The contentious Water Resources Bill has been turned down by the 36 governors of the federation. The governors called for the review of the bill to accommodate the concerns of all states.

The Nigeria Governors’ Forum made the decision in a communiqué on Wednesday in Abuja signed by its chairman and governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi.

Fayemi noted that the reintroduced bill did not adequately address the interests of the states and is inconsistent with the provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The communiqué further stated that the forum received presentations from the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dr. Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, on the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (LPRES) – a 6-year $500 million World Bank programme aimed at improving the productivity, commercialisation and resilience of targeted livestock production systems in Nigeria.

Accordingly, the communique added: “Governors unanimously decided to spearhead the programme in their states, particularly in areas such as institutional and innovation systems strengthening, livestock value-chain enhancement, crisis prevention and conflict mitigation, and project coordination.”

The communique also noted that the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, presented the draft 2023 – 2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.

Fayemi, on behalf of the governors, said the presentation was part of the consultative process in the development of the Federal Government’s fiscal policy.

It was also to share relevant macroeconomic and fiscal assumptions to help States prepare their Economic and Fiscal Update (EFU), FSP and Budget Policy Statement (BPS).

The communiqué read, “Following the presentation, governors had a robust discussion with priority given to the government’s response to the fallouts of the Russia-Ukraine war (including inflation and the rising food and nutrition crises).”

“The continued impact of the petrol subsidy on the fiscal headroom of governments, implications of NNPC’s new transition on federation revenues.

“The widening divergence between the official and parallel market rate of the dollar on the currency.”

ALSO READ: Senators To Impeach President Buhari Over Insecurity