TheCable

President Muhammadu Buhari says the country has gone through “very turbulent” times in the past three years of his administration.

He said this on Monday while inaugurating the National Food Security Council at the presidential villa, Abuja.

“Nigeria’s journey in the last three years has been a very turbulent one,” he said, adding: “The country’s need for critical job-creating sectors which has been ignored for decades is now beginning to yield results.”

Buhari said the council would continuously assess and enhance the various social investment and agricultural programmes put in place by his administration to achieve their full potential.

“We shall also develop new programmes and projects that will protect and indeed, create more jobs in farming, fisheries, animal husbandry and forestry,” he said.

“We will also not lose sight of the other issues that will impact our food production ambitions such as; population growth, ubanisation, industrialisation, rural infrastructure development and climate change.”

The president added that his administration introduced numerous programmes that would transform the lives of “millions of Nigerians”.

He said: “We introduced the national social investment programmes targeting millions of Nigerians who are living from hand to mouth. We launched agricultural programmes focusing on import substitution, job creation and rural development thereby bringing socio-economic transformation to the millions of citizens living in some of the most remote rural parts of our country.

“We commenced the long-term pollution remediation projects in the Niger Delta with the hope of restoring dignity and normalcy to the millions of Nigerians impacted by decades of pollution in their communities.

“We intensified our participation in the Lake Chad Basin Commission with the goal of reversing the shrinkage of the lake, which impacts the livelihoods of over 45 million farmers, herdsmen and fishermen in the LCBC countries.

W“e issued the first ever green bond that will act as a catalyst for investments in renewable energy and afforestation projects. This was oversubscribed, sharing market confidence in the country and our government.

“We established the agro rangers unit within the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to protect the billions of naira of investments recorded in Nigeria’s agricultural sector across the country.”

Buhari said bearing in mind “the journey is long”, it is the council’s duty to ensure that the positive impacts of these programmes are “sustained, improved and expanded.”