Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari has expressed his disappointment with the Nigerian Media for not giving his administration enough credit.
According to the President, the media refused to give him the accolade he deserves because of the Agricultural revolution he says is ongoing in the country.
The President expressed his feelings during a dinner with young political appointees which he hosted at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday night.
In his words;
“I’m very disappointed in the Nigerian press. They didn’t give this government the credit of the “Go back to the land” programme. We have cut down the importation of rice by at least 90 per cent.”
President Buhari said a lot of Nigerians had abandoned their office jobs and embraced farming because of his government’s reform in the agricultural sector.
The President who had been roundly criticised for making a professor of French minister for Agriculture defended his choice saying the appointment of Audi Ogbe was based on his antecedents; he said he had been proved right because Nigeria has achieved food security under his watch.
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Buhari also said Audu Ogbeh, a professor of French language was the best Nigerian for the Job because he had invested a lot inNigeria’s agricultural sector and also suffered in the process.
The President said;
“Ogbeh went to a bank, borrowed money and invested in agriculture. He suffered but eventually, he paid the money. So, you cannot have a better person than somebody who has suffered in the sector.”
Apparently running out of encomiums to pour on his French Minister of Agriculture, President Buhari launched into his typical tirade against the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accusing them for the umpteenth time of wasting the commonwealth of Nigerians during the 16 years the party was in power at the federal level.
He said as he had many times before that there was nothing to show for the huge resources that accrued to the country during the period.
He went a step further to shade former President Olusegun Obasanjo who had been campaigning against the president by raising doubts regarding the $16bn said to have been spent on the power sector during his time as President between 1999 and 2003.
“There was no power and they said they spent $16bn on power. Where is it (power)?” Buhari asked.
Also at the event and echoing the rhetoric of his boss, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, also claimed that the PDP didn’t achieve one-tenth of what the ruling APC has achieved during its 16 years in power.