History is being made as the world leaders unanimously
adopts the #GlobalGoals and President Muhammadu Buhari addresses the summit at
the General Assembly on 25th Sept 2015.
Here is what the President of Nigeria, President Muhammadu
Buhari had to say:
AT ADOPTION OF POST-2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA, BUHARI URGES
WORLD LEADERS TO DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO ELIMINATE ILLITERACY, HUNGER AND
DISEASE BY 2030
President Muhammadu Buhari Friday in New York reaffirmed his
Administration's total commitment to the entrenchment of a fully transparent
and accountable public revenue management system in Nigeria. Addressing the
United Nations Plenary Summit for the Adoption of the Post-2015 Development
Agenda,
President Buhari said that his administration was taking steps
to improve and streamline internal generation of revenue, and to plug all
loopholes that have led to illicit capital flight from Nigeria.
The President told the gathering that his government was
also putting mechanisms in place to prevent oil theft and other criminal
practices that are detrimental to Nigeria's economy. Applauding the adoption of
the Post-2015 Global Development Agenda, President Buhari said that he was very
pleased that world leaders had reaffirmed their commitment to sustainable
development, international peace and security, and the protection of the
planet. "These are really the major issues of the day. For the first time,
we have at our disposal a framework that is universal in scope and outlook,
with clearly defined goals and targets, and appropriately crafted methods of implementation.
"The Declaration that we have adopted today testifies to the urgency and
the necessity for action by all of us. It is not for want of commitment that
previous initiatives have failed or could not be fully realized.
What seemed to be lacking in the past were political will
and the required global partnership to pursue and implement the programmes to
which we committed ourselves.
"This Declaration enjoys global consensus. We have agreed
to deliver as one and to leave no one behind. This is a promise worth keeping.
We have agreed to create viable partnerships and to adopt the means of implementation
for the goals and targets of the global sustainable development agenda in all
its three dimensions; namely economic, social and environmental. "The
Post-2015 Development Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
together with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda that we adopted in July 2015, offer
us a unique opportunity to address the unfinished business of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). "They
also provide the basis for a new set of global development priorities to usher
in a peaceful and prosperous world, where no one is left behind, and where the
freedom from fear and want, and for everyone to live in dignity, is
enthroned," President Buhari said. Noting that illiteracy, hunger and
diseases are associated evils that go hand in hand with poverty, the President
urged the assembled world leaders to do everything possible "to eliminate
these ills from our midst by 2030 as the Declaration loudly proclaims". "The
bottom billion that has neither safety nets nor social protection, need to be
rescued from their perpetual state of hopelessness, fear and indignity. This is
a task that should have been accomplished decades ago. Now that it has fallen
on our shoulders to discharge this responsibility, we should do so with the enthusiasm
and commitment that is worthy of the cause. "We must adopt targeted
interventions at both policy and practical levels, to address extreme poverty
and combat illiteracy, hunger and diseases. We must create viable partnerships
that bring together national, regional and global actors with shared objectives
to carry this forward.
"We must also create the enabling environments for executing
this global agenda, by developing the relevant frameworks for working with
different types of partners and constituencies that recognize the contributions
of civil society, religious and cultural bodies, private sector, academia and
most importantly, governments. "Just
as the relative success of the MDGs was underpinned by national ownership, the
Post-2015 and the SDGs frameworks must also be guided by national priorities
and ownership. Domestic resource mobilization supplemented by improved terms of
trade between industrial and developing economies should drive the
implementation processes in both streams.
The facilitation of remittances by migrant and overseas workers,
as well as efficient tax collection are needed as complimentary sources of financing
for development," the President said.
He said that Nigeria was proud to have availed her services
to the United Nations in co-chairing the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts
on Sustainable Development Financing, whose work contributed in no small
measure to the expansion of financing for development strategies.
Femi Adesina
Special Adviser to
the President
(Media &
Publicity)
September 25, 2015
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