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Buhari charges Nigerians to embrace agriculture as source of livelihood

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President Muhammadu Buhari said on Tuesday said his administration would continue to encourage Nigerians to go back to agriculture as a source of livelihood.

The president, according to a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, stated this at the fifth regular meeting of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Buhari said it has become imperative for Nigerians to embrace agriculture because the oil industry is now in turmoil.

He said his government would keep a keen eye on food inflation in 2021 and directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) not release money for food importation.

President Buhari wondered where the country would have found itself by now considering the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy if the country had not embraced agriculture.

READ ALSO: Buhari is trying to copy my idea on commercial agriculture— Saraki

He said: “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.

“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.”

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