Analyzing the progress, pitfalls and prospects for attaining environmental-related sustainable development goals in Nigeria

Abstract

The year 2020 was the resounding fifth anniversary of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which have a vision for a safer,  healthier and more prosperous world by 2030. The overall objective of this present research is to analyze Nigeria’s strategies towards ascertaining their progress, pitfalls and prospects for achieving environmental sustainability. The novel Covid-19 pandemic is found out to be closely intertwined with tropical deforestation; hence, humans become exposed to disease pathogens originally found only in wild animals; thereby, depicting consequences for the environmentalrelated SDGs in Nigeria. In addition, Covid-19 measures such as mobility restrictions during lockdowns create major food supply system challenges thereby, affecting availability and accessibility requirements for the attainment of food security (SDG-2) in Nigeria. Hence, the novel Covid-19 is a colossal pitfall retarding progress on
environmental-related SDGs in Nigeria amid the seven prospects as identified in this research article. Overall, the analysis shows that there is a gap between what can be achieved in the research domain regarding policy-making and implementation of environmental-related SDGs in Nigeria. As a way-forward, future researches are needed to investigate the effectiveness of implementing, monitoring and reporting system of the environmental-related SDGs towards attaining a safer, healthier and more prosperous Nigeria beyond 2030.

Keywords: Covid-19 pandemic, Environmental-related SDGs, Progress, Pitfalls, Prospects, Nigeria