Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), who is also Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi has said that he is not aware of the printing of N60 billion naira to back up federation account allocation to states in March, as claimed by Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki.
The leader of the Governors of the 36 States in the country, who made this position known at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting today, April 22, at the Presidential villa, Abuja, insisted that he knew no such thing happened at all.
This was even as the Minister of Finance, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed insisted that no naira was printed to augment the federation allocation, even as the Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele fully supported the position of the minister.
The Council described the claim as reported in the press as outrightly false, affirming that no money was printed to shore up allocation for the month of March.
The Council received the recommendations of a national townhall meeting on Enhanced Security and National Unity recently held in Kaduna and affirmed the unity of the country, emphasizing that staying as one country remains the best option for Nigeria.
The meeting which was chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, emphasized the need to address the problems of agitation in parts of the country.
It noted that the agitations are common with countries with huge and diverse populations like ours and it is important not to allow the minority to hijack the mainstream of opinion.”
The Council directed States to hold consultations and dialogues on the issues and report back by the next meeting of Council so that a firm position would be taken on the recommendations of the Townhall many of which it already welcomed.
NEC advised all States,even those that have no agitations, to hold wider consultations to have diverse opinions on the burning issues, taking into consideration local peculiarities and report back to NEC the outcome of the consultations.
The Council resolved that after the planned State-wide consultations a national consensus would be reached on the recommendations of the national town hall meeting held in Kaduna which included the adoption of State Police among other matters.
