The thirty- six State Governors under the backing of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF have supported President Muhammadu Buhari on the two weeks extension of the lockdown in the FCT, Lagos and Ogun states.
The governors who lauded the president’s action, said however tough the extension is, it was the right way to go.
The governors have also informed the President that his address to the nation succinctly captured the mood of the nation and showed that his administration emphatises with the condition of the masses.
In a statement by NGF Head of Media and Public Affairs Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, The NGF Chairman and Governor of Ekiti state, Dr. Kayode Fayemi had his 1st Teleconference Meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari where he disclosed the governors’ thought on his address and extension and they both engaged each other on current issues of national importance.
The NGF Chairman told the president that the targeted testing strategy adopted by the country has done a lot, however the Ekiti State Governor stated that there was need for more testing adding that the Governors were desirous of having some more testing facilities so as to deepen the gains already made by the NCDC.
The Governor also briefed the President on the distribution of palliatives and urged the president to instruct the relevant authorities to use the machineries of the state governments so that the palliatives would reach all nooks and crannies of the country stressing that Palliatives would be more meaningful if they were distributed through the State Governors..
Dr Fayemi told President Buhari that since the outbreak of the pandemic, governors have been meeting on a regular basis and already met four times over an initial span of twelve days adding that Governors would be having their next and 5th Teleconference meeting on the 15th April, 2020 to review the strategies put in place so far by various States and apply peer learning mechanism to share experiences and collectively adopt areas of successes for the good of their citizens.
The SGF, Mr Boss Mustapha, the PTF Coordinator, Dr Sani Aliyu would be joining the governors in the scheduled meeting as the CBN Governor, Aliko Dangote and Herbert Wigwe will both be addressing the governors at the meeting.
In previous meetings, top government functionaries including the Finance Minister, Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management & Social Deveolpment, and the Minister for Communications & Digital Economy have all addressed governors at different times.
The meeting between the NGF Chairman and the President stretched into the economy where the NGF Chairman told the President that States are undergoing rough times and appealed to the president to take certain decisive decisions to lessen the sufferings of the citizens.
