By Prudence Arobani
Ms Amina Mohammed, the UN Deputy Secretary-General has urged Nigerian leaders to bequeath a “decent future” to Nigerian youths
Mohammed was speaking when the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammad Buhari on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, led the Nigerian team to the High-Level Political Forum on SDGs on a visit to her.
The UN deputy chief particularly urged Nigerian leaders to take advantage of Agenda 2030 to better the lives of the young people in the country.
“There should be quality primary education and quality primary healthcare in Nigeria; there’s no reason why these should not work in Nigeria.
“With this Agenda 2030, there’s going to be change in the next generation; they must be carried along.
“We must bequeath a decent future for the youth; if we do that, they will excel because we are blessed and have resources in Nigeria.
“Our generation should not bequeath a wrong future to these young ones,” said Mohammed, a one-time Senior Special Adviser to the President on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Orelope-Adefulire had earlier briefed the UN deputy scribe about the progress and status of the SDGs in Nigeria, pledging that Nigeria will ensure that no one is left behind in the SDGs implementation.
The former Deputy Governor of Lagos said Nigeria was on course to implementing the SDGs.
“As part of the national SDGs advocacy and campaign programme, my office has entered a partnership with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
“We are training graduating youths in becoming SDGs Champions in their local communities and areas of deployment for national service,” the presidential aide said.
She explained that key policy and institutional as well as regulatory measures had been put in place to create the necessary enabling environment for mainstreaming SDGs into national policies.
The former Deputy Governor of Lagos said an Inter-Ministerial Committee on the SDGs had been established and operational guidelines developed in order to guide the coordinated engagement with Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
The presidential aide said a Private Sector Advisory Group and a Donor Forum on the SDGs had recently been inaugurated in order to fully harness available resources and effectively engage other stakeholders.
“Similarly, the Civil Society Organizations Advisory Group on SDGs is already working towards some SDGs targets,” Orelope-Adefulire said. (NAN)
Edited by Emmanuel Yashim
