President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday said he is absolutely aware of the suffering and pains Nigerians go through to feed themselves and their families under his administration.
The President who stated this during an exclusive interview with Channels Television, however, encouraged the people to see agriculture as an option.
“I’m absolutely aware of it (the suffering of the people),” he said. “But like I said, look at the vast population of Nigerians, only 2.5 percent of the land revenues are being cultivated.
“We realised this rather too late, but we have to go back to the land (agriculture).”
During the interview, President Buhari also spoke about a number of burning issues including security, economy, and politics, among others.
He assessed his administration’s performance since he assumed office in 2015, especially in the three key areas of security, improving the economy, and fighting corruption.
The President believes the situation has improved and his administration has continued to improve the economy, despite the nation’s dwindling resources.
“For Nigerians to be fair with this administration is to try and find out from the time we won the election in 2015 till now, in the three promises we made – improving security, improving the economy, and trying to fight corruption; securing the country in the North East, if you ask anybody from Borno State, from Yobe State, from Adamawa State, there are a number of local governments – about 18 – that were in the hands of Boko Haram, no local government now is strictly in the hands of Boko Haram or ISWAP. So, in that respect, we have done something,” he asserted.
“In the economy, don’t forget and I challenge so many people to go and check with the central bank or NNPC. The production from 1999 to 2014 was 2.1 million barrels per day. When we came, somehow the militants were unleashed in the South-South.
“Production went down to half a million barrels per day, and coincidentally, the price again collapsed to about $37 per barrel. But look at what we did within the time frame and the resources available to us relative to the government we inherited.”
