Nigeria’s Presidency has reacted to reports of hunger in the country. Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, who sat for an interview with Ben TV, disclosed that the Buhari-led government has invested in people and also infrastructure, and those who are still complaining of hunger should “go and work”.
According to Garba Shehu, the current administration pays N5,000 to the poorest of the poor every month, and no past administration in Nigeria has invested in infrastructure development like the current administration.
“Everyone complaining of hunger should go and work.
And you know that this is the only government that has introduced social investment schemes, we pay out now for the poorest of the poor, the least they will get is N5, 000 and a lot of these jobs that are being created are from loans with little or no interest from the central bank, Bank of industry, Banks of Agriculture, Development Bank and the rest. So, there is a lot going for people who really want to go out there to work especially in agriculture.
Garba Shehu who spoke on behalf of the Presidency on the interview, further disclosed that since President Muhammadu Buhari took office in 2015, he has devoted not less than 30% of the country’s annual appropriation to infrastructure.
“The records are there for everyone to see that no government, no past administration in Nigeria has invested as much as we have done or let me say like we are currently doing in infrastructure development.
From day one when he took power, the president gave a target of not less than 30% of annual appropriation devoted to infrastructure development. Without infrastructure, we can not lay the foundation for growth.
When this administration came to power, between 95 and 96% of public expenditure was going into overhead cost leaving only about 5 or 6% for infrastructure. The allocation of 30% under this administration has led to tremendous improvement in the provision of infrastructure so far in the country.
.
Now there is a lot of work going on, building new rail lines and the rehabilitation of the old rail system networks, roads are been done all across the country, you only need to drive around to see for yourself.”
