The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has called for more support from development partners toward building the capacities of political parties in the country.

IPAC national chairman Sani Yabagi said this when the council met with different development partners in Abuja.

The development partners included the Chinese Embassy, the International Republican Institute, and the National Planning Commission.

Mr Yabagi said IPAC, an umbrella body of political parties, was committed to promoting good governance and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Nigeria.

Despite numerous government efforts, he said Nigeria had yet to achieve much in terms of SDGs.

Mr Yabagi stated that Nigeria could not tackle poverty, hunger and gender inequalities without being committed to achieving SDGs. He said IPAC plans to monitor the progress of the 36 governors-elect on achieving SDGs through the Peer Review Mechanism.

He said the mechanism would help ensure the governors were held accountable for their actions.

“The only way we can make our governors perform is to interact with them and get them to buy into the SDG goals. We are also trying to see how we can make that tier of government become more people-oriented by way of delivering on their mandate to improve the welfare and security of the people,” Mr Yabagi said.

He added that IPAC was committed to implementing strategies that would hold the legislature accountable and ensure that it delivered on its mandate of making laudable laws for the country.

“We believe that we need to improve on the system because there is no way we can deal with the issues of poverty (and) grow our economy other than to put our elected members to be on their toes,” Mr Yabagi stressed.

(NAN)