President Muhammadu Buhari says Nigerians have no right to complain of hunger under his regime, adding that those complaining of hunger should return to the farm. 

Mr Buhari said one of the policies he undertook upon assuming office in 2015 was to block the Nigerian borders from food importation and force people back to farm.

“I took that decision to stop rice importation and said we should farm what we eat or die of hunger,” said Mr Buhari. “I said that since we have farm land and God has blessed us with rain, what reason does a Nigerian have to say he’s hungry?”

“If you are hungry, go to the farm,” he added.

Mr Buhari, in an interview with Tambari Hausa TV aired on Wednesday, said despite the flood ravaging farming communities, Nigeria can still feed itself. 

“I’m aware that floods have ravaged some farmlands this season but we are still selling rice made in Nigeria, and we can feed ourselves. Is that not an achievement?” Mr Buhari said. “We have workers who left their air-conditioned offices and went into farming, and they had bounty harvests. So, we are grateful.”

Under Mr Buhari, banditry, insurgency and other criminal activities have sacked thousands of farmers from their fields as insecurity envelops swathes of ungoverned spaces across Nigeria, especially in the North.

In November 2020, now fewer than 110 farmers were slain by Boko Haram terrorists in northern Borno, according to the United Nations.

Recently, reports have indicated that many villagers in northern states such as Niger, Kaduna and Katsina, pay taxes to bandits and insurgents to be able to work on their farms peacefully.