By Nkiruka Nnorom

Former governor of Central of Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said, yesterday, that rising insecurity, herders/farmers crisis and other social problems bedeviling the country were a result of failure of government to pay sufficient attention to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs.

Sanusi stated this at the Lafarge Africa Plc’s Sustainability Webinar Series, tagged: ‘Co-creating Value Through Best Practices in Private Public Partnership & Impact Assessment’.

He argued that though the COVID-19 pandemic was threatening to compound the nation’s poverty and security challenges, the problems pre-dated the pandemic and required collaborative effort from both the private and public sectors to tackle.

He said the outbreak of COVID-19 was a wake-up call and emphasised need for the country to now use technology to deliver education and healthcare for economic development.

He said: “People talk about COVID-19, but I talk about pre-existing conditions. I would say Nigeria as a country has pre-existing conditions before COVID-19 hit.

‘’When you have a country where in some parts, like Zamfara State, for example, over 90 percent are living in extreme poverty, when you have a country where in terms of the population, we have now overtaken India as the poverty capital of the world and this was before COVID-19 hit, and when you read all the forecasts of the World Bank that another   five to 10 million people might be thrown into extreme poverty as a result of COVID-19, we begin to realize the enormity of the problems that we have.

“The challenges we have as a nation around insecurity, herdsmen/farmers clashes, Boko Haram, banditry, most of them have to do with not paying sufficient attention to the SDGs. I really think that this is the time we really need to have this conversation.

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“We have not paid enough attention to certain elements of the SDGs. Malnutrition is a big problem. When I look at the numbers, when I look at states like Kano, for instance, 58 percent of the under five children have chronic malnutrition and this is typical of most of the North-West and North-East parts of the country.

“Now, when you have one in two children having chronic malnutrition, you can imagine what is going to happen in the next fifteen to twenty years of the young people with all the cognitive implications of malnutrition and that is the future that we are building.”

He emphasized the need for collaboration among all stakeholders to deliver on the SDGs, saying it was something that could not be left to the government as the government does not have resources to pursue the SDGs’ targets.

“The government does not have the balance sheet anywhere; the balance sheet is overstretched. Much of the government’s revenues have been used in debt servicing. So, the private sector and NGO partners must come in to address some of the most serious issues, especially around security, education and healthcare,” he said.

Sanda Ojiambo, Executive Director, United Nations Global Compact, speaking at the event, said: “The challenges of COVID-19 have really certified the progress in terms of meeting the SDGs such as eradicating poverty, reducing inequality, and many other key goals.

“As we all know, COVID-19 has highlighted the impact of the SDGs. It is all clear now that we have to fulfill the sustainable development goals. This crisis threatened not just progress, but was on hold and, actually, threatens some of the progress we have already made.

“We, firmly, believe that if the COVID-19 responses are done correctly and guided by SDGs, recovery from the pandemic could put us in a more sustainable and inclusive path.”

Vanguard