Nigeria will wrestle food inflation in 2021 - Buhari

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President Muhammadu Buhari

By Ismaila Chafe

President Muhammadu Buhari has assured Nigerians that his administration will keep a keen eye on food inflation in 2021.

The President gave the assurance at the fifth regular meeting with the Presidential Economic Advisory Council held on Tuesday at the State House, Abuja.

Buhari directed that the CBN “must not give money to import food. Already, about seven states are producing all the rice we need. We must eat what we produce.”

He noted with satisfaction the strides made in agricultural production following the programme of diversification from over-reliance on oil instituted by his administration.

Meanwhile, Buhari wondered where the country would have found itself by now in view of the devastating economic crisis brought about by COVID-19 if the country had not embraced agriculture.

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“Going back to the land is the way out. We depend on petrol at the expense of agriculture. Now the oil industry is in turmoil.

”We are being squeezed to produce at 1.5 million barrels a day as against a capacity to produce 2.3 million.

”At the same time, the technical cost of our production per barrel is high, compared to the Middle East production,” he said.

He further emphasized the place of agriculture in the efforts to restore the economy but agreed that measures must be put in place to curtail inflation in the country.

“We will continue to encourage our people to go back to the land. Our elite is indoctrinated in the idea that we are rich in oil, leaving the land for the city for oil riches.

”We are back to the land now. We must not lose the opportunity to make life easier for our people. Imagine what would have happened if we didn’t encourage agriculture and closed the borders. We would have been in trouble,” he added.

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