Customs boss Hameed Ali says the only people hungry in Nigeria are the lazy ones

COMPTROLLER-general of the Nigerian Customs Service Hameed Ali has lashed out at critics of President Muhammadu Buhari's economic policies saying the government is doing well and only lazy people are the one's going hungry in the country today.

A close ally of the president, who has often courted controversy by taking on the government's opponents, including the National Assembly, Mr Ali once defied the senate by refusing to appear before it in his uniform as instructed. A former army colonel himself, Mr Ali served under President Buhari when both of them were officers and was a one-time military administrator of Kaduna State.

Speaking yesterday when he led the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) to visit the presidential villa, Mr Ali said President Buhari had done so much for agriculture that farmers are now rich. He added that the government has provided the enabling environment for all and it is only lazy Nigerians that remain hungry.

Mr Ali said: “Mr President, our economy has grown all because of the discipline you have instilled in the financial sector. All those nonchalant attitudes, all those days of siphoning money are no longer feasible and Mr President today, I have to ration the rice, that is fiscal discipline.

“Today, we are seeing physically where people are rejecting foreign rice for local rice and today Mr President if you go to some of our houses, what you will see is local rice and that is wealth for our people. Last year, during the hajj period when I went home, many farmers came to me that they have never had it so good, so much so that the first 25 people that paid up their money when hajj fares were announced, were rice farmers.

Noting that the president has been his mentor in and out of service, Mr Ali asked what more can be said in terms of the growth of wealth across the country. He lambasted critics who question the economic policies of the government, saying that everyone has the opportunity to excel in the present environment.

“People say we are hungry, of course the lazy must be hungry because if you do not work hard, manna doesn’t fall from heaven. So, when people say we are hungry, there was never a time in Nigeria that food is dropped in the mouth of the people and there will never be.

“I can go on and on and enumerate what you have done in just three years of your administration but three is not enough to undo what was done in 16 years. The destruction, the monumental stealing that we have witnessed, the destruction of our structures and our system, it takes more than eight years to be able to address them and I believe in three years you have done wonderfully well.” Mr Ali added.

Among other things, Mr Ali said that President Buhari could easily have retired to Daura but chose to remain in office because of his love for Nigeria. Supporting the president's re-election campaign, Mr Ali said the p[resent administration has laid a foundation but President Buhari needs to stay on and complete the building.