No Nigerian Must Go To Bed Hungry, Obasanjo Goes Hard On Wrong Policy Fuelling Bad Economy… As Buhari Bans Overall Food Importation In 2021

While President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday resolved for the total ban of food importation in 2021 at a meeting with Presidential Economic Advisory Council, former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his new year message to Nigerians same yesterday said the bad economy bedeviling Nigeria is due to wrong approaches adopted to address the nation economic woes.

President Muhammadu Buhari at the meeting yesterday in accordance with statement credited to his media aide, Garba Shehu, issued directive to Central Bank of Nigeria not to release any cash for the importation of food in 2021 in order to wrestle food inflation or control the current high cost of living in the country.

OsazuwaAkonedo reports that the President directive to CBN will only help devalue or weaken the naira more and thus increase prices of foodstuff in the country in the coming year 2021.

All food importers will have to approach black market to source for foreign currencies to fund their domiciliary accounts or have the money handy to be able to carry out their importation business.

This Presidential directive shows a dollar may trade at N700 in 2021.

That aside, the former president while speaking at his Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State, on his 2021 message to Nigerians yesterday said with enormous resources available in the country, Nigeria does not have to be poor and no Nigerian must go to bed hungry.

Excerpts:

I like the motto of a school which says ‘work and pray.’

Some people say it should be ‘pray and work’, but it doesn’t matter to me in what order I put it, but prayer must go with work and work must go with prayer.

And I believe we need to work hard in this country as we pray hard so that the coming year, the year 2021 will be a glorious year for us.

But it will not happen unless we work to make it happen.

We do not have to blame God for our situation, we have to blame ourselves.

Nigeria does not have to be poor, no Nigerian must go to bed hungry.

That we have a situation like that is a choice by our leaders and followers alike.

My prayer is that God will make year 2021 a better year for all of us, but it will not happen without work.

We are not doing the right thing now. When we do the right thing, the economy will be what it should be.

We have gone from one form of insecurity to bad economy and on the top of it is the COVID-19.

Some people, either for insecurity or for bad economy or for COVID-19 have gone to the great beyond, I will say may the would of those who have departed, particularly in this year of challenges, may their souls rest in perfect peace.