A community development expert, Mr. Ezenwa Nwagu, has solicited citizens’ participation in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Speaking in an interview in Abuja on Saturday, he said citizens’ participation would ensure maximum benefit from the programme.
He noted that many citizens could not benefit from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) due to bureaucracy in the implementation of the programme.
“Why Nigerians did not benefit maximally from the MDGs was because of bureaucratisation of the interventions in the implementation of MDGs.
“Due to this development, those who were supposed to benefit from the programme did not benefit.
“Appointments made into the MDGs were based on patronage and not competence and capacity as it should be, because there was a lot of money in the project,” he said.
He advised that government should create an environment that would enable effective implementation of SGDs by reducing corruption in its implementation.
In a separate interview, Miss Ama Hembe of Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja, called on the stakeholders to avoid the pitfalls in MDGs while implementing SDGs.
“By such step, they will learn one or two lessons that would guide them towards making sure that the success being envisaged in the implementation of SDGs surpasses that of MDGs”, she said.
Speaking during the dialogue, the Executive Director, Women Optimum’s Development foundation, Mr. Bimbo Oloyede, commended the organisers of the event.