The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Challenges of Youth Development in Nigeria

Abstract

Despite the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, the Nigerian youth is still caught in a web of poverty, hopelessness and missed opportunities. The paper argues that though corruption, lack of political will, poor policy implementation, etc. limit government's efforts at youth development, the primary challenge remains the fact that the government has not been able to properly conceptualise and prioritize youth development. In addition, government's implementation of the Millennium Development Goals remains manifestly insincere to an alarming degree. This paper relied on secondary information and data sourced from newspapers, magazines, journals, textbooks, etc. The methodology is analytical. The structural functionalist theory is adopted in the analysis. This study emphasizes the fact that the future progress of the Nigerian nation is critically tied to the quality of youths she is able to produce in the present. It posits that until government's efforts in the implementation of the MDGs become manifestly sincere to an appreciable degree and youth development is properly conceptuali(z)ed, the Nigerian youth will continue to be plagued by the challenges of poor value orientation(s delete s), disenchantment, negativity and inadequacy. The paper recommends that youth development should be given a priority attention in the ongoing constitutional review efforts in Nigeria.

Success factors of global goal‐setting for sustainable development: Learning from the Millennium Development Goals

“…On the other hand, any lack of ownership of the MDGs by national governments is widely cited as a major constraining factor for MDG implementation (Haug & Hella, 2013; Hulme & Scott, 2010; Ukachukwu & Iheriohanma, 2013). Scholars have shown that many governments of developing countries had little interest in the MDGs and were hence reluctant to translate global goals into national contexts (Fukuda‐Parr, 2014; Hezri, 2013).…”

“…In particular, countries that suffer from socio‐economic inequality and lacking administrative capacity with deficient coordination are not able to take adequate measures that improve pro‐poor development (Asadullah & Savoia, 2018; Mashau et al, 2014), basic health services for the poor (Das, 2018), environmental protection (Castelló et al, 2010; Opršal et al, 2018) or other MDG targets (Comim, 2015; Haug & Hella, 2013; Hoxhaj et al, 2014; Sío‐López, 2015). Such capacity deficits open the door for policymakers to distort the programmes for their own gains leading to poor MDG implementation (Hezri, 2013; Omona, 2010; Ukachukwu & Iheriohanma, 2013). This is most evident in conflict zones and areas without statehood where the MDGs had essentially no effects (Caprani, 2016).…”