Buhari admits 2017 was tough for Nigeria, hopes 2018 will be better

President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday acknowledged that 2017 was tough for Nigeria but said he was hopeful the coming year would be more prosperous for the country.

Buhari made stated this when the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Muhammed Bello, visited him on Christmas Day at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

President Buhari was joined by some state governors and other top government officials when Bello and his delegation visited him.

He said, “It has been a tough year for Nigeria and I hope next year will be a much more prosperous one.

“But those listening to the press and the majority of us know that the rainy season was very good and some states have got very good information from home.

“I never knew that the people from Kano, who are more resourceful , used to go to my area and hire farms. This year , nobody hired farms, and nobody regretted it.

“The second one is that the governor of Sokoto State said all the people that really used to go to Mecca were farmers but he didn’ t tell me if they took additional wives,” he said.

The president said that he thought he was 74 only to be told that he is now 75 years old.

Buhari, said to have been born on December 17, 1942, recently celebrated his 75th birthday.

Interacting with his visitors Buhari said, “I am very grateful (to you ) for taking time out on a very important day to come out and spend it with us.

“It has been a tumultuous year. I am thinking I am 75. I thought I was 74 but I was told I’m 75.

“I have never been so sick , not even during the 30 – month civil war that I was stumbling under farm of yams or cassava.

READ ALSO: FANI-KAYODE: Buhari suffers memory loss, dementia

“But this sickness … I don ’t know, but I came out better. All those who saw me before said I looked much better when I came back .

“But I have explained it to the public that as a General, I used to give orders . But now, I take orders. The doctors told me to feed my stomach and sleep for longer hours. That is why I am looking much better.”

Earlier, the FCT minister spoke on how his administration put a stop, a crisis that would have left this year’s Christmas celebration a bleak one for FCT residents.

According to him, if not for the urgent intervention of security operatives in the FCT, a clash between some youths in the Bwari Area Council in the course of celebrating the Yuletide would have become something serious.

 

RipplesNigeria… without borders, without fears

Click here to join the Ripples Nigeria WhatsApp group for latest updates.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now