How insecurity threatens Nigeria’s realization of 2030 SDGs

Acting Head of Department, International Relations, Gregory University Uturu (GUU) in Abia State, Dr. Onyemaechi Augustine Eke, has said Nigeria’s realization of the United Nations Organization’s (UNO) 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Agenda 2063 is being challenged by what he called human insecurity in the country.

He said this while delivering the GUU second public lecture titled ‘Governance and State Building: Roadmaps to Human Security in Nigeria’ at the university’s Goodluck Jonathan Auditorium. He noted that in Nigeria, governance and state-building paradoxically constitute the major drivers of human insecurity adding that this challenge calls for collective action beyond submissiveness.

To him, Nigeria, the most populous ethnic, religious and linguistic country in Africa, continues to attract the derogatory accolade of African Giant “with the feet of clay on the journey to national greatness and communal existence became threatened by multi dimensional sources of human insecurity occasioned by preemptive measures and ineffective management strategies.”

Eke said beyond the poor indices of the components of human insecurity in Nigeria, there is still hope pointing out that the country has the potential to become a top 10 global economy in 2050 with 34 per cent solid minerals.

Going further, he stated that about 10 million of the estimated 250 million population live in other countries with over 115,000 as medical professionals, 174,000 information technology professionals, 87,000 pharmacists , 49,000 engineers and over 250,000 as Legal, financial, real estate professionals.

He added that if innovation is going to be key in the realisation of Agenda 2063, universities and governments will have to prioritise quality education and research.

A 2017 report on the Assessment of Legislation and the Acceleration of Fundamental Change highlights the disjuncture between higher education and the workplace and also calls for improvement in the quality of public education. Furthermore, the slow expansion of quality postgraduate education has impacted negatively on research and development, and innovation in Africa.

“Nigeria’s Diaspora population should be integrated into the country’s security policy frameworks to offer security information on international threat to national security because of their vast knowledge of people, language, cultures etc, across the globe just as the Koko toxic waste saga in 1988 reveals”.