Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) Customs Comptroller General

Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service Hameed Ali said yesterday that only lazy Nigerians can be hungry. According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari had done so much for agriculture that farmers are now rich. The government, he said, has provided the enabling environment for all.

Col. Ali (trd) made the remark when he led the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) on a visit to President Buhari at the Presidential Villa.

He 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.

“Mr. President today, I have to ration the rice, that is fiscal discipline.

“Mr. President, today we are seeing physically where people are rejecting foreign rice for local rice. 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. What more can we say in terms of growth of wealth?

“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.” he said

Ali added: “People may ask why are you so passionate about change. Why were you so committed in 2014 and why are you so committed in 2018, this is because you are a man of integrity, of honesty and above all, Mr. President you love this great nation.

“I have said it and I will repeat it here, Mr. President, with all due respect, at 70 plus, with a good retirement benefits and with your house in Daura, if I were you, I will see no reason to be in this arena. But why are you here? It is because you love this great country. You left your comfort zone to serve Nigeria and that is why for those of us who love you for who you are said we must follow you and ensure that your second term in this country becomes a reality.

Three years into Buhari’s administration, he said,  tremendous achievements have been made.

Ali said: “We have laid the foundation, we have started building roads but, Mr. President, we must complete the building.

“What do we need to do? We must as your loyalists and people who believe in this country, tell you that we are with you shoulder to shoulder and ensure that you are elected. And then the building will be completed so that never again will there be cause to destroy Nigeria.”

He noted that the President has been his mentor in service and out of service.