 First, please accept my heartfelt congratulations on all of your election victories. And I reiterate that my congratulations are heartfelt, even to the PDP governors who are present here and all the governors from other parties that are present. We elected executive officials, belong as we've heard to an elite club in this nation, of over 200 million people. The nation elects two, one president, one vice president, 36 governors and 36 deputy governors, altogether 74 Nigerians, in all 74 men and women out of 200 million people. We are certainly so specially privileged and so enormously fortunate that our people will choose us among so many millions to lead them. This tremendous privilege, which leadership thrusts upon us, also comes with grave responsibilities. These responsibilities are multiplied by the fact that most of our people are extremely poor. Large numbers are unable to afford good healthcare and malnutrition remains a major problem. Even in many of our states, run the risk of being permanently mentally stunted because they are malnourished. Illiteracy is still significantly high and the number of out-of-school children remains an embarrassment. Yet in all of these, our population continues to grow at over 3 percent per annum. We will, by current projections, move from 200 million to 400 million people in the next three decades and then we will become the third most populous nation in the world. Most of that population will be young people, under 25, looking for jobs. Every one of these people except a few living in Abuja will live in the states. Your states are my states, the states where you govern. There were six schools in your states, healthcare services in those states, food in your states and jobs in those states. The federal government will, as is usual, possibly be blamed for the number of out-of-school children and for not investing enough in healthcare. But you and I know that the primary responsibility for education and healthcare lies with the states. The burdens of the citizens of our states, the pains and the deprivations of their poverty is what they hope will be alleviated by electing us. So no matter how we slice it, we are responsible for the quality of the lives and livelihoods of the millions who live within our states and national borders. In any event, all the problems that our people have will be solved by men and women, not spirits. We are those men and women. History and providence have put us in these positions at this time and we have the mental and physical way with all to solve the problems. But we may or may not solve the problems. That is a choice. We may revel in the same old excuses and leave the poverty statistics worse or where we met them. All elected officials in Nigeria, since I started following national development, have always complained about inadequate funds. So we will not be saying anything new if and when we raise these same complaints. The state, which is the highest IGR earner, was earning $600 million in IGR in 2000 when minimum wage was increased from $7,500 to $18,000, about a 140% increase. We are confronted again with a new increase in minimum wage and the same problems that increases in minimum wage mean. So as the scripture says, there is nothing new under the sun. We must confront the problem, not by merely hoping that the federal government can do more, because that may not necessarily offer much hope. Already our deficit is close to $2 trillion, while debt service is somewhere in the order of 54%. Debt service to revenue is somewhere in the order of 54%. This must, in the next few years, simply earn more IGR. We must effectively collect the 80% and increase even our agricultural output. We must work with the federal government to make broadband infrastructure available all over the country. So our young people anywhere in the country can do the jobs from anywhere in the world, from their villages in any corner of Nigeria. If a state is charging for right of way from communications companies and is hindering the lane of cables and other broadband infrastructure as an IGR measure, permit me to say that that will be pennywise and pound foolish. To tap into the millions of jobs in technology and other services that a country like India, for example, has tapped into, requires broadband infrastructure across the country. There is no other way of doing that, except by dropping the idea that we can benefit from just the laying of cables and providing the infrastructure. We must, as a whole, allow a situation where broadband infrastructure is available everywhere. The National Economic Council, all of the governors of the National Economic Council, have all agreed on a pathway to make this happen. But how about agriculture? Each state must leverage its own, its most advantageous agricultural produce and working with the federal government's initiatives in agricultural credit and the recently launched green alternative with the Brazilian government. It is possible for states to generate significant revenues from agriculture. After all, a lot of the relatively mind-boggling achievements of the regions in our history were without all money, mainly agriculture, revenues from agriculture, and taxes. Today, we have even more options. On the part of the federal government, we certainly have our work well cut out for us. But it may offer some comfort to reiterate that President Mohammed Buhari has shown in the past four years that he would be completely transparent with a federation account and with all other federation funds. Second, that all states will be treated fairly and equitably irrespective of party affiliations. And thirdly, that the federal government will play its role in support of states as often as necessary and within its means. We have in the past three years intervened through loans, bailouts, and pirate club refunds through the tune of over 1.1 trillion Naira. This represents clearly the highest amounts of federal government's extra-statutory allocations and interventions to states in Nigeria's history. We are proud to say that we did so without any discrimination along party lines. Your excellencies, these principles remain the President's firm commitment to the states. In the next four years, Mr. President has made it clear that he will be focusing attention on human capital development and infrastructure, physical infrastructure. We'll be working with the states on education, especially the education of girls. And we have already begun some deep diving in this respect, which are HDI work at the National Economic Council. We are doing the same with healthcare. We've already started to implement the 1% of CRF in the health act, and that was implemented in the 2018 budget, and we intend to do so in the 2019 budget. We are also now implementing the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, but we know that budget funds alone cannot deal with healthcare requirements of 200 million people. So compulsive health insurance by law is the objective, and this is to be implemented by using co-payments in order to ensure that we're able to share the cost between individuals, the private sector, and government, while the poorest 40% will be exempted from making such payments. By this means, we hope to at least get to a 65% increase in the share of the population covered by primary healthcare by 2023, up from the present about 12.6%. Keeping a similar level of ambition, we expect that by the year 2028, we should have complete coverage, national health insurance. In addition, our social investment programs have been effective in almost all states of the Federation, and all the states of the Federation have cooperated with the federal government in implementing these schemes. Every state has its own share of the 500,000 empire beneficiaries. Petty traders in every state have received of the 2 million trader money or market money looms given so far. 30 states so far make up for the 9.5 million children fed daily under homegrown school feeding. About 18 states have so far benefited from the cash transfers to the poorest and most vulnerable. We intend to continuously expand these important pro-poor wealth creation programs. Another landmark intervention which also has had the cooperation of all of the states is the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council, which is set up by Mr. President in July 2016 to address and resolve the bureaucratic bottlenecks standing in the way of business and investment in Nigeria, and to generally deliver a vastly improved business environment. We brought together stakeholders from across government, federal, state governments, executive, and the judiciary, and of course the private sector. And since 2016, Pebeck has rolled out a number of high impact reforms that have resulted in Nigeria moving from 24 points, moving up 24 points from 169th position to 145th position in the 2017 ease of doing business ranking. And also in 2018, we've remained at the same position, but we intend to move further very quickly. The most impressive improvement that we've so far recorded, and we were named among the 10 best reforming economies in the world, were recorded improvements in business regulation processes, filing of taxes, import and exports of goods, visa applications, port operations, and so on, by focusing on streamlining the existing processes and introducing automation. In all of this, we've had the active collaboration of all of the states of the Federation, and in some cases, some states have gone even beyond what we agreed to sharpen their own processes, to speed up their own processes, and all of this have contributed greatly to the ease of doing business. We've also taken the initiative to develop an omnibus bill to capture the various executive orders signed by the President to ensure the institutionalization of our ease of doing business reform. The goal is to ensure that Nigeria becomes a progressively easier place to do business. On infrastructure, we were determined, as soon as we came into office, to ensure that we're able to invest substantially more than ever before in infrastructure. We committed to investing 30% of our annual federal budgets on infrastructure. In 2016 and 2017, we invested a total of 2.7 trillion on infrastructure, the largest ever commitment to infrastructure in recent history. In February 2018, we established a Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund under the management of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, NSIA, to finance critical road and other infrastructure projects, such as the Second Niger Bridge, the Lagos Ibadua Expressway, the East West Road, Abuja Kaduna Road, and the Mambila Hydroelectric Power Plant. The PIDF is expected to mobilize funds from governments, the private sector, and development partners. And all of the funding, of course, is directed at implementing these projects. And this has happened with the active support again of the states. With their support, we're able to contribute $650 million in seed funding to the PIDF in 2018. Besides, every state of Nigeria today has a major road or other strategic infrastructure project. And we intend to continue to expand the scope of federal government activity in the states, especially with respect to infrastructure. Security remains top of our agenda. The law and order challenges in parts of the country with, for example, the opportunistic attacks of Boko Haram in the Northeast, the incidents of attacks by herders and the frequent clashes between herders and farmers, similar incidents now occurring in many parts of the Northwest, have stretched the capacity of our law enforcement agencies considerably. But we are committed to recruiting more men and women in all of the security agencies and improving their capabilities to maintain law and order. At our discussions at the National Economic Council, we've recommended more effective collaboration with state governments. A major plank of that collaboration is community policing. This involves a more practical collaboration between the citizens, between civic groups, traditional institutions, and the police. And as Mr. President has said, maintaining security is the first order of business for us as chief security officers at the federal and state levels. So we must work together to find even more creative ways of making our country completely safe for our citizens. I must commend the excellent support that the governors have given the police and armed forces posted to your various states. I know that large amounts of money are voted practically every month in support of law enforcement and security. But one of the very critical things that the National Economic Council will have to do in its next meetings is to look at how to more effectively fund security. And this has to be a collaboration, of course, between states, the federal government, and the private sector. I know that several private sector organizations and individuals are keen to contribute one way or the other to funding security, to funding law and order infrastructure and security infrastructure in our country. And I'm sure that we can, working together with the National Economic Council, do a great deal more than we're doing at the moment. Your Excellency is the challenges that confront us in the next few years, especially in the areas of human capacity development, notably education, health care and jobs for our young people, are monumental and they are historic. But we are more than able to surmount them. To do so, all the states of this federation and the federal government must see ourselves as one government. Our people in every state want the same things and they suffer the same deprivations. And frankly, they don't really care who puts food on the table. Just put the food on the table. I have the president's mandate to say that the federal government stands ready to embark on this historic all-party cooperation to better the lives of all our citizens. Let me in closing thank the outgoing governors for their unwavering cooperation and support these past four years at the National Economic Council and wish you all well in your future pursuits. I know that this nation will always have need for your talents and experience. In particular, let me pay special tribute to the indefatigable chair of the forum, Governor Abdulaziz Yari Abubaga of Zamfara State for his exceptional commitment and hard work on behalf of the forum. And he's informed and understanding liaison with the federal government at all times. Once more, congratulations to both our freshly elected and our second-term governors. God bless the federal republic of Nigeria. Thank you.