President Muhammadu Buhari has lamented that despite the best efforts by his administration, some merciless Nigerians are not allowing government policies to produce desired results.
Buhari made the declaration on Friday after receiving briefings from the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC) led by Professor Doyin Salami during its 6th regular meeting held at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja.
A statement released by presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina said President Buhari thereafter urged all those bent on derailing and bad-mouthing government policies to desist.
Specifically, the President recalled the shutting down of Nigeria’s land borders for about one year which was targeted at curbing the importation of some food items and encourage local production but lamented that some people still found a way to smuggle banned items into the country.
“Some people are mercilessly against this country,” the President said. “We closed the borders to control the smuggling of petroleum products, and check the influx of smuggled goods, arms and ammunition.
“That was when the Comptroller General of Customs called me, saying 40 tankers laden with petrol had been impounded. I told him to sell the fuel, sell the trucks, and put the money in the treasury.
“They still brought arms and ammunition into the country, brought in rice in vehicles and motorcycles. I said shoot anyone found illegally with AK-47, yet they haven’t stopped. People must show consideration for their own country,” he said.
While recognizing that the global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are gradually waning off as vaccination continues, PEAC said rising prices of commodities in the market must be addressed as it warned that the economy, though out of recession, remains fragile with inflation rising, unemployment high, and external account weak.
Meanwhile, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has said the Muhammadu Buhari-led government has lost the capacity to address the rising insecurity in the country.
He made this known on Thursday when he hosted members of the south-south zonal working committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
In a statement by his media aide, Kelvin Ebiri, the governor noted that the federal government does not care if people are killed and their corpses litter streets across the country.
The governor added that the federal government also does not have any iota of empathy for Nigerians affected by insecurity.