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| Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle |
Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle at the weekend insisted that there is no going back on establishment of Ruga settlements in the state.
He spoke with State House correspondents after the Presidential Policy Retreat at the Presidential Villa.
On what to expect from his administration in terms of agricultural transformation, he said: “In zamfara we will adopt Ruga in our strategy to address the herders/farmers crisis; it is a developmental project on ranch and we are ready for it.”
Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, said that the most important thing he took away from the retreat is tackling insecurity.
He said: “I had mentioned here that when I was elected as the chairman of northern governors forum I said my priority is security.
“So part of the lectures, we discussed how to tackle insecurity as presented by the Inspector General of Police, with a lot of contributions.
“The second aspect is education, we mentioned to the president the Almajiri system.
“So these were the things that all of us have taken in and very soon, I will convene the northern summit for us to collectively discuss because at the northern governors forum I have already set up a committee chaired by the governor of Katsina to look at generally insecurity in the north.
“We also set up another committee to look at education in the north and then the prospect of an economic summit for north.
“So these are three things which we are working on. Today, I gained a lot that is why many of us were here since morning to night discussing with Mr President and I can see the determination because it’s a way of moving forward.
“These were done by the party and Mr President to prepare the president for the inauguration of his federal executive council members.
“Many of us are also going to copy the same and take it home as many of us have not even set up our cabinets. So we are also going to do the same and transfer it to our various states.
On the political will to implement the resolutions of the retreat and other policies, the governor said, “That was why the party set up this and I think this is the first time the party is bringing this initiative.
“They provided the platform and said, Mr President let us prepare you for your executive and you monitor the implementation and the party said let all the governors come and learn, we are here and we have learned.
“At federal executive council, at national economic council we will continue to push for the implementation. It is not our duty but we are also heads of our state, therefore, once Mr. President pull the trigger, we will support him and we will also replicate it in our various states.”
Asked what he will do differently in Plateau state in his second term in office, he said, “I have said this on several occasions that plateau is one state that went into insecurity when there was serious insecurity but now in Plateau we have relative peace.
“My state is not one of those that are engulfed in crisis right now. But with this and some of the issues that were raised, I am going to add some of the knowledge I gained today to the current method and also the process I have set in place to ensure we have peace in Plateau state.” he added
