THE normal trend is that Nigeria lags behind in most indices of development and topping the charts when it comes to indicators of backwardness. For instance, in the Africa ranking of attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s), whereas Egypt is first, Tunisia second, Ghana fifth, Nigeria is 47th, competing with countries like Niger (46th, Somalia (51) and Congo (52 and last).

It is, therefore, cheering news when the United Nations singles out Nigeria’s Delta State for special commendation for meeting international standards in attaining the MDG goals.

The UN set these goals   in 2001, that by 2015, member countries should follow a universal blueprint to ensure that the world’s poorest countries should be able to overcome deficits in eight critical areas, such as eradication of extreme hunger and poverty, providing greater access to universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowerment of women, reducing child mortality, increasing maternal health, combating infectious diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS, ensuring environmental sustainability and developing global partnership for development.

The Delta State Government, under Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, from inception, embarked on a number of measures aimed at uplifting the status of human development, with emphasis on education, agriculture, provision of potable water/sanitation and development of a grassroots-based micro-credit scheme, which correspond to the MDG’s main thematic areas. In Delta State, there is free medical care for children under five and elders above 65, as well as free natal care for pregnant women until delivery, which drastically cut down on child and maternal mortality.

Education is free and compulsory up to secondary school level, and there are marshals deployed to ensure implementation and eradication of school dropout syndrome.

The state also invited UN assessors who spent about a year in Delta State, and the result was unveiled at this year’s United Nations General Assembly in New York.

We are very proud of this achievement by the Delta State Government, which will go a long way in readjusting Nigeria’s country ranking in the MDG’s. We recommend this template to other states, and also prescribe the use of peer review mechanisms as a means of upgrading the quality of governance at all levels.

The Delta State example has shown that good governance is not merely a function of developing infrastructure such as roads, bridges and housing estates. The development of human capacity and quality of life, which is what the MDG’s are aimed to achieve, must be equally factored in. After all, human beings are the centerpiece of democracy and governance.

As we commend the government and people of Delta State for putting Nigeria’s name in the positive kleiglights in New York, we urge other states to redouble their efforts and ensure that the year 2015 does not leave them behind.