The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Nigeria’s Development Planning: Historical and Contemporary Linkages

This study provides a professional historical and contemporary analysis of how Nigeria has incorporated successive United Nations development planning frameworks, from the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015, into its national development planning processes. Nigeria's track record in implementing international development commitments is mixed, with significant gaps between stated planning alignment and actual resource allocation and programme delivery. Using a professional documentary analysis design, the study reviews Nigeria's Voluntary National Reviews presented to the UN High Level Political Forum, the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, the Nigeria Agenda 2050 strategic development framework, and secondary academic literature published between 2020 and 2024. The Development Planning Theory and the Global Governance of Development Framework provide the analytical lenses. Findings reveal that while Nigeria has formally aligned its national planning frameworks with the SDG architecture, actual budget allocations for SDG-relevant sectors including health, education, and environment consistently fall below implied investment levels. The absence of disaggregated SDG monitoring data at state and local government levels makes it impossible to assess equitable distribution of SDG-aligned expenditure. Recommendations include mandatory SDG localisation plans for all 36 states and strengthened civil society engagement in Voluntary National Review processes. Keywords: Sustainable Development Goals, Nigeria, development planning, MDGs, global governance.