Independent nations around the world in the year 2000 renewed their commitment to creating a better, freer, safer world. As part of this commitment, developed and developing countries agreed to implement the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs identify key areas of human development, provide a framework for a collaborative and coordinated action, and set clear targets to measure progress. Before 2015 deadline, many developing countries have made extraordinary progress, improving the quality and standard of lives of millions of people. But not all countries or all regions of the world recorded high level of achieving the MDGs [1].

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 

• Goal 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• Goal 2. Achieve universal primary education
• Goal 3. Promote gender equality and empower women
• Goal 4. Reduce child mortality
• Goal 5. Improve maternal health
• Goal 6. Combating HIV/AIDs, malaria, and other diseases
• Goal 7. Ensure environmental sustainability
• Goal 8. Develop a global partnership for development

As a region, sub-Saharan Africa is not totally off track on every goal. Despite how bad most Western media may tend to present it, the news is not all bad: for instance, Nigeria is made great progress against child mortality. But successes like these can become obscured by a tendency to see sub-Saharan Africa as a whole rather than a region of individual countries. Strong economic growth in Nigeria highlight a means towards achieving the poverty goal in the country, United Nations Development Programme. Likewise, there have been progress in achieving other goals, in particular reducing child mortality and improving maternal health. In Latin America, several of the MDGs have already been met, notably ensuring universal primary school enrollment and empowering women (generally in the sectors of education, business and politics) as against Sub-Saharan Africa and Nigeria in particular. 

The country (Nigeria) has not made progress on other MDGs, though, such as halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases. Around the world, most especially Africa and Nigeria in relation to individual goal achievement. It can be noted that only East Asia has made progress toward MDGs 7, ensuring environmental sustainability. Six other regions are off track or making no progress toward this goal.  Developing nations and indeed Nigeria faced and is still facing many challenges that hampered the full implementation of the MDGs. The question to ask therefore is what are the issues that constituted the implementation challenges of the Millennium Development Goals for Nigeria?

Objective of the Study

• The objective of this work is to unveil the implementation challenges of the Millennium Development Goals for Nigeria and suggest possible solutions

This study is designed as a desk study, with data collected from secondary sources and analyzed qualitatively. As such, the study reviewed and analyzed the challenges of implementations and how it negatively impacts the Millennium Development Goals by drawing insights from relevant texts, journal articles, empirical studies, online publications, etc. The study highlighted issues such as environmental degradation, corruption, indiscipline, conflicts and poor economic conditions as challenges affecting the MDGs.

Some are specific challenges to individual countries (Nigeria in this case) or regions, others broadly shared. These challenges make development substantially more difficult and raised the likelihood that some countries could not be able to meet the MDGs. Another factor that exacerbated all of these conditions was the sudden increase in food and fuel prices. Some of these challenges in Nigeria can be grouped into the following categories:

• The Challenges in Detail: Lessons for the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals

• Poor Starting Conditions: One of the challenges faced by Nigeria in the implementation oKf the Millennium Development Goal is the dilemma of poor economic condition. About 40% of the population in Nigeria live on less than $ 2 a day; nearly as many suffer from chronic hunger due to issue of food insecurity in the country caused by climate change and violent conflict, [2]. This year, 10 million children will die before they reach their fifth birthday, and complications during birth and pregnancy will take the lives of a half-million women. Around the world, more than one billion people do not have access to clean water, and hundreds of millions of people are not receiving treatment for deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, [3]

• The global burden of underdevelopment is vast, but this burden is not shared equally by everyone. With an increasing poverty rates in Nigeria that is estimated to be 40 % in 2019. The same is true of hunger: the percentage of children suffering from moderate and severe stunting (resulting from chronic hunger) where according to the Nigerian Statistics agency noted that poverty has increased to 70 million. A quick glance at other MDG indicators reveals more such disparities: vast differences between developed and developing countries are the norm, and even among developing countries there are wide differences. Countries that are starting out with the lowest levels of many human development indicators, for example, infant and maternal mortality rates, are the least equipped—both technically and financially—to reach the MDGs

• Weak Governance and Institutions: To achieve the MDGs and establish a sustainable development path, governments must be efficient, transparent, and accountable. Good governments manage bureaucracies efficiently, adhere to the rule of law, control corruption, protect civil and political rights, and remain accountable to their citizens [4]. Through laws and institutions, governments set the direction of a country’s economy as well as its business climate. A stable macroeconomic environment (exchange rates, inflation levels) and a healthy, open business climate promote sustainable economic growth and ensure that economic opportunities are available to poor people, [5].

• By simplifying the rules for opening and running a business, governments can spur creation of more jobs and collect more tax revenue. When corruption is under control, government can target tax revenues to basic services such as roads, water, hospitals, and schools. These, in turn, are essential for a healthy, educated population and a stronger economy. Effective governments should also empower people to participate in the selection of their government and freely express their opinions and concerns, especially through an active press. Without a way to express their needs and hold leaders accountable, poor people cannot advocate for the reforms and investments needed to help them move out of poverty. By listening to poor people, government policymakers can invest wisely to spur development and meet the MDGs 

• Conflict and Instability: By the estimation of the United Nations, Sub- Saharan Africa has been characterized as the region with most violent conflict, leading to the destruction of lives, properties and economic livelihood. This also reflect the case of Nigeria that has been emmesh in conflict in different kinds. One of the notable arguments by scholars on the nature of conflict in Nigeria and Africa is due to the nature of the state and polity which is considered to be weak, Ake [6]. Weak states are preoccupied with quelling violence or staving off coups as well as other levels of political instability. As such they cannot focus on achieving important development goals

• According to Obeanu noted that violent conflict has the tendency to destroy the physical and financial environment needed to ensure sustainable development. Also, it increases the displacement of the population making them more vulnerable to hunger and disease. Livelihoods are abandoned and economic development reversed. Bombs and bullets scar the natural environment; unexploded landmines can make land permanently unusable. Poverty is both a cause and an outcome of conflict. Consequently, with the persistent nature of the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East, the above became the order of the day [7].

Wars reduce economic growth rates and increase poverty, thereby increasing the risk of continuing or slipping back into conflict. Improvements in human well-being form the basis for sustainable economic development, and in turn, economic growth and poverty alleviation lessen the likelihood of conflict. Progress in human development and a peaceful and stable environment are mutually reinforcing. The conflict left the country with the lowest levels of human development in the world, including a shattered healthcare system. For instance, the Boko Haram conflict has destroyed the living conditions of the people in the North East which posed serious problem for achieving the MDGs

• Environmental Degradation: According to Okoye, one of the pressures Nigeria faces in the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.  Issues such as population growth, industrial production, mining and oil extraction, logging, intensive farming and fishing, and a host of other activities are placing significant pressures on the earth’s environment. As a result of the foregoing, it has become difficult for people around the world to have access to clean air and clean water, adequate sanitation, and a safe, healthy environment to survive and to thrive, [8]. Most importantly, Nigeria due to its dependence on oil exploration has further degraded their environment which has made it difficult for the rural inhabitants to have healthy environment. The connections among the MDGs and environmental protection are many and diverse, but one of the closest connections is between protecting the environment and meeting MDG #1 of reducing hunger [9]. Among other things, Nigeria is categorized as a “least developed country,” with high rates of hunger, poverty, and child and maternal mortality. According to Conservation International, Nigeria and its surrounding region is also a biodiversity hotspot. It’s an immensely rich ecosystem, but it’s under extreme stress and the threat of irreparable environmental degradation. One of the major environmental concerns in Nigeria is the loss of forests. This issue is added to the fact that climate change causes enormous impact of the environment

   

Corruption

One of the banes to the development of Nigeria is the problem of corruption at all levels of government. As noted by Achebe in his seminal book “The trouble with Nigeria” highlighted the problem of corruption to be a major setback of development. This is even truer as the international corruption indexing body, Transparency International adjudged Nigeria to be among the most corrupt nations in the world. Going by this, corruption has been a bottleneck to the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals in multiple ways that has impedes its implementation and translating its gains to development. As there has been several issues of looting of funds and diversion of monies earmarked for the attainment of the goals into the hands of private individuals.

Corruption as a challenge to MDGs manifested both at the national and state levels where monies for projects where either embezzled by the ministries, agencies or government departments created to implement the programmes and projects or by person appointed to do so. Also, funds to facilitate programmes in rural communities either did not get to the areas or people created fraudulent systems to swindle the monies. With the added problem of poor economic infrastructure or condition that already bedevil Nigeria, corruption did not only exacerbate the failure of the country but created a fertile ground for continuous hindering of political economic development and progression that should have been realized as a result of the MDGs.

Indiscipline and Poor Monitoring

The trajectory of underdevelopment in Nigeria and how it has festered for long in handicapping the country’s path to development has been her indiscipline to development planning. Indiscipline as an issue for why the country could not achieve the MDGs manifested in the fact that the political leadership was not committed to the MDGs. As such did not create a localized strategy in implementing the global goals for development. Furthermore, government agencies and ministries did not also tailor steps and implement modalities to achieve the laid-out goals. Such form of indiscipline has been implicated by Alapiki as to the reason why several development plans have failed to realized development in the country.

Due to indiscipline, it became rather easy for the plans to fail even before it was implemented. To compound the complex quagmire of her developmental woes is in the reality that the country failed to create a robust monitoring system ensure that individuals, agencies and government at all levels are doing their path in the attainment of the goals. Following the cycle of failures in the past as pointed out my Ohale, the lack of a proper monitoring system to adequately ascertain programme and project implementation affects development in the country. As such affects the MDGS.

The failure of Nigeria to achieve the Millennium Development Goals signifies a signpost to the development challenges confronting Nigeria. Consequent to the inability of the country to meet up with the implementation of the eight (8) global development goals due to the poor economic condition, environmental issues, nature and character of the state and polity as well as violent conflict highlights a serious pathway for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Despite the above challenges, Nigeria still made some giant strides in the achievement of some of the goals such as children and maternal mortality, school enrolment and allowed some concession in the participation of women in the political process, a goal the United Nations noted to be a major catalyst for development in Sub-Saharan Africa. It should be noted that if the country is ever willing to reverse the negative tide of her underdevelopment it should focus on good governance and enhancing economic development that are people centered in focus. Good governance and economic growth focused on industrial and diversification are essential in driving the process of development which would facilitate the implementation of future global goals such as the SDGs.

Recommendation

The government should be focused on addressing issues of governance by adhering to the principles of good governance in their decision-making process. Issues of development should factor in the people as the center of every development process. This would enable the people become part of the implementation process. Also, the environment should be considered as an integral entity in the facilitation of development in the country. As the neglect of the environment as exacerbated the development crisis in this period of climate change and its deleterious effect.

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