By Elizabeth Adegbesan

The Director General, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, UNIDO, Dr. Kandeh Yumkella, has said that Nigeria, including other African countries, have not fared well in the attainment of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.

He therefore, advised among other things, that Nigeria should do away with politics while developing plans to aid the attainment of the SDGs in the next eight years (2030).

Yumkella disclosed this yesterday in  a Webinar organized by the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN).

• READ ALSO: UNIDO partners Abia Govt to develop industrial road-map

He said: “When you look at all these goals, especially goal one to six, none of those can be achieved without access to affordable-reliable energy. Just think about it in the 21st Century nothing can run without energy.

“Countries are now putting up policies to ban the use of fossil vehicles by 2030. In the case of Germany and Norway, by 2025. 

“For you in Nigeria, projection shows that if the world strictly implements what we call net zero strategies to keep climate change temperature rise to about 1.5 degrees there will be a reduction on oil demands by about 25 million barrels a day. Think about this. How do you finance your growth? These are more reasons why you need to diversify. 

“In general, we didn’t fare well in achieving the MDGs. We are not faring well in also achieving the SDGs. A handful of countries are doing well. It depends on the indicators you are looking at. The bulk of Sub-Saharan Africa is not doing well.

“What we have not finished dealing with in Africa is poverty. Almost 50 per cent of our population still lives on less than a dollar a day. Similar numbers in Nigeria. If you look at our hunger index, several SSA cannot feed themselves. Nigeria is still importing a lot of what you should not be importing.”