North East govs meeting a jamboree – Dr Ardo

A politician and historian, Dr Umar Ardo, has criticised the meeting of the North East Governors Forum (NEGF) for failing to touch on pressing issues affecting the region.

Ardo told our correspondent that rather than seek solutions to specific problems that made life difficult for their people, the six governors wasted energy dwelling on bogus and unrealisable wishes.

Members of the NEGF, comprising governors of Adamawa, Taraba, Gombe, Bauchi, Yobe and Borno – Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, Kefas Agbu, Inuwa Yahaya, Bala Muhammad, Mai Mala Buni and Professor Babagana Umara Zulum respectively, held the 9th meeting in Yola recently.

According to the communiqué signed by Zulum, who is the forum’s chairman and read by Buni, the forum rolled out plans for improved security, power generation, roads and rail lines, action against the threat of climate change, regional economic development and education, among others.

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The forum noted that although the security situation is improving positively in the region, there is a need for more collaboration among member states in the design of the security architecture for the region.

“It thus resolved to work more with the security agencies to have a common security roadmap for the North East”, the communiqué stated.

The communiqué also indicated efforts by the NEGF to enlist the services of a Chinese company for a 60mw coal power plant or 50mw solar power plant in each of the six member states and to work with the federal government on the need for standard gauge rail lines and roads to ease transportation in the region.

However, Dr Ardo insisted that the governors got it wrong and were simply playing politics to attract the attention of international donors and government bodies.

Ardo had contested for governorship in 2023 on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and lost to Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).