Jonathan’s Mid-term Report: Meeting The Mdgs, Targets

As the 2015 deadline for the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) approaches, opinions are divided as to whether Nigeria will be able to meet the deadline.
At a recent stakeholders’ meeting held in Ibadan, participants expressed concern that Nigeria might not be able to meet the targets of the MDGs.
The theme of the stakeholders’ discourse is “ICT and Youth Development: Are Youths Schooling or Educating?’’
Prof. Isaac Adewole, the Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, who spoke at the meeting, said that Nigeria might not be able to attain the targets, unless the policy makers showed increased commitment.
“The current reality of our country has shown that it would be difficult to meet the MDGs as conceived by 2015. Nigeria is faced with huge challenges and the developmental indices are very poor. It may be difficult for the targets to be met in record time,’’ he said
However, Dr Precious Gbeneol, the Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, who spoke at the ongoing Ministerial Platform in Abuja, stressed that Nigeria had indeed attained some of the goals.
Nigeria she said has been able to achieve Goals One, Three and Six and we are on track with regard to Goals Two, Four, Five and Eight and we are working hard on Goal Seven with less than 1,000 days to the deadline of the MDGs tenure.
“Efforts are being made to sustain this progress,’’ she said.
MDG One is about the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger; MDG Two is achieving universal primary education, while the third goal is promoting gender equity and empowering women.
Goal Four is reducing child mortality; MDG five is improving maternal health; while the sixth goal is combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
Goal Seven is ensuring environmental sustainability, while Goal Eight is promoting global partnership for development.
On poverty, Gbeneol said that the country’s poverty eradication programmes were being scaled up, adding that they were now coordinated in a better way.
Besides, the MDGs chief said that recent statistics indicated a reduced proportion of underweight children from 35.7 per cent in 1990 to 27.4 per cent in 2012.
“Government is working tirelessly to develop agriculture as well as create jobs and enabling environment for agro-business.
“We are making sufficient progress in promoting gender equality and empowering women.
“The proportion of children, 12 months of age, immunised against measles increased from 31.4 per cent in 2003 to 55.5 per cent in 2012,’’ she said.
Moreover, Gbeneol said that a sharp decrease had been recorded in malaria and HIV/AIDS prevalence rates.
She said that data from the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) indicated a continuation in the fall of the HIV prevalence from 5.8 per to 4.1 per cent in 2012.
The presidential aide also noted that an increased proportion of children now slept under Long Lasting Insecticide-treated Nets (LLINs).
“With sustained attention, tuberculosis is expected to be a limited public health burden by 2015,’ Gbeneol added.
The chief executive officers of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), who appeared at platform alongside Gbeneol, also recounted the achievements of their agencies in the last two years.
Prof, Charles Onocha, the Acting Executive Secretary of UBEC, said that the Commission received more than N73 billion as intervention funds in the last two years.
He said that N61 billion had been disbursed to the 36 states and the FCT for the provision of education infrastructure.
“From May to December 2011, the Federal Government, through its UBE matching grants, released and disbursed N25 billion to states for the construction and renovation of classrooms for primary schools.
“From January to December 2012, the Federal Government also disbursed over N19 billion as matching grants to states, while N15 billion was also disbursed to states from January to May 2013.
“Between May 2011 and May 2013, N67 billion non-conditional grants were released for self-help projects, almajiri, girl-child and boy-child education projects, special education fund, instructional materials and teachers’ development fund,’’ he said.
Onocha said that vocational skills acquisition centres were established in the South-South and South-East geopolitical zones for the boy-child.
He said the Federal Government, through the commission, designed the Boy-Child Education Programme to address the issue of out-of-school children in the zones.
He also said that a need assessment survey had commenced in the South-South and South-East zones, with a view to sensitising the people and soliciting stakeholders’ commitment to the programme.
On Almajiri Education Programme, Onocha said that 50 out of the 89 almajiri schools had been completed and furnished, adding that the  schools would soon be handed over to state governments.
In his presentation, Malam Aliyu Na’iya, the Acting Executive Secretary of TETFund, said that N574 billion was spent from 2003 to date to support 201 tertiary educational institutions.
He said that the funds were disbursed to 78 federal and state universities, 60 federal and state polytechnics and 63 federal and state colleges of education.
“TETFund is the key agency for actualising a four-year strategic plan of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration in focal areas of funding, partnerships, resource mobilisation and utilisation,” he said.
Na’iya said that the agency had constructed micro-teaching laboratories in 58 institutions, including all federal colleges of education, one state college of education and one FCT college of education.
He said that TETFund had released an initial tranche of N4.7 billion for the provision of infrastructure in each of the nine new federal universities.
Besides, Na’iya said that 58 federal and state colleges of education were provided multi-media micro-teaching laboratories.
“TETFund will continue to prioritise support for the actualisation of the Transformation Agenda through the four-year strategic plan of improving access and quality of education at tertiary levels,’’ he said.
Analysts note that the funding of education has appreciably improved under the Jonathan-administration but they urge the government to boost the funding in the coming years.
They also believe the Nigeria will be able to achieve all the targets of the MDGs before 2015 if the government increases its commitment toward the funding of MDGs programmes and projects.

Ifeanyi Nwoko,writes for   NAN.