By: Bolaji Oyegunle: There is a growing concern in Europe that Nigeria may not meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 5 which deals with maternal mortality by 2015.
It is believed that the country along with Zimbabwe may fall short of their pledged spending on health.
Nigeria in particular is expected to fall short of its pledged spending on health by £14.9 billion pounds sterling despite earning about £35 billion from oil revenue in 2011.
This is the submission of ‘One Campaign’, a grassroots advocacy movement of three million people in Africa and around the world fighting the injustice of extreme poverty.
The One Campaign fears time is running out to hit the target of reducing child mortality by two thirds by the year 2015.
One’s Europe Executive Director, Andrian Lovett lamented that attaining the MDGs is not feasible despite Britain committing 0.7 per cent of national income to overseas aid.
Consequently, he urged British Prime Minister David Cameron who is chairing a United Nations Committee on how to follow up the MDGs’ project to push countries that are still lagging behind to do more.
Britain is hosting the G8-Summit next month in Northern Ireland. “As David Cameron and others debate future anti-poverty goals, they must not lose sight of achieving the existing ones.
“Those countries in Africa that are lagging behind should be inspired by neighbours that are making dramatic progress,” Lovett stated.
However, countries like Mali, Ghana, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Malawi rank highly in their progress towards attaining the MDGs.
Other countries that may not meet the MDGs are Zimbabwe, which is considered the worst, followed by DR Congo, Republic of Congo, Sudan and Gabon.
