By Perpetua Onuegbu
Stakeholders from the public and private sectors have come together in Abuja to validate Nigeria’s 10 years Sustainable Development Goal’s (SDG’s) plan to achieve the global goals of action in the country.

The Head of Communications, Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goal’s (OSSAP-SDGs), Mrs Janet McDickson, made this known to newsmen on Thursday in Abuja.

McDickson said this came about as the global community accelerates efforts to achieve the global goals in the decade of action for the SDGs.

She said stakeholders have validated a strategic implementation plan for the attainment of the development agenda in Nigeria.

According to her, the document: ‘Nigeria Sustainable Development Goals Implementation Plan (2020-2030) was unanimously endorsed by over 300 participants drawn from the civil society, public and private sectors.

The document was endorsed at the physical/virtual validation workshop hosted by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs in Abuja on Tuesday.

The Head communications said document laid out elaborate plans for Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, Financing, Advocacy, and Sensitisation for the SDGs in the next 10 years.

In the statement, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, said it was important to develop a strategic implementation Plan for the SDGs as Nigeria joined in the decade of action.

“Particularly as the country is developing a successor plan to the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

“As Nigeria developed a successor development plan to the ERGP in 2020, the mainstreaming of the SDGs into the medium and long-term development plans is imperative.

“The SDGs are being mainstreamed and integrated into the various thematic areas of the Plan. Consequently, SDGs’ implementation and its monitoring shall hinge on the Plan processes.

“In this ‘Decade of Action’ for the Global Goals, Nigeria will adopt ‘holistic cum heuristic’ approaches and will continue to utilise national development planning as the primary instrument to drive SDGs implementation,” she stated.

The presidential aide added that the Nigerian government had demonstrated strong commitment in the overall implementation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.

She added that institutional frameworks have been established at the national and sub-national levels to support effective implementation of the global goals.

Adefulire reiterated that the SDGs could not be achieved with stand-alone policies and programmes/projects and therefore, the goals must be deliberately integrated into national and subnational policies and development plans.

“While modest progress has been achieved during the first phase (2016-2020), dwindling financial resources; lack of capacity at the subnational level; persistent insecurity across the country; and COVID-19 pandemic have all combined to slowdown progress towards the achievement of the SDGs in Nigeria.”

The presidential aide further noted that during the ‘Decade of Action’, there was urgent need to build back better from COVID-19 setbacks and fast-track the achievement of the SDGs and the implementation plan would help to achieve this.

“This National SDGs Implementation Plan offers a coherent roadmap for Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support (MAPS) for the SDGs.

“Mainstreaming the SDGs into the national and subnational development plans is a necessary pre-requisite for effective implementation.

“Effective Integration of the SDGs into sectoral policies and plans requires smart and innovative approaches of identifying ‘influencers’ and ‘accelerators’ among the SDGs.

“The interconnectedness and inter-linkages of the SDGs provide opportunities for synergies and trade-offs to achieve better outcomes,” she added.

Adefulire emphasised the need to continually seek creative and innovative financing mechanisms through which public and private resources could be mobilised to support accelerated implementation of SDGs in Nigeria.

“Indeed, to achieve the transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda – ‘Leave no one behind’, we need the expertise and financial resources of all – public and private sector; scientific community; donor community and the wider civil society,” Adefulire stated.

By Lucy Ogalue
The Federal Government has signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mota-Engil Group on the construction of 1.959billion dollars Kano-Maradi Standard Gauge Railway lines.

The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, in a statement by Eric Ojiekwe, Director Press and Public Relations of the Ministry, said the project was aimed at linking the whole country by rail.

Amaechi signed the MoU on behalf of the Federal Government while the Managing Director, Mota- Engil, Antonio Gvoea signed on behalf of the contracting firm.

According to the Minister, the new railway corridor which is to be located in northern Nigeria will run through Kano, Jigawa and Katsina and through Niger Republic territory as far as Maradi.

He said other cities such as Danbatta, Kazaure, Daura, Mashi, Katsina and Jibiya would also be affected by the rail line in Nigeria.

The minister said the 283.750 kilometre rail line would help develope freight and passenger transport as it would be integrated with road transport.

He added that it would contribute greatly to the local economy as well as the nation’s social sector.

According to Amaechi, the duration for the project is 36 months and the contract type is Engineering, Procurement and Construction.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by the Ministry’s Permanent, Dr Magdalene Ajani, the Director, Legal Services, Pius Oteh, the Managing Director, Mota-Engil Group, Antonio Gvoea and Head of Legal, Mota- Engil Group, Cameron Beverley.

It was also witnessed by Magajin Garin Kano, Muhammad Wada, Director, Mota-Engil Group, Kola Abdulkarim, Vice President, Mota-Engil Group, Mohammed Abdul-Razaq, among others.

He added that the Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, Yusuf Tuggar and the Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Bala-Usman among other diginitaries also witnessed the signing.

By Lucy Ogalue
Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi has said that the inauguration of the Lagos-Ibadan rail line has been put on hold due to the upsurge of COVID-19 in the country.

Amaechi, who disclosed this in Abuja, said that over 60 staff on project site have been infected by Covid19 while trying to complete the project.

“First let us admit that over 60 of our staff, not ministry of transport staff, but the staff working on the rail project have been infected by COVID-19. Luckily nobody has died and I pray nobody will die, but you see the kind of sacrifice everybody is making to get the rail to function.

“They are people sacrificing their lives to get to that point, we are of the view when we made that decision that Nigeria will not say 2020 was a bad year, so remove one year and add another year to Buhari administration.

“As far as we are concern, we need to learn how to leave with COVID-19, I really want to congratulate those that achieve that feat, we were to inaugurate first week in January. We had to stop those doing minor completion because of the rise in COVID-19 transmission.

“The timeline for inauguration will depend on COVID-19. If COVID-19 stop today or reduces we will commission the project.”

Amaechi further stated that the train services on all route might stop if passengers do not adhere to COVID-19 protocol.

“We will allow the train to run but if we see that we are conveying passengers who have Covid from Lagos to Ibadan, we will stop it. Just like we are threatening to stop Kaduna-Abuja if people don’t comply with the COVID-19 Protocol.”

He said that the Abuja-Kaduna route convey about 4,000 passengers daily, stating that if anyone transmit COVID-19 onboard it would be a serious challenge.