TheCable

Hameed Ali, comptroller-general of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), says Nigerians who claim to be hungry are lazy.

Ali said manna does not fall from heaven, and as such, only those who work hard will have enough to eat.

He made the remark on Wednesday when he led the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO) on a visit to President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja.

Lauding the president, he said, “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 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.”

Ali said President Buhari is committed to developing Nigeria, describing him as “a man of integrity”. The Customs boss added that Buhari’s second term bid must become a reality.

“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,” he said.