Amina Mohammed, speaks during a visit to the secretariat of the
Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) in Abuja on November 17, 2020.
Photo: Twitter- @NGFSecretariat.
It is important for Nigeria’s leaders to see young
people as assets or else they will not eventually have a peaceful
retirement.
The Deputy Secretary-General (DSG) of the United Nations, Amina
Mohammed, gave the advice on Tuesday when she visited the
secretariat of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), as part of her
tour of some West African States. including Ghana, Sierra Leone,
Chad, and the Niger Republic.
A statement from the NGF Secretariat spokesperson, Abdulrazaque
Bello-Barkindo, noted that the advice was in reaction to the
#EndSARS protest in some parts of the country.
In her response to pleas by the governors for assistance from
the UN, Mohammed said the organisation does not write cheques but
creates an environment for those who have the cheques to do so.
She, however, commended the governors for the mature manner in
which they handled the demonstrations, although she regretted that
some ugly influences eventually contaminated the protests.
Welcoming the DSG to the secretariat, NGF Chairman and Ekiti
State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, listed some of the challenges of
governance in the country and how the COVID-19 pandemic affected
Nigeria’s economy.
He stated that while the virus hit Nigeria later than other
countries, its impact has been ravaging with over 64,090 confirmed
cases and 1,154 deaths.
Other impacts, the governor noted, included the fall in oil
prices, contracting tax base, loss of sources of livelihood,
unemployment, youth restiveness, increasing inflation rate,
worsening exchange rate, and decline in productivity due to
necessary lockdown measures initiated globally and nationally.
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
Amina Mohammed, pose for a photograph with Governor Kayode Fayemi
(Ekiti), Governor Umaru Fintiri (Adamawa), and Governor Hope
Uzodinma (Imo), at the secretariat of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum
(NGF) in Abuja on November 17, 2020. Photo: Twitter-
@NGFSecretariat.
Governor Fayemi explained that as a responsive group, members of
the NGF worked collaboratively, co-opting ideas and welcoming
support from critical stakeholders, including partners and the
private sector.
“In the wake of the pandemic, we worked with the Federal
Government to ensure the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC),
Presidential Task Force (PTF), National Emergency Management Agency
(NEMA) and the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster
Management and Social Development got all the support they required
in delivering swift containment measures,” he told the DSG.
He added, “At the National Economic Council (NEC) level, we
developed a COVID-19 response plan encompassing health, economic
and socio-economic, immediate to medium-term measures needed to
combat the virus and its impact.”
The NGF chairman said the pandemic compelled governors to see
the “need for retooling ourselves on how best to become accountable
to the electorate.”
Adamawa State Governor, Umaru Fintiri, and his Imo State
counterpart, Governor Hope Uzodinma, attended the meeting in person
while many others joined by zoom from their respective states.