MDGs Not Achievable By 2015 – NMA President

The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) said on Thursday, that Nigeria would not be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) target on health by 2015 owing to its state of unpreparedness.

President of the association, Dr Osahon Enabulele, said this in Lagos, at an interactive session with Health Writers Association of Nigeria (HEWAN).

He said that Nigeria was still a developing country without the capacity to meet the set target of the MDGs by 2015.

He said that as a country, Nigeria was yet to provide basic amenities for its citizens, adding that more than 70 million Nigerians were still living in extreme poverty, a situation, which he said, the MDGs were designed to change.

The NMA president said that owing to the country’s state of unpreparedness, Nigerians should  expect to meet the MDGs in the year 2030.

“Nigeria and some other African countries signed a world declaration they know even at the very beginning they can never meet because we are not at the same level with some of the developed economies.

“How can you be signing a declaration with America, Britain and others that by 2015, this is where we are going to be?

“The truth of the matter is that the Nigeria has not been able to conquer even the most basic challenges confronting human existence as you have in other economies; is it water, roads, light? These are things you cannot hide.

“Nigeria was a signatory to the 2001 Abuja Health Declaration of African Heads of Government, that they will devote a minimum of 15 per cent of their national budget to healthcare. Since that declaration, Nigeria has in fact in the reverse.

“So, I think that Nigerians should now begin to look beyond 2015, hoping that with good governance, with credible leadership and with the enabling platform being put in place and of course, all the stakeholders in the health sector playing their roles, that we may just be able to meet the target in 2030. May be our own target should be in the next 15, 20-years.”