CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background of the study

In order to address the problem of poverty and promote sustainable development, the Unified Nations Millennium Declaration was adopted in September 2000 at the largest ever gathering of head of states committing countries both rich and poor to do all they can to eradicate poverty, promote human dignity and equality, achieve peace, democracy and environmental stability, the goals include those dedicated to eradicating poverty, achieving universal primary education, promote gender equality and empowering women, reducing child  mortality, improving material health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases ensuring environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development.

However, several surveys indicate that there are limitations of utilizing the MDG as a framework for delivering development, hence it becomes imperative to conduct an empirical investigation on the subject matter. This is owing to the controversy surrounding whether Nigeria can meet the MDG goals before 2015. According to MDG (2004) report “based on available information it is unlikely that the country will be able to meet most of the goals by 2015 especially the goals related to eradicating extreme poverty

And hunger, educing child and maternal mortality and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases”. It further stated that “for most of the other goals (i.e. apart from goals) up-to-date data exists which shows that if the current trend continues, it will be difficult for the country to achieve the MDG targets by 2015”. It is against this background that the research sees the subject matter as an issue worthy of empirical investigation.