YARaADUA 7-POINT AGENDA, THE MDGs AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA

Abstract

African leaders toed the initiative of their world counterparts towards the close of the last millennium aimed at addressing issues bordering on poverty and its effects in the world and the opportunity provided by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for solving these problems. This focus formed the rallying cry of global partnership and the cornerstone of international and regional development policy. As soon as he was sworn into office as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua declared his administration's 7-point agenda, aimed at keying into the objectives of the MDGs. This paper among others, considers the full import of the MDGs. It proceeds to point out the critical factors that constitute the Yar'Adua 7-point agenda. Some of the questions raised in the body of the paper include: if pursued with the vigour it deserves, is this policy thrust likely to herald sustainable development in Nigeria by the envisioned 2020? Does the Yar'Adua administration have the capacity to handle these seven points at a time, or should it have prioritized these items, by taking on them one at a time (incrementally)? These questions are necessary because they raise fundamental issues concerning the declared policy focus of the Yar'Adua administration and the path it has charted for Nigeria. At the end, some empirical conclusions were made, with regard to the workability of this policy thrust. Nigeria is unequivocally in need of a development kick-starter. Is the 7point agenda going to be the way out of these problems?