…says 2-yr border closures yielding results
President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that he ordered the sale of 20 fuel tankers about to be smuggled through the nation’s land border to a neighbouring country but intercepted by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
The President also insisted that the closure of the land borders for two years in the recent past for the benefit of the farmers has continued to yield the desired results.
Buhari made these disclosures in his Daura, Katsina country home Friday while speaking to the elected Local Government Council chairmen from Katsina state who visited to pay him Sallah homage.
According to him, he ordered the two-year border closure to stop the influx of foreign food items and conserve the scarce foreign exchange.
He said: “I have a good understanding of the country and its people. That is why we instituted those agricultural policies. I said we must grow what we eat and eat what we grow.
“This is a country that was once dependent on foreign rice. We closed the border to foreign rice. I said why can’t we eat Nigerian rice, and with the policies put in place, Nigerians are eating home grown rice.”