The governors under the aegis of Northern Governors Forum, have resolved to work in synergy with one another in the fight against the Covid -19 pandemic.

This decision was taken by the members of the forum who met via teleconferencing on Monday, to review and share measures adopted by individual states to tackle the disease.

The meeting which was chaired by the Forum’s Chairman, Governor Simon Bako Lalong of Plateau State, resolved to enhance border controls and surveillance as well as greater collaboration to ensure restriction of movement.

Although, the governors said some of the cases recorded in some states were imported from other states despite the closure of state borders, they agreed that each State should adopt the measure suitable to its setting, saying a total lockdown of the region will come at a very high cost since most of its citizens are farmers who need to go to farms.

The forum called for more testing centres to be established in the Northern states of Nigeria, mandating the chairman of the forum to liaise with the Federal government to support state governments with palliatives, saying states alone cannot handle some of the recorded cases as well as prepare for any eventuality.

While commending President Muhammadu Buhari for the measures taken so far to deal with the pandemic, a committee was set up to prepare for the future of the region.

The 7-man Committee chaired by Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Abubakar Bagudu, also has Governors of Kaduna, Sokoto, Kwara, Nasarawa, Jigawa, Gombe and Nasarawa State as members.

They are to fashion out ways of diversifying to areas of comparative advantage such as agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and human capital development, rather than solely depending on federal allocations for sustainability.