I would just love it if the Nigerian Governors Forum met this week and adopted this 2025 socio-economic blueprint as their roadmap for the year

Ayo Akinfe

[1] The Nigerian Governors Forum wholeheartedly opposes open grazing and will be sending a bill to the National Assembly making it illegal nationwide

[2] We will support the setting up of a presidential panel to review the 2014 National Confab report on restructuring and make recommendations to the Federal Executive Council. By March 1, a draft bill will be prepared for forwarding on to the National Assembly

[3] We support the setting up of a federal government-Nigerian Governors Forum presidential task force that will examine the modalities for creating state police forces. Its main task will be to put preventive measures in place to prevent governors using them as private armies

[4] We will initiate moves towards the restoration of fiscal federalism in 2025. At the very least, we hope to get a working document approved by the National Assembly and all 36 state governments

[5] On October 1 2025, the Nigerian Governors Forum will unveil six mega cattle ranches in Niger, Borno, Taraba, Yobe, Bauchi and Kaduna states. Each will effectively be mini towns with veterinary clinics, feed compounders, leather tanneries, police stations, abattoirs, railway terminals, etc. Between them, they will be able to accommodate every single herdsman in Nigeria

[6] An ambitious public works programme will be launched by the Nigerian Governors Forum to employ up to 10m youths who will be engaged to plant trees along Nigeria’s borders. This will create jobs, offer border demarcation and provide an environmental boost

[7] The Nigerian Governors Forum will draft a bill to be sent to the National Assembly that mandates the federal government and every state government to spend at least 15% of its annual budget on education

[8] As part of the move towards fiscal federalism, the Nigerian Governors Forum will set up a directorate that works with the minister of trade and industry to woo foreign investors

[9] Armament collection centres will be established in everyone one of our 774 local government areas. At the moment, there are about 6m illegal firearms in Nigeria. Our goal is to at least reduce this to 1m by 2026

[10] A Cultural Diversity Forum will be established to deal with the thorny issue of ethnic mistrust and federal character. It will draw members from all of Nigeria’s 350 ethnic groups and meet once a quarter. Its main task will be to make recommendations to the federal government on how to douse ethnic tensions. Members will be nominated to it by the various pan-cultural associations

Ayoakinfe@gmail.com