Forget border reopening for now, eat what we produce, Buhari tells Nigerians

• President prevented nation from drowning, Lai Mohammed insists

President Muhammadu Buhari, at the weekend, said his administration was not ready to reopen the borders for now, urging Nigerians to consume what is produced locally.

Fielding questions from reporters at the Sir Ahmadu Bello International Airport, Birnin Kebbi during a tour to access the level of damage done by floods to Kebbi State recently, the President, who was represented by the Minister of Agriculture, Mohammed Sabo Nanono, said the Federal Government was ready to empower farmers to boost local production and perhaps, exports.

He stated that rice produced in Niger, Taraba, Jigawa and Kebbi states alone could feed the whole country, querying: “So why importing food when we can produce them?” Buhari assured the people of support in the dry season farming and beyond.

In his personal capacity, the minister noted: “I was sent by Mr. President to come and see the level of damage in Kebbi State. And I have seen it. We are going to compensate Kebbi more than other states.”

He cautioned the victims against being despondent, adding that the current administration would restore them, adding that his ministry was partnering with its

Humanitarian counterpart for relief materials.
BESIDES, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said the President’s assumption of office in 2015 prevented Nigeria from becoming a failed state after a “long stretch of rapacious and rudderless leadership.”

He argued that the country today is not a failed state, but a nation that was “courageously tackling its challenges and building a solid infrastructure that will serve as the basis for socio-economic development, a nation that is unrelenting in battling insecurity and working hard to ensure greatest prosperity for the greatest number of people.”

In a statement yesterday in Abuja, the minister insisted that Buhari came to power at a time that a swathe of the country’s territory was under occupation, a “period when many Nigerian towns and cities, including the capital city of Abuja, were a playground for insurgents and a moment that the nation’s wealth had been looted dry, with little or nothing to show for the nation’s huge earnings, especially in the area of infrastructure.”