From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) will hold an induction ceremony for new and returning governors between Monday, May 15 and Friday, May 19.
Spokesman for the NGF Secretariat, Abdulrazaque Barkindo, in a statement in Abuja, said the induction is to support the state executives with special tools to usher them into office in a seamless manner and to assist them move away from campaigns to governance.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the special guest of honour, is expected to give the keynote address at the event that would also have in attendance former governors as well.
Barkindo said: “The occasion accords the governors an opportunity to share experiences and compare notes to further strengthen service delivery to the Nigerian people at the sub-national level.”
The NGF’s spokesman also added that the event scheduled to hold at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja, will also have speakers from around the world among them heads of governments, members of the diplomatic corps, captains of industry and other categories of guests who have accomplished and distinguished history of service to their people to inspire the governors to hit the ground running.
“On this occasion, the current Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, and two former American governors, Terry McAuliffe of the State of Virginia and O’Malley Martin Joseph of Maryland are gracing the occasion.
“Perusing their performance resume, O’Malley became renown for reducing crime while McAuliffe focused on healthcare provision and education. Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, which, if it were a country would have the ninth-largest gross metropolitan product (GMP) of $1.66 trillion, is visiting Africa for the first time, is known to have applied digital methods to fight crime in NYC.”
Also expected to speak is Peter Nyongo, governor of the Kisumu County in Kenya who transformed Kenya’s hospital fund to a national health insurance fund, reduced poverty and brought Kisumu County to compete in poverty reduction, education and infrastructure with modern cities around the globe.
Also invited to the NGF induction are former British prime minister Tony Blair, Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, the secretary general of United Cities and Local Governments of Africa and President William Ruto of Kenya.
Director General of the World trade Organisation, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Amina Jane Mohammed, and President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adeshina, will also bring their experiences to bear on the occasion.
Other speakers include the National Security Adviser, Mohammed Babagana Monguno, who will be speaking on managing security in the states, with Kaduna Governor, Malam Nasiru el-Rufai, Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba and the director general of department of State Services among others, as panellists.
Another compelling engagement would include a topic on ‘recruiting your team, vetting, ethics, staffing the governor’s office and identifying critical skills and capacity’, which will be led by el-Rufai as the lead speaker.
The NGF spokesman said there will also be rich conversations on ‘managing expectations and powering the bureaucracy to accomplish your agenda and balancing political appointees versus the civil service’, among many other critical governance toolkits.
The induction event will also deal with how to seamlessly ease the outgoing governors to a life after office. The last two days of the week would be occupied by activities of the first ladies.