Human
Rights Activist Proffers Solution To SDG Challenges
By
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Daily Independent, December 20, 2018
OWERRI
– Uzodinma Adirieje, a human rights activist and National
Coordinator/CEO of Afrihealth Optonet Association (CSOs Network) has called on the
Federal Government to urgently install the necessary road map that would enable
the nation achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Adirieje
argued that it is an irony of fate that being part and parcel of the planning
of the project, the nation had from 2015 till date Nothing critical to show as
a road map to releasing the laudable goal of the SDGs in the Niger Delta
region.
Adirieje
who is also the Country Director/Lead Facilitator, Health Systems And Projects
Consultants Limited as well as Deputy National President, Nigerian Association
of Evaluators (NAE) made the call while addressing newsmen at a review workshop
of the Sustainable Citizen Participation (SCP) in Nigerian’s Niger Delta
organised by Afrihealth Optonet Association funded by the United Nations
Development Fund (UNDEF) in Owerri.
Noting
that the nation was endowed with abundant human and material resources,
Adirieje called for judicious efficient and prudent utilisation of the
resources to bring the SDGs to bring the SDGs vision to fruition.
“As
at 1981/82, roads built by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the premier of the
defunct Western Region in the 1950’s were still ‘motorable’ but now, you see
governments repairing roads recently constructed often and on and this takes a
lot from public fund.
“Again,
the Late Chief Sam Mbakwe built the Amaraku Power Station while in office as a
governor and now that the Federal Government has liberalised the issue of
power, why can’t the people enjoy regular and interrupted power supply?” he
queried.
Adirieje
who also called for effective environmental management in the country decried
the escalation of erosion and potholes on the nation’s highways saying, “there
is no magic wand to achieve the SDGs and we are grateful to the UNDEF for the
sustainable citizen participation in the Niger Delta.”
As a
civil society organisation incorporated in 2003 and funded by the UNDEF,
Adirieje said that Afrihealth Optonet Association now boasts of 100 projects in
the nine Niger Delta states some of which had reached 75 percent completion
while work was in progress on others.
While
enumerating projects already completed in the states he said, “We work with the
communities to identify projects that are of great importance to them and we
start with the immediate needs of the people.
“Over
the past 2 years (January 2017 and December 2018) we have implemented
projected, facilitated the construction of a number of projects that are in
line with the worth yearnings and aspirations of the people. We met some state
governors and we were impressed with their responses.”
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