Governors admit NDLEA into states’ Security Council meetings

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has got approval to be admitted into the Security Council meetings of the 36 states of the federation.

This was disclosed by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) after its meeting last Thursday night.

A communiqué signed by the chairman of the NGF and Ekiti State governor, Kayode Fayemi, which was made available to journalists, disclosed that, “Governors reiterated their commitment to maintain logistical support to the agency and committed to providing additional opportunities for operational synergy, including bringing the agency into the State’s Security Council meetings and providing land for barrack operations.”

The communiqué also stated that the NGF expressed concern over the connection between drug use and rising insecurity across the country.

The NGF’s decisions were sequel to a briefing on Drug Abuse and Insecurity – Relationship and New Perspectives by the Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd).

According to the communiqué, the governors also received an update on the States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) Programme-for-Results from the Senior Economist and Co-Tax Team Leader of the World Bank, Samer Matta.

“The update, which was part of measures taken to improve public financial management outcomes in the country, covered ongoing state-level reforms to promote the adoption of e-procurement and open contracting data standards, records for state property taxation and the publication of audit laws and audited financial statements,” the communiqué added. ”

The Forum also received a presentation on Improving Health Financing and Universal Health Coverage from Eduardo Gonzalez-Pier, Senior Technical Advisor for Palladium, an implementing partner for USAID’s Integrated Health Programme, where it shared its vision to achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2030 (SDG3).

Among the set of actions pushed forward and adopted at the meeting were the continued release of equity fund to cover the vulnerable population in all states of the federation, onboarding of civil servants not yet covered under any health insurance scheme and preserving health sector spending amidst the current contraction in fiscal space for governments.