Keywords: 'sustainable development goals', agenda 2030,, big data, covid-19, pandemic
Abstract
On February 27th 2020, Nigeria became the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to announce the discovery of COVID-19 cases. Ever since then, the pandemic has become a global phenomenon that started spreading from country to country as an invisible enemy. It affects all aspects of human life, from religious, social, cultural, sporting, career and educational activities. The rampaging effect and the continuous presence of the pandemic have put lots of question marks on the realization of the 2030 agenda of Sustainable development goals (SDGs). In this research, all the listed seventeen (17) goals were critically evaluated based on their framework using the reality concept within the context of the ravaging pandemic in the country. While only four (4) out of the seventeen (17) listed goals appeared feasible for Nigeria, others remained largely elusive. It was observed that the pandemic has jeopardized the production of data central to the achievement of SDGs, thus creating serious data gaps in assessing country-level programs towards the SDGs. A careful analysis shows that several of the 169 targets set by SDGs for achievement in the year 2020 remains unachieved at moment, hence anticipating an ambitious-like posture for the 2030 agenda.
