Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), Alhaji Abdulazeez Yari, yesterday met behind closed doors to discuss the modalities of the bailout recently approved for states by the Federal Government.
Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting at the presidential villa, Governor Yari said the discussion centred on the Central Bankpackaged special intervention fund approved by President Muhammadu Buhari recently. Government had approved the bailout to assist states deal with the problem of unpaid public sector salaries. About $2.1 billion dividend paid to the Federation Account by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Company and a CBN-packaged special intervention fund was shared among the three tiers of government.
The CBN intervention is meant to be a soft loan to be made available to states for the purposes of paying backlog of salaries. Yari, who is also the Governor of Zamfara State, said he met Osinbajo in order to find out how far the government had gone on the CBN planned intervention. He said he had received the brief from the vice president and would be waiting for the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, who is currently on the entourage of the president to the United States, to return and take action.
The governor said: “We discussed about the issue of the special intervention funds. In our last meeting with the president, we agreed in the National Economic Council (NEC) that there will be a special intervention from the Federal Government for the states that cannot pay workers’ salaries. “So, I followed up with the Chairman of the NEC (the Vice President) to know how far they have gone with the Central Bank of Nigeria. “This issue of unpaid salaries is not only for the states, even the Federal Government is suffering the same thing.
“Therefore, we follow up to know how far they have gone with the CBN Governor and now we have gotten the brief but the CBN governor is in Washington and immediately he comes back, we are going to take up the matter to see the end of issue of unpaid salaries to the workers.” Speaking on terrorism, Yari said a lot of grounds have been covered in the war against Boko Haram sect. He said members of the sect could no longer be found in any forest in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, unlike what was applicable before now.
“The issue of insurgency is a problem of all. Now, the Boko Haram members cannot be found in any forest, or in any local government among the occupied local governments in Borno, Yobe or Adamawa states. You cannot find them. “So, what we are now suffering is a kind of guerrilla war, checking the bombs, dislodging the suicide bombings and what have you. “But to see a group of 100 or 200 as Boko Haram members to confront with our military, they cannot be found. So, the government and the security agencies are doing their best to ensure that peace is restored, not that these things started under one year, two years. “We are working. It is the responsibility of our government to ensure security of lives and property of the people.
The issue of Boko Haram is number one that Mr. President is discussing with the President of the United States and the supports he is going to give Nigeria to ensure that the issue of insurgency comes to an end. “Government is going to put machinery in place, most especially the military and security, to ensure that the insurgency comes to and end,” the governor stated. Yari also talked about the incidents of lead poison in his states and the steps being taking to address the problem. He said his government was working with some international groups to educate the youth on how best to go about mining without causing harm to themselves.
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