Nigerians React to Buhari’s Middlemen Blame Since 1984

On Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari blamed the hike in food prices on “exploitative behaviour by middlemen and other actors”.

He made the comment while announcing the release of 30,000 tons of maize from the national reserves to animal feed producers.

Ordinarily, the action of the president was supposed to elicit commendation but no sooner than the comment was released via tweets than some social media users expressed outrage.

“We are very mindful of the challenge of high food prices, at a time when the economy is already in a slowdown caused by the global coronavirus situation, and are doing everything in our power to bring down the prices of food items across the country,” Buhari had tweeted.

“Let me assure Nigerians that this situation of spiraling food prices will be a transient one. We are also engaging with food producers associations and groups to tackle the issue of, which is one of the factors responsible for the high food prices being experienced.”

Many criticized the president for blaming middlemen for the increase in food prices across the country which was also the same statement he made over 3 decades ago.