Thirty-six states’ governors, under the aegis of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, (NGF) late Wednesday night constituted a subcommittee to review the escalating Coronavirus pandemic across the states.
The decision to set up the committee followed a long briefing of the governors by Dr, E. Osagie Ehanire, the Minister of Health, on the update the pandemic ravaging major cities of the world.
Kayode Fayemi, the Chairman, who read a communiqué to newsmen after the 3rd Meeting of the of NGF, noted that the governors pledged to work with the Ministry of Health to set up functional test and isolation centres in every State in the country.
The Seven man subcommittee will be chaired by governor Nadir El-Rufa’i of Kaduna will also review the dwindling revenue of the states resulting from the falling oil price and advise state governments on ways to address the challenges.
“After an extensive discussion of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and falling oil prices in the Nigerian economy and the revenues of States governments, the Forum constituted a sub-committee consisting of the Governors of Kaduna (Chair), Kebbi, Ebonyi, Ogun, Nasarawa, Edo and Jigawa to comprehensively review the trend and advice State governments on the set of actions required to address challenges in the economy.
“The Forum received a presentation on fostering values-based leadership from the Africa Leadership Initiative West Africa led by its Chairperson, Mrs. Amina Oyagbola. Members resolved to engage with the Institute through its Secretariat.
“The Forum received a presentation from Laoye Jaiyeola, Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group on the NGF-NESG Economic Roundtable (NNER) -a joint platform created by both institutions to facilitate public/private dialogues and deve10p joint programmes geared towards building the competitive advantages of States across clusters, geographic corridors and economic belts.
“Governors adopted a strategy to operationalise the NGF-NESG Economic
Roundtable and committed to constitute a Steering Committee to provide governance to the partnership.
“Finally, the Forum received a presentation and invitation from the Global Citizen, led by its Vice Chairman, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede to co-host the Global Goal Live Festival in Lagos, Nigeria. The Forum pledged to work with the nongovernmental organisation to provide a unique opportunity for Nigeria to showcase and expand its SDG efforts on the global stage” stated Fayemi.
In attendance at the meeting were: Governors of Kaduna, Kano, Imo, Ogun, Katsina, Osun, Edo, Niger, Kebbi, Taraba, Ebonyi, Anambra, Sokoto, Adamawa, Ekiti, Bayelsa, Lagos, Borno, and Kwara, Jigawa states respectively.
Others include the deputy governors of Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Zamfara, Benue and Rivers states respectively.
By Chidi Ugwu,
Independent