I just read Muhammed Buhari's pledge today. It looks to me a
right-headed document and a breath of fresh air, but it still did not address
succinctly, the most critical issue: How do we raise the standard of living of
our people and make development truly count for the ordinary Nigerian? This
question is at the heart of "corruption of need" in Nigeria. A smart
government will focus on this because it is the route to addressing our
development challenge and surmounting the obstacles on our route to exiting
Nigeria's resource curse. Nigeria has the largest population in Africa and has
an abundance of natural resources. While it focuses its attention on its
natural resources, it is losing its human capital. Truth is our human capital
is the unique resource which ordinarily should give us an edge. Our large
population should be a key source of competitive advantage. Aside from having a
large workforce, this resource has the potential of transforming Nigeria into a
large emerging market and can also trigger local production which can serve the
African region. The combined net effect of these is economic development
through an increase in the Gross Domestic Product and social stability. The
flip-side of this possibility is currently at play. The opposition needs to
come to the table with a Human Capital Development deal which raises our
national productivity and develops capacity for tomorrow's economy.
THE STARTING POINT:
HOW WE ARE DOING IN TERMS OF FULFILLING THE MDG's?
The Millennium
Development Goals offers us a good platform for building our Human Capital.
There are 8 of them:
1. Eradicate extreme
poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal
primary education
3. Promote gender
equality and empower women
4. Reduce child
mortality
5. Improve maternal
health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS,
malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure
environmental sustainability
8. Global partnership
for development
THE INTERVENTION
POINT: WHAT IS OUR SCORE CARD ON THE MDG's THUS FAR?
MDG 1: Eradicate
Extreme Poverty
Poverty Rate: 46%.
Access to Clean Water: 49%.
Nigeria's poverty
rate is very high, and when one considers the fact that Nigeria is home to some
of the richest people in Africa, the social and economic inequality becomes
even more glaring, with the combined income of the top 1 % of the Nigerian
Society being more than the combined income of the bottom 50%.
MDG2: Achieve
Universal Primary Education:
Primary School
Enrollment Rate: 65.7%
This is relatively
okay and growing, however, the school enrollment rate of the Girl-Child remains
low and is being threatened by Religious insurgency up North.
MDG 3: Promote Gender
Equality
While the nation's
legal framework supporting Gender Equality falls far short of the MDG
requirements, the ratio of Female representation in the executive arm of
government is actually near target.
MDG 4: Reduce Child
Mortality
Still very high. With
608 deaths per 100,000 deliveries, Nigeria ranks second only to India in the
list of nations with the worst child mortality. The UNICEF Multiple Indicator
Cluster Survey (MICS4) report recently conducted indicates that under-five
mortality in Nigeria increased from 138 per 1,000 live births in 2007 to 158
per 1,000 live births in 2011.
MDG 5: Improve
Maternal Health
Still very high but
improving. 510 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2013, down from 630 deaths per
100,000 live births in 2010
MDG's 6: Combat
HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases:
HIV Prevalence Rate:
3.1% (Still high and is essentially being spread by Commercial Sex Workers)
Malaria: According to
UNICEF, Malaria is the most significant public health problem in Nigeria. The
economic cost of malaria, arising from cost of treatment, loss of productivity
and earning due to days lost from illness, is as high as 1.3% of economic
growth per annum. The disease is a major cause of maternal mortality and poor
child development.
Tuberculosis:
According to WHO Tuberculosis is still a major public health problem in
Nigeria, with the country ranking 5th among the 22 high TB burden countries
which collectively bear 80% of the global burden of TB. The number of TB cases
notified in the country increased from 31,264 in 2002 to 90,307 in 2008.
MDG 7: Ensure
environmental sustainability
Deforestation Rate:
According to FAO, Nigeria has the world's highest deforestation rate of primary
forests. Between 2000 and 2005 the country lost 55.7 percent of its primary
forests to excessive logging, subsistence agriculture, and the collection of
fuelwood.
Oil Spillage:
According to Oil Spill Conference Nigeria 2014, over 600 oil spill incidents
are recorded in Nigeria annually
Gas Flaring:
According to World Watch Institute, Russia and Nigeria are the two largest
emitters of flare gas in the world. According to World Bank statistics, Nigeria
flares about 20 billion cubic meters of gas annually.
MDG 8: Global partnership
for development: Nigeria will need to rev-up Global partnership working with
the likes of the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) in order to be
able to meet MDG 1 - 7.
WE SEEM TO BE FALLING
SHORT RATHER THAN RISING IN TERMS OF MEETING THESE GOALS:
In 2013, the United
Nations singled out Nigeria along-sides Sierra Leone and Somalia as Countries
that need to do more if the goals of the MDG's are to be realized. I reckon
that government needs to do a lot of reality checks rather than continue to
chase shadows. We need to focus our priority on poverty reduction and human
development, essentially looking at Health and Education. We cannot continue to
save-up to go for treatments abroad, while also investing what could have been
used to develop the local education system on overseas university enrollments. It’s
time to get our priorities right; and I reckon that if our politicians are
right-headed, this should be a key campaign topic, rather than such things as
rotational Presidency and ethnic balancing. Truth be told, with our wealth and
with the strength of the local economy which is put at about 510 Billion
Dollars (2013 GDP rebased figures), we are lagging behind the world and we need
to do something fast. WE NEED TO KNOW WHO IS PRIORITIZING HUMAN CAPITAL
DEVELOPMENT AND WHO IS NOT.
Bolaji Okusaga is a
Lagos based PR Practitioner
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