Thirty six states’ governors, under the aegis of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), late Wednesday constituted a subcommittee to review the escalating Coronavirus pandemic across the states.
The decision 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 NGF chairman, who read a communiqué after its third meeting, said the governors pledged to work with the Ministry of Health to set up functional test and isolation centres in every state.
The seven-man subcommittee, he said, would be chaired by Governor Nasir el-Rufa’i of Kaduna State and would review the dwindling revenue of the states resulting from the falling oil price and advise state governments on ways to address the challenges.
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“After an extensive discussion of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and falling oil prices in the Nigerian economy and the revenues of state governments, the forum constituted a sub-committee consisting of 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 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 developne joint programmes geared towards building the competitive advantages of states across clusters, geographic corridors and economic belts.”
