Africa and beyond.

The population of AIDS – orphans is on the increase. It rose

from 1.8 million in 2004 to 1.97 million in 2009 (as shown in

table 4.6 above). The intensity of this varies across the state.

However its impact is broad. A recent study on the impact of

AIDS on rural livelihoods in Benue state revealed that 34% of the

households surveyed reported having AIDS- orphans in their

care.

Although HIV awareness is generally high, the percentage of

young people aged 15-24 reporting the use of condoms during

sexual intercourse with non-regular sexual partners is still very

72

low. Stigma, discrimination and denial against people living with

HIV and AIDS are still rife in the country.

Malaria; Malaria is a major public health problem in Nigeria,

accounting for about 60% of all outpatient attendance and 30%

of all hospital admissions. Malaria also accounts for a very high

proportion of mortality and morbidity rates in the country. It is

estimated that malaria is responsible for 300,000 deaths per

year, including up to 11% maternal of mortality. However,

malaria mortality rate has reduced from 0.29% in 1999 to 0.16%

in 2005 partly because of government commitment Roll to Back

Malaria initiative.

While almost everyone suffers from malaria, its highest

incidence is found among children (U-5years of age) and pregnant

women. As evident in the 2003 NHDS, 31.6% of the children

surveyed had malaria and convulsion two weeks preceding the

survey of which only 33.9% took anti-malaria drugs.

Substantial resources are at lost to malarial annually in the

form of treatment and prevention costs, loss of person-hours, and

other detrimental effects. For the majority of Nigerians, it costs

approximately N2, 000 per person to comprehensively treat

malaria in the country, whilst the average monthly salary is N 7,

500. An adult malaria victim loses about 2.5 days, their

caretakers lose 2.1 days and a student afflicted with malaria

loses 1.5 school days in a year (NHO Biennial 2004/2005

Report). The cost of treating malaria is approximately 4% of the

GDP in 2003 current market prices. This is in addition to 4% of

GDP loss associated with days of lost productivity.

73

Tuberculosis; TB still remains a public health problem in Nigeria

with the country ranked 4th among the 22 high burden countries

in the world and the first in Africa (MDGs Report, 2005; 45). The

reported cases of TB appear to be on the increase from 25,821 in

2000 to 46, 335 in 2003 and 66,848 in 2005. From the table 4.6

above, this represents an increase in defection from 14% in 2004

to 27% in 2009. The mere positive case defection rate is 27% in

2009, which falls far short of the global target of 70% by 2015.

The actual TB case notification in Nigeria has been quite low due

to low coverage of services (I.TB microscopy centre to a

population of about 300,000 and I DOTS treatment centre to

about 150, 000 people).Through the assistance of international

development partners, for instance, the number of LGAs with

DOTS services increased from 380 by end of 2002 to 548 by end

of 2005. From table 4.6 above also, the treatment success rate is

equally on the increase. It rose from 79% in 2004 to 80% in2009.

The table 4.6 above established that 19.1% of patients with

TB also have an underlying HIV infection (NASCPP Sentinel

Survey, 2001).Nigeria is currently undergoing a generalized HIV

epidemic, which is already affecting the TB epidemic. On a

general analysis, TB is a serious threat to public health in

Nigeria.

Enabling Policies:

AID; Overall, Nigeria’s health status is poor. However, while

starting from a low base, the civilian administration of the recent

years has provided an enabling environment in all fields of

health. In 2002, government of Nigeria was the first in sub –

Saharan Africa to commit to providing Anti- Retroviral Therapy to

74

10,000 adults and 5,000 children with its own resources, rising

to 69,000 people in 2006. Strong leadership and harmonization

throughout Government and donor efforts is one of the guiding

principles of the National strategic frame work for 2005-2009

developed by the National Action Committee on AIDS (NACA). In

2005, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, in

collaboration with Government agencies, development partners

and civil society, launched a national response policy on HIV and

AIDS in the workplace.

The increasing prevalence in rural areas suggests the need

to proactively increase intervention efforts of the community

levels. VCT and PMTCT facilities should be expanded to local

communities. The vulnerability and incidence feature of the

pandemic show that women and unmarried youths are mostly

affected.

Malaria; In March 2005, a Ministerial Anti-malaria Policy

Transition Management committee was set up and the National

Policy on malaria was reviewed. Treatment Guidelines and case

Management Training manual was equally developed with a view

to managing malaria cases more effectively. Strategic Framework

for control of malaria in pregnancy (MIP), National Guidelines and

strategies for Home and Community Management of Malaria,

Revised Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN) Policy Guidelines, Draft

Integrated Vector Management Guideline for Nigeria and

Guideline for NGOs Participation in Roll Back Malaria Initiative

were also developed.

From 2000 to 2005, the National Malaria Control

Programme experienced a significant rise in funding and

75

technical support from partners. The Federal Government policy

on malaria control focuses on three main interventions:

Management of cases, prevention of malaria with ITNs, and use

of intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy. Nigeria

has also been awarded US $120 million for the next rounds of the

Global fund for AIDS, T and, malaria.

Tuberculosis; Since 2003, there has been improvement in

the expansion of TB services across the country. Through the

assistance of international development partners, for instance,

DOTS strategy was extended to additional 108 LGAs in 17 states

In addition to 102 microscopic centres in 17 states, WHO also

trained 104 microscopists and laboratory technicians as well as

432 general health workers on DOTS strategy implementation.

Quality TB drugs were supplied to all TB patients using Global

Drug Facility (GDF).

Problems:

HIV/AIDS; One of the major challenges facing the

realization of this goal remains the stigmatization of people living

with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) by members of their immediate

community. Also, awareness efforts and treatment initiatives had

been largely concentrated in the urban centres which had made

the rural rate of infection to remain high and largely unchecked.

There is also the low level capacity building among the

existing health workers on the treatment and care of AIDS

patients as well as the need to increase the number of health

personnel generally.

Malaria; A major problem to malaria eradication in Nigeria

is the low level of reporting of malaria cases in the hospitals and

76

clinics. There is the common practice of self medication attempts

to use local herbs to treat malaria cases of home. There is also

the problem of sub-standard and adulterated drugs and the need

to get genuine drugs to the end users.

Tuberculosis; Awareness about the available opportunities

for TB treatment remains a major challenge to the control of TB

in Nigeria. Many TB patients do not avail themselves with the free

TB treatment due to lack of information.

Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

Level:

Nigeria is environmentally rich. It is endowed with diverse

and abundant natural resources that constitute the back bone of

the national economy. However, many factors are having a

punishing impact on this resource base. For example, a rapidly

growing population that is heavily reliant on fuel wood as an

energy source has exacerbated deforestation and desertification.

The level is a declining proportion of land area covered by forest

with concomitant effect on growth and development –of the

economy.

Gas flaring, the practice of burning gas in the extraction of

crude oil, has been reducing, a direct result of legislation and

government intervention, and thus it is an example of how

government can improve the environment in Nigeria.

The Housing Construction Index (HCI) for cites, an increase

in residential housing construction, has been on the increase

since 1999. Most of the recent housing units, however, are

ramshackle and insecure, or priced out of range of the poor, thus

pointing to the inequality in incomes described in GOAL I. The

77

housing market is supplying the rich, but marginalizing the poor.

Settlement planning is relatively poor in many parts of the

country thereby promoting the growth slums. However the

present sale of government houses to willing buyers is expected

to have a positive impact on the proportion of people with access

to secure tenure.

Data on the proportion of total population with access to

safe drinking water is conflicting. Official statistics shows that

about 60% had access to safe drinking water as at December,

2005 (MDGs Report, 2005:53). Evidence shows that states with

least access include Bayelsa, Taraba, Cross River, Enugu,

Adamawa, Nassarawa and Gombe while those with highest

access include Lagos, Kaduna, Kwara and Osun (NBS, 2006).

Access to sanitation still remains very low (38%).

Enabling Policies:

The line between poverty and environmental degradation is

inextricable. The government has recognized that it must design

policies to address issues of sustainable development. There are

examples of good practice.

For example, gas-flaring, resulting in the emission of air

pollutants, a serious environmental threat is being addressed by

the federal government through the introduction of Elimination of

Gas flaring by oil companies. The use of gas-fired electricity

power plants was approved for construction in 2005, furthering

the effort to limit gas flaring. Similarly, reforestation programmes

and forest reserve upgrades are government’s strategies to move

towards achieving Goal 7. About 2,000 kilometer of a shelterbelt

of green wall has established in the desert prone region of the

78

country while private and communal wood lots were also

encouraged.

Government has since initiated programmes to supply water

to urban and rural communities through new and rehabilitated

dams, tube to wells, borides and hand – dug wells under the

National Water Supply and Sanitation policy which encourages

private-sector driven response to achieving its targets.

Community – based waste management project was piloted in

2005. This effort has been successful following sustainable

access to safe water figures rising to 60% in 2005.

There is concerted effort by the Federal and state

Governments to upgrade slums. The Federal Government has

planned that substantial part of debt relief gains would be

allocated to catalyze efforts in this area. Consolidation in the

banking sector and mortgage sector reform is also expected to

help deliver affordable housing for the poor.

Problems:

Nigeria’s environmental problems are diverse, reflecting the

country’s varied topography. They include oil spillages in the

Niger Delta region which pollute the water and damage the

ecosystem within the area, and soil erosion in the Sahel driven by

deforestation. These factors have profound impact on the health

of all families in Nigeria, but with a disproportionate burden on

the poor. Economic sabotage (including vandalization) is a major

challenge deserving urgent attention of all stakeholders.

Sadly, many of these problems are man-made .Activities

such as petroleum exploration, vandalization and heavy

population pressure are examples of the vehicles of

79

environmental degradation in Nigeria. Capacity and funding gaps

in Nigeria’s environmental management also drive environmental

degradation

In addition, housing for the poor remains a challenge to

Government. Affordable housing finance is not readily available

due to the weak structure of the banking sector, appropriate local

building materials are not readily available, and the rate of rural

urban migration limits the ability of government to restrain the

expansion of urban slums.

Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development.

Level and Direction:

In the NPC Report (2005:58), recent consensus on achieving

the MDGs calls for developing countries to improve governance

and policies aimed at economic growth and reducing poverty, and

for high – income countries to provide more and better aid and

greater access to their markets. It further highlighted that, many

developing countries are unlikely to achieve the MDGs without a

significant increase in overseas development assistance, hence it

addresses the existing financing gaps preventing MDGs

attainment.

Nigeria has enjoyed the benefits of progressive partnerships

with the international community, particularly with respect to the

resolution of the external debt forgiveness and exit from the Paris

club of creditors, allowing the country to spend an additional US

$1 billion a year on development rather than debt servicing.

Effective management of the debt relief will provide Nigeria with

opportunities to build infrastructure.

80

Private investment increased steadily or appreciably in

2005. For instance, foreign direct investment rose by 21.7% to

N303.3 billion in 2005 particularly due to banking consolidation

and privatization programme of government. Arising from the

stable macroeconomic environment, the IMF – backed policy

support instrument was developed to support the country home

grown economic reform programmes.

Although official Development Assistance (ODA) to

Nigeria has risen in recent years, it still falls far below the

average proportion of ODA in other Sub- Saharan African

Countries. The recent financing for Development in Africa

Conference, (Abuja, 2006), noted the commitment of the

international community to increase donor assistance to Africa,

including Nigeria, behind long – term sector plans, demonstrating

a policy environment that is conducive for the effective utilization

of the additional resources. Nigeria now has plans in many

sectors, as has been reflected in much of this research project

(work), and these plans and recommendations should be backed

with external resources.

Enabling Policy Framework:

More generally, the Extractive Industry Transparency

Initiative, with supporting legislation approved by the National

Assembly, has launched audits of the oil sector and will promote

better practice in reporting of oil revenue earnings and improve

the environment and terms of future partnerships with the

international community in this sector. The deregulation of the

downstream petroleum sector has already clawed back over $1

81

billion in the last few years with the phase out of subsidies on

petroleum products (MDGs Report, 2005:60).

Export incentives provided to some sectors as a way to

boost export capacity and increase the revenue base of the

economy. Also, the ongoing public sector reforms will strengthen

institutions and promote sound policies and regulation towards

building an enabling policy environment that develop

partnerships with the international community.

The new Telecommunications Acts signed into law in 2003

allows the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) executes

regulatory oversight on ICT activities in Nigeria. NCC conducts

the ongoing projects to ensure that Nigerian ICT activities are

consistent with worldwide standards and practices.

Problems:

Access to markets in industrialized countries remains a

problem that will only be overcome with the advancement of

negotiations with industrialized countries, as well as

improvement in local production and export structures, physical

infrastructure, technological capacity, legal and regulatory

frameworks. The barriers to trade and poor agricultural subsidies

in the industrialized world is also a crucial challenge to the

achievement of the required growth levels and development

needed for these MDGs.

4.4 Findings on each of the Goals

Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty

From the available data and research, the progress towards

achieving Goal 1 is currently slow. However, the supportive

environment is fair and based on current levels and the projected

82

impact of reforms, Nigeria can potentially achieve this goal by

2015 if it intensifies current efforts and reinforces good

governance.

Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

Following the above development made known, the progress

geared towards achieving Goal 2 is varied; some indicators are

improving rapidly, and others walks slowly. The enabling policy

framework is fair for attaining Universal primary education in

Nigeria. Therefore if the current trend and status are maintained,

Nigeria can potentially realize this goal, come 2015

Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Women

Empowerment

Progress towards this goal is improving moderately. The

supportive policy framework is fair for achieving the goal and

Nigeria can attain this goal by 2015 if current efforts at the

federal level and a few states are intensified and replicated at all

state and local government levels.

Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality

A close examination revealed that Nigeria is unlikely to

achieve this goal by 2015.However, if efforts are geared up,

significant progress can be made. The supportive policy

environment is fair but each tier of government must place

emphasis on child health and the promotion of community

behavioural change and sound referral system.

Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health

Sadly enough, it is unlikely that Nigeria will achieve MDG5.

83

The enabling environment is weak, although improving. Again,

there is no specific policy on this goal. Rather, there is a general

state policy to improve health care delivery system in Nigeria.

In other words, given the current stance of government on

the health environment, its policies of adopting the National

Health Insurance scheme (NHIS) and Health Sector Reform

Programme (HSRP) for children and women, 2006-2009, there is

every likelihood that the desired impact of reducing mortality rate

in the Nigeria will be achievable if only these reforms and policies

can b implemented.

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases

The supportive environment is fair for combating the spread

of HIV, malaria and other diseases. Recent data seems to indicate

strong progress towards the achievement of this goal in Nigeria.

However, further evidence is needed before this can be stated

with any confidence. The challenge of malaria continues to be

significant across the country.

Findings revealed that the most crucial challenges in this

area include infrastructural gaps, low level availability of skilled

personnel, low level of awareness of existing facilities, poverty,

fake drugs, and the general tendency towards self medication.

Even so, the possibility of achieving the targets are far-fetched,

especially HIV/AIDS.

Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

Investigation indicated that, there is insufficient data to

determine whether Nigeria will achieve this goal by 2015. The

legal framework supporting this policy is not only weak but it has

not also been enforced. The elements of monitoring and

84

evaluation of most of the components of environmental resources

are far from adequate.

The possibilities of meeting most of these environmental

factors are quite high given the current development of activities

in these areas. The realization of this goal may not be by 2015.

Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development.

The researcher observed that the current level of

partnership between the Federal Government and International

Agencies and the domestic private sector is minimal and should

increase to an appreciable level. Statistics on private sector

investments and other activities are almost non-existent. Based

on the current trends and projected impact of reforms, there is

no serious problem that may forestall the achievement of this

goal within the stated time frame.

85

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION

Summary;

The conceptualization of the Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs) as a community/rural development policy aimed at

addressing problem relating to poverty, education, gender

equality, health, the environment and global partnership in the

developing countries came into existence from the resolution of

the United Nations Summit in September 2000. The Summit

resolved to pursue Eight (8) time-bounded development goals,

eighteen (18) targets, and forty-eight (48) indicators to be achieved

by the year 2015.

The Federal Government of Nigeria has through the National

Planning Commission (NPC) conducted three studies in years

2004, 2005 and 2006 to monitor and evaluate the efforts of the

country in achieving the MDGs policy, come 2015. The national

level study therefore became a spring board for the

investigation of the progress of achievement of the MDGs in

Nigeria which formed the preoccupation of this research work.

Analysis in the studies focused on the current levels and

directions of the goals and target; the enabling policy

environment; the challenges; findings on each of the MDG goals

that requires Government, Donor Agencies and Development

Partners' assistance in Nigeria.

5.2 Recommendations

The recommendation here are based on the information

obtained from the data analysis and findings

86

Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

In Nigeria in particular, government and development

partners needs to acknowledge the fact that income in isolation

is not the most appropriate measure for development. However,

there is the need for improved market access and promotion of

trade to boost national production and exports, foreign

exchange earning and economic diversification. Foreign direct

investments should be in the areas of infrastructures,

manufacturing, tourism and agriculture which will create

jobs/employment opportunities as well as boosting economic

growth.

Technical and financial assistance in the establishment of

skill acquisition centres where interested adults, youths and

women could be trained in certain vocations that would be

viable source of income would also be required. Assistance

could equally be in the form of granting access to cheap capital

in terms of concessional loans and overseas development

assistance as well as establishment of micro credit schemes to

improve access to credit by the people in need, especially in the

rural areas.

Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education

Government and development partners should provide more

infrastructures like classrooms and toilet facilities, as well as the

completion of on going and rehabilitation of existing ones. To

also be included are the provision of computers, libraries,

laboratory equipments and text books. Nigeria will also need

assistance in the form of training and retraining of teachers, in

order to strengthen and up-date their capacity in modern method

87

of teaching. Most importantly, empowerment of the State

Ministries of Education, State Universal Basic Education Boards

(SUBEB) and Local Government Education Authorities

(LGEAs) is necessary from the government and development

partners to deepen effective and efficient management of the

educational system, monitoring and supervision.

Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Women Empowerment

Development initiative for the attainment of gender equality

in Nigeria and other development programme aimed at

empowering women should focus on capacity for gender

mainstreaming in all departments at the states and local

government levels. This will go along way to enhance

capacities of ministries and agencies saddled with data

generation responsibility to have timely and sex-disaggregated

data required by decision and policy makers.

There should be establishment of skill acquisition centres

where interested adults especially women could be trained in

certain vocations that will be a source of income, as well as the

establishment of micro credit facilities by women precisely in

the rural settings.

Female students should be given scholarship priorities to

encourage their school completion rates and access to education.

Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality

Provision of portable water for the people is needed in order

to avoid or prevent water borne disease. Health sectoral

institutions should be provided with modern facilities and

equipments. Intervention is also needed in the training and

retraining of health workers as well as advocacy and

88

sensitization to stimulate parents to bring out their children for

immunization. Parents also need to he educated on how to take

good care of children in terms of the required nutrition, and

other support and protection that will ensure child survival

and total development. There should be initiation of programmes

aimed at encouraging mothers to attend antenatal and post natal

cares regularly for their health and that of their children.

UNICEF is currently supporting Accelerated child survival and

Development, Monitoring and Supportive Supervision in some

state. This type of support should be extended to other states

and Local Governments of the Federation.

Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health Care

Development of the state health sector by the government

and development partners should focus on capacity building for

all cadres of health workers on Life Saving Scheme (LSS) as well

the provision of obstetrics equipments to Primary Healthcare

Centres (PHCs) across the country

In addition, there should be scaling-up of the UNICEF

training activities to all the LGAs in the nation and the WHO

sponsored Making Motherhood Safer (MMS) initiative. To also

be stirred up includes the technical and financial assistance

of the Federal Ministry of Health and evaluation capabilities of

the relevant national agencies should be enhanced in order to

strengthen the feed back mechanism for policy makers.

Goal 6: Combating HIV and AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases

Attention in the area of HIV/AIDS should focus basically on

scaling up the existing support and assistance by ensuring that

the rural areas are effectively covered. Capacity building of health

89

workers and care givers as well as technical support should be

scaled up for proper implementation.

Further more, specific attention should be given to

preventive measures by the Ministry of Health and Health related

Agencies in disease control such as intensifying the distribution

and use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN) and the end users.

Advocacy and health education priorities should emphasize

healthy environmental sanitation practices to prevent disease

infection.

Goal 7: Achieve Environmental Sustainability

In order to preserve the nation’s forest, there should be

development and establishment of artificial plantations as well

as the strengthening of legal framework for the maintenance of

the environment.

The importance of a, healthy environment is often

undermined by economically weak Countries, such as Nigeria

due to resource gap. Therefore, sensitization exercise in

needed to create the right attitude towards the environment,

tree planting and usage of the available waste disposal facilities

provided across the federation. More so, the government,

development partners and private sector should designate and

open new residential areas with the provision of facilities like

roads, water, power, clinics and schools. Also to be included

is the mobilization of foreign investment in building materials to

reduce cost.

Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development.

The rate of poverty and underdevelopment in the

area of critical infrastructure in Nigeria is high particularly the

90

Northern Geo-political zone, Hausa Fulani speaking zone).

Therefore, the State requires development in agriculture, food

security and farm land development including FADAMA (dry

season farming) projects and provision of modern farming tools

and equipment. Others include development of fishery, provision

of improved seeds, seedlings and agro-allied chemicals.

There should be focus on educational sectors, particularly

the institutions that are meant to teach children with physical

disabilities. These educational institutions need to be equipped

with teaching and hearing aids/materials, such as brail machines

in order to enable them learn and to acquire skills that can

qualify them for gainful employment. This will go along way in

stalling the rate of street begging in our society.

More over, child and maternal mortality rates are

unbearably high in Nigeria particularly in the rural areas. There

fore, attention and intervention is needed in terms of advocacy and

sensitization focusing traditional rulers, religious leaders and

parents on the safety and efficacy of immunization, breast

feeding, family planning and proper child upbringing in terms

of nutrition, portable water and good personal hygiene and

environmental sanitation.

Finally, portable water is lacking in many parts of the state

and local government in Nigeria. Consequently, there should be

provision of bore holes, surface water, water treatment

chemicals and rigs. Construction of feeder roads and

establishment of rural electrification projects are other sectors

that need attention by the government and development partners.

91

5.3 Conclusion

There exist great potentials in Nigeria to achieve some of

the Development Goals with a proviso that the spate of activities

in the respective sectors, areas are not relaxed and genuine

efforts are made to tackle some existing inadequacies pointed out

in the body of the research. The goals that are likely to be

achieved under the above scenario are not far-fetched.

They include:

Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education.

Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health.

Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development.

In another development, given the enormity of the situations,

the enabling policy environment coupled with the level of sectoral

activities, the achievement of the following MDGs will not be

possible within the speculated time frame-year 2015. These are;

Goal 1: Eradication Extreme Poverty and Hunger,

Goal 3: Promote of Gender Equality and Women Empowerment,

Goal 4: Reducing Child Mortality and,

Goal 6: Combating HIV/ AIDS, Malaria, and other diseases.

Goal 7: Ensuring Environmental Sustainability.

92

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