Buhari’s order to CBN on forex, food importation shows he is an out-of-touch leader – Oby Ezekwesili

Former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili, has described President Muhammadu Buhari as a “completely out-of-touch leader.”

Ezekwesili, a former presidential candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, ACPN, made the remark while rubbishing Buhari’s warning to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to stop providing foreign exchange for importation of food into the country.

On Tuesday, President Buhari, who hosted the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors to Eid-el-Kabir lunch at his country home in Daura, Katsina State, had said the foreign reserve will be conserved and utilized strictly for diversification of the economy, and not for encouraging more dependence on foreign food import bills.

Reacting, Ezekwesili maintained that the President’s directive was a ‘blunder.”

In a series of tweets, the former presidential candidate wrote: “A completely out-of-touch ‘leader’. He is cocooned away in the grandeur of @AsoRock where they serve him delicatessen and praise-sing to him: “Ranka dede Sir, your Agriculture Policy is working wonderfully. All farmers in Nigeria are now Billionaires & exporting to the US”

“We all know that @NGRPresident @MBuhari has absolute contempt for Data but we shall go ahead and put out here some of the Knowledge he should have had before making this latest blunder of ‘Directing’ what should be an independent @cenbank to “not give a cent for food import”.

“I will share the latest information on Nigeria from FEWS NET, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, which provides information and analysis on food insecurity around the world. That our @NGRPresident thinks we have achieved Food Security says a lot about his Policy-Making.

“FEWS Net is Famine Early Warning Systems Network. It “uses an integrated approach that considers climate, agriculture production, prices, trade, nutrition, and other factors, together with an understanding of local livelihoods.” Knowledge that helps Evidence-Based Policies.

“In the next few tweets, I’ll share highlights of FEWS Net June 2018 to January 2019 Report on Food Insecurity in Nigeria for many reasons that any reasonable person will easily understand.

“Humanitarian actors have provided sustained food assistance delivery in 2018, reaching 2.5 million people in April 2018 across the 3 northeast states. In May, food assistance deliveries reached 15 percent fewer households, meeting targets closer to what was seen in March 2017”

“With the continuing military offensive, new arrivals continue to be identified in the northeast. As of May, IOM identified 1.8 million people displaced by conflict in northeast Nigeria. Between late Nov2017 &April 2018 an estimated 100,000 new arrivals across Borno & Adamawa…”