The Presidency said the elite accuse President Muhammadu Buhari of non-performance as they do not care for the ordinary people.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said this in a statement yesterday.

The presidential spokesman maintained that Buhari’s administration was doing a lot to improve the lot of the masses.

Shehu said: “Because the elite do not care for ordinary people, they are saying that government is doing nothing. But we are doing a lot for ordinary people.

“They don’t want us to talk about the 14 solar power projects that have been licensed to boost electricity supply in the country; the Mambila power project which will soon leave the drawing boards and the many Chinese projects including the standard gauge railway. This country has more important things to talk about instead of dwelling on trivia.”

He said the price of a bag of fertiliser had come down from between N9,000 and N10,000  to N5,500, adding that Nigeria has about 32 fertiliser blending plants which had remained idle for many years, but that about half of them were now in production.

On Buhari’s administration’s efforts towards boosting rice production, Shehu said while Nigeria purchased 1.2 million tons of rice from Thailand in 2014, only 58,000 tons was imported in 2016.

“As a result of the country’s growing rice production, assisted by the decision of government to deny foreign exchange through the Central Bank for the importation of rice; parboiled rice mills in some Asian countries are shutting down because Nigeria, one of the world’s largest importers is not buying. Five of such mills in Thailand servicing Nigeria have stopped production due to the withdrawal of our patronage.

“Currently, government is watching with keen interest, the growing investment in rice milling by the private sector and will continue to give encouragement through the Ministry of Agriculture to such efforts by BUA Industries in Jigawa, Dangote in Kano, OLAM and WACOTT in Nassarawa and Kebbi and what a consortium of businessmen led by a former Governor in Anambra State are doing.

“The increase in the volume of rice production and processing is already saving this country a lot of money", Shehu said.

Daily Trust