How can Buhari consider ending forex for food import when Nigerians are committing suicide due to hunger? —PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of punishing Nigerians though the directive on food importation in the country.

President Buhari had on Tuesday disclosed that he ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stop providing foreign exchange for importation of food into the country.

According to the president, there had been steady improvement in agricultural production, and food security had been achieved.

However, the PDP in a statement on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, described the directive as mean, ill-timed and completely against the wellbeing of Nigerians.

Countering Buhari’s claim on food security, PDP stated that the directive will worsen an already existent food scarcity, worsen the harsh economic situation and the general depression, frustration and despair in the country.

The party urged the president to immediately rescind his directive before it inflicts more damage on the polity.

Instead of removing subsidy on food, PDP advised a cut on the “billions of naira being wasted on luxuries in his Presidency and free the funds for the welfare of the masses.”

READ ALSO: Buhari says ‘Nigeria has achieved food security’

The statement read: “It is indeed appalling that instead of bringing solutions to the depreciating living conditions in our nation, President Buhari is rather imposing more suffering by ordering the removal of subsidy on food even when it is manifestly clear that he had failed on all fronts to achieve any level of food security despite the huge resources available to his administration.

“The party says by the directive, the Buhari Presidency and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have again demonstrated their insensitivity towards millions of Nigerians who are already suffering acute hunger and starvation due to severe food shortage and high prices brought by President Buhari’s misrule.”

Ologobondiyan further said that “such situation will only breed further despondency among our citizens, heighten our security challenges and put more pressure on compatriots, many of who, in the face of suffering occasioned by APC misrule, are resorting to suicide and slavery mission as options.”

The opposition party called on President Buhari to recover the over N14 trillion allegedly siphoned by APC interests under his administration.

“Including the stolen N9 trillion detailed in the leaked NNPC memo and channel the resources towards food security for Nigerians,” he added.

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