SARAKI, AMAECHI, YUGUDA, 3 OTHERS ATTEND U.S. GOVERNORS MEET

Six Nigerian governors are participating in the United States Governors annual meeting in Boston, U.S., which began on Friday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the governors in attendance are Bukola Saraki (Kwara), Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers), Ibrahim Shema (Katsina), Ibrahim Shekarau (Kano), and Isa Yuguda (Bauchi)

Friday's opening session of the National Governors Association (NGA) was devoted to the challenges of implementing the new health-care law in the U.S.

The Nigerian governors were expected to exchange views with their counterparts on some other issues, which included handling fiscal problems arising from the global financial crisis.

The governors would also chart new areas of collaborations on how the NGA and the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) could optimise their country's trade and economic potentials.

The weekend meeting would also discuss energy production, particularly policies that expands the use of traditional and renewable energy sources.

Welcoming the Nigerian delegation, outgoing chairman of the NGA, Republican Jim Douglas of Vermont, thanked the visitors for honouring their invitation to the meeting. 'For the past 11 years, the NGA has been working with a group of democratic elected chief executives in Nigeria to form a forum similar to ours for the exchange of ideas.

'We are delighted to play a role in that success, even though they have decided not to call theirs the NGA but instead the Nigeria Governors Forum,'' Douglas said.