24 Oct 2024

Today, I would like to add my voice to those of the global community to mark the United Nations, (UN) Day - a day which reminds us of the critical role that the World body in maintaining global peace and promoting the well-being and security of the peoples of the world. This day offers us in Nigeria the opportunity, as a nation, to re-evaluate our journey and see how we have lived up to the core values and pillars of the United Nations - peace and security, human rights, the rule of law, and development. With our nation greatly burdened by high levels of insecurity, gross abuse of human rights, and blatant disrespect for the rule of law, we must decide to make a firm commitment to upholding these principles, without which we cannot experience true development. We must also, today, make sincere efforts to achieve the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, which are simply a global call to put an end to poverty, secure the planet, and ensure that everyone enjoys peace and prosperity by 2030. Nigeria has continued to underperform in the implementation and actualization of these goals. The Sustainable Development Report 2023 ranked Nigeria among the least 20 countries in the world to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets by 2030, with a global ranking of 146 out of 166 countries globally. All these are the results of the accumulated leadership failure that has held the country down, over the years. While China achieved its poverty eradication goals 10 years ahead of schedule by lifting over 98 million people out of poverty as of 2020, India has since lifted over 270 million people from poverty by implementing the SDGs. Other comparable nations of Indonesia, Vietnam, and Bangladesh have all continued to make significant progress towards achieving these SDG goals. As I have always maintained, we must first make a visible commitment to investing in our critical areas of development: education, health, and poverty eradication. By so doing, we will not only put our nation on track to achieving the UN's SDGs, but we will set our nation on the path of true development. A New Nigeria remains POssible. -PO