By Kassim Omomia
The House of Representatives has raised the alarm over lack of up-to date population data in the country.

Chairman of the House Committee on Sustainable Development Goals, Hon. Rotimi Agunsoye, raised the red flag at a one day Public hearing on the creation of a new board for the management of the SDGs funds.

Agunsoye noted with regrets that Nigeria lacks accurate and up-to-date population data necessary for the achievement of the Sustainable development goals.

According to him, it’s only national population commission that can provide up-to-date information about the country’s population on which government can anchor her development plans, such as the SDGs.

His concerns comes on the heels of the Presidency, and other stakeholders rejecting the creation of a new management board to oversee the implementation and disbursements of funds for a proposed board to manage sustainable development funds in the presidency

Those who kicked against the establishment of a new board,are however in support of the continuous domicile of the funds in the SDG’s office in the presidency

They include the Presidential office in charge of SDGs, the National Population Commission, the Federation Ministry of Health, as well as professional bodies like the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), all of whom all expressed willingness to support the establishment of the Fund provided it remains in the Presidency.

The opposing groups are of the view that it will be a duplication of duties as well as another financial burden on the government, to establish an entirely new body whereas there exists a functional office in the presidency already carrying out the same job.

Kano Assembly passes Public Procurement Bureau bill

Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Adejoke Orelope Adefilure, who led this group, noted that while the presidency supports the bill and the SDGs office is need for more funding to achieve its goals, setting up a separate management board, in her opinion would be burdening and compounding the bureaucracy associated with the operations of government agencies which slows down the pace of work

“We are grateful to the leadership and members of the national assembly for this bill which seeks to raise more funds for the achievement of the Sustainable development goals.

“The President adopted the SDGs as a successor development framework after the termination of the MDGs. After the adoption, Nigeria acted very quickly and set up the team at both federal, states and local governments to guarantee effective implementation of the SDGs.

“We want to assure Nigerians and the committee that the SDGs will be met if the fund is raised and deployed to the appropriate organizational structure that already exist” she said

She explained further that President Muhammadu Buhari has already set up a committee to fashion out ways of reducing government agencies, and creating additional agencies would be at cross purpose with the objective of that mandate.

The representative of the National population commission, NPC, Margaret Edison, other stakeholders from the Health Ministry and NBA, all admitted that the sponsors of the Bill ought to have recognised the sheer fact that there existed a functional Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the SDGs (OSSAP), since 2007 during the the MDGs era); and that OSSAP reports directly to Mr. President on the SDGs.

Senate passes N329.9bn 2021 FCT Statutory Budget

“Equally, Part 1, Section (1) sub-section (3), of the Bill states that the Fund shall be located in the Presidency and shall be subject to the direction, control and supervision of the President in the performance of its functions under this Act. This is tantamount to duplication of efforts and wastage of limited fund that is not sufficient to meet the critical needs of the nation and may not be in the interest of the nation in proceeding with accentuating to this Bill further.”

Edison said: “The NPC wishes to suggest for consideration, the situating of the management and disbursement of the fund in OSSAP, which already has a well operational arrangement for the implementation of the SDGs programmes and activities nation-wide.

The sponsor of the bill, Hon. Abdularazak Namdas, when called upon to speak, said SDGs goals are very important and that he was on ground to listen more to what stakeholders had to say so as to know those areas of the bill that need enriching and adjustment before the final copy is made for transmission.