The 36 State Governors under the aegis of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) have commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for showing leadership by extending opportunity to them to nominate competent people from their fold for appointment into boards of parastatals.

The NGF Chairman, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State confirmed this in a communiqué issued at the end of the emergency meeting held in Abuja.

He said: “We, members of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), at our meeting held today, received briefings on various sub national programs, interventions, and issues of national importance and resolved as follows:

“The Forum received a briefing from the Director Generals of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) on the incidence of flooding across the country and deliberated on urgent proactive measures to save lives, livelihood, critical infrastructure and safeguarding national food security.

“Members resolved to collaborate with relevant agencies at arriving at a comprehensive and federation response while leveraging the 2023 Seasonal Climate Prediction (SCP), Annual Flood Outlook (AFO), flood risk maps, and the Climate Related Disaster Preparedness and Mitigation Strategy.

“National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) briefed Governors on how to achieve shared goals of building a safer and more resilient Nigeria in the face of the growing rate of occurrence of disasters globally.

“NEMA called on State Governors to set up functional State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs), Local Emergency Management Committees (LEMCs) and community volunteers with adequate legal backing, funding and trained manpower.

“Support knowledge, assets and experience sharing between states, NEMA and other responsible partners.

“Support the signing of Mutual Aid Agreements between States as disaster hit different geographical spaces at different times. Encourage private sector participation as part of its corporate social responsibility.

“Foster policy alignment and community engagement for Disaster Risk Reduction. According to the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) every USD invested in risk reduction and prevention can save up to USD15 in post disaster recovery.

“On their part, Governors requested NEMA and NiMET to develop a comprehensive partnership framework to drive their engagement with states.

“The Forum received the United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Ms. Amina J. Mohammed in the company of Ms. Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and UN Messenger of Peace, who chose a girl-child advocacy visit to Nigeria to mark her 26th birthday. Malala expressed her desire to see efforts at addressing gender discrimination, gender inclusion and girl-child education sustained and deepened.

“Members expressed their readiness to work with the UN and Malala Fund in advancing gender responsive and inclusive policies, including access to quality education for Girls and other affirmative action processes in the country.

“Members commiserated with the Governors of Plateau and Zamfara States over the incessant killings in some parts of their States and solicited the cooperation of all members in combating banditry across the country,” the NGF Chairman said. (Nigerian Tribune)

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