The Northern States Governors’ Forum says it cannot lock
down its region because doing so will come at a high cost.
This was the outcome of a meeting the governors held via
teleconference. Simon Lalong, governor of Plateau state and chairman of the
forum, presided over the meeting.
In a statement on Monday, Macham Makut, Lalong’s director of
press and public affairs, said the governors agreed to approach the federal
government for funds because the preventive measures they have put in place
“have eaten deep into the pockets of the states”.
The governors resolved to strengthen preventive measures
through enhanced boundary controls and surveillance.
They also pledged “greater” collaboration to ensure that
there is synergy among them in the fight against COVID-19.
“They agreed that at the moment, each state would adopt the
measure suitable to its setting because total lockdown of the region will come
at a very high cost since most of its citizens are farmers who need to go to
farms since the rains have started,” Makut said.
“Another issue discussed by the northern governors was the
issue of palliatives from the Federal Government where they regretted that so
far, no state in the region had received a dime as special allocation despite
the fact that some of them have recorded cases while others are making frantic
efforts to prevent any outbreak, as well as prepare against any eventuality.
“This they observed has eaten deep into the pockets of the
states as they have spent a lot of money already and may not be able to sustain
this for a long time. Since prevention is better than cure, they canvassed that
the federal government grant them some special funds just as it has done to
other states.
“The northern governors lamented that the region has no
testing centre, which is very disturbing. They resolved to again liaise with
the Federal Government to ensure that each state at least gets one testing
centre while highly populated ones get two.
“The governors also discussed the economic impact of
COVID-19 on the region and decided that they needed to take a holistic look at
the economic prospects of the region with a view to repositioning it for less
reliance on federal allocation and to prepare for the future by diversifying to
areas of comparative advantage such as agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and
human capital development.”
They set up a seven-man committee to be chaired by Atiku
Bagudu, Kebbi governor, “to fashion out the way forward”.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com