“Taking advantage of the celebration to exploit fellow citizens through outrageous prices of food and rams is inconsistent with fine virtues of Islam.
“As practising believers, we shouldn’t seek obscene profits by making life difficult and miserable for others. We should not seek happiness at the expense of others.”
These were the complaints of President Muhammadu Buhari today, July 19, in a message he sent to Nigerians, particularly, Muslims, as they joined Muslims across the World to celebrate Eid-el-Kabir.
The President appealed to Muslims “to demonstrate the good virtues of Islam through personal examples and practices.
Reminded Muslims, especially traders, that Islam is a religion of charity that urges them to love their neighbour as they love themselves.
Buhari restated the determination of his administration to create a just, harmonious and prosperous country in which the safety of life and property is assured.
The President reflected on current challenges facing the country, saying that COVID-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll on the economies of all countries, including Nigeria, in addition to the fact that floods have caused large scale destruction to agricultural farmlands, ” thereby impacting negatively on our efforts to boost local production in line with our policy to drastically reduce food importation.”
He said that such situation had led to food inflation which the government is working hard to address.
President Buhari said that no government in recent history has invested as heavily as his government is doing to promote local production of about 20 other commodities, through the provision of loans and several other forms of support to our farmers.
“Apart from the destruction caused to rice farms by floods, middlemen have also taken advantage of the local rice production to exploit fellow Nigerians, thereby undermining our goal of supporting local food production at affordable prices.
“As an elected president who enjoys the goodwill of the ordinary people that gave us their mandate, let me assure you that we are continuing with measures to bring relief to Nigerians, including making fertilizer available at affordable prices to our farmers.
The President said that the current insecurity in the country has produced severe and adverse effects on agriculture because farmers are prevented from accessing their farms by bandits and terrorists.
He reassured Nigerians that he is taking measures to address the security challenges, adding: ” we have started taking delivery of fighter aircraft and other necessary military equipment and hardware to improve the capacity of our security forces to confront terrorism and banditry.”
President Buhari called on the Muslims to continue to live in peace and harmony with their fellow Nigerians of other faiths in the spirit of peaceful coexistence.
“Let us pray for the progress of Nigeria at all times. Let us expose undesirable elements among us who are creating security problems for the country.”
