President Buhari has challenged the statistics suggesting that the economy took a downward toll when he took over government in 2015.
During his special interview with Channels TV on Wednesday, January 5, the interviewer mentioned that one would wonder where the Nation was when he, Buhari, took over office in 2015.
”Debt stock at the time was about 12 trillion. Now it is about 32 trillion, Inflation rate was about 9%, it is now sitting over about 15%, unemployment rate was about 8.19%, it is now 33.28%. Exchange rate was about N197 to a dollar. It is way over N400 to a dollar. So people would look back economically speaking and say before you took over office, some of these indicators were fair and now the figures are not friendly at all’ ‘the interviewer said
Responding, the President said
”Well, I am not sure how correct your calculations are but all I know is that we have to allow people to get access to the farm. We just have to go back to the land. What we have done so far, we have achieved some successes and people ought to measure our successes viz-a-viz the problems when we started.”
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has said he is absolutely aware of the suffering and pains Nigerians go through to feed under his administration.
The President stated this during an interview with Channels TV on Wednesday, January 5.
When asked if he was aware of the numbers of Nigerians who find it difficult to feed under his watch, the president responded
“I’m absolutely aware of it, but like I said, look at the vast population of Nigerians, only 2.5% of the land revenue are being cultivated. We realised this rather too late, but we have to go back to the land (agriculture).”
The president, however, advised Nigerians to leverage the opportunity that agriculture offers in order to find a lasting solution to the current economic quagmire.
Speaking on the security situation in the country, the President charged traditional rulers to play a huge role in bringing peace to communities.
