“A lot of them haven’t been to school and they are claiming, you know, that Nigeria has been an oil producing country therefore they should sit and do nothing and get housing, healthcare, education, free,” said Buhari.
Weeks ago, President Muhammadu Buhari made the remark at a business conference in London about how he saw Nigerian Youth. The comment touched a nerve West Africa’s largest economy, which suffers from high unemployment and lacks basic government services, including running water and electricity. Most business and homes rely on private generators for power and buy water privately.
Previous Nigerian VP Atiku Abubakar, who is likewise running for president, assailed Buhari.
“I will never refer to Nigeria’s youth as people who sit and do nothing,” he said in a statement posted on Facebook, adding that youth are the “backbone” of the country.
Another presidential hopeful Adamu Garba said Buhari was being “humorous with our national pride”.
The newspaper said the 75-year-old former general was “attacking” youth and the Daily Trust accused him of calling them “lazy”.
Another presidential hopeful Adamu Garba said Buhari was being “humorous with our national pride”.
The said the 75-year-old previous general was “attacking” youth and the Daily Trust blamed him for calling them “lazy”.
On Thursday morning, the hashtag #LazyNigerianYouths was slanting on Twitter, with young Nigerians blasting the government.rators for power and purchase water provately.
Buhari did react to his comment on youths and the attacks on the internet. According to him, his words had a different connotation.
He said because Nigerian media only do what they like, they refused to highlight the explanations in his recent statement in which he was widely quoted as describing a lot of Nigerian youths as lazy.
The President said this in an interview he had with Voice of America, Hausa service, in Washington, United States on Tuesday.
When asked about his reported comment on Nigerian youths while in London for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Buhari said the media only preferred to report what they like instead of concentrating on developmental journalism.
The President said, “You know they say we are over 180 to 200 million people in Nigeria and 60% are the youth below the age of 30.
“In the North for instance, most have not attended school or they abandoned halfway.
“If not because we had favourable rainfall in the past two seasons; most of them have no jobs, just idling away.
“People like them, even if they go to the South for instance, what they will make will not be enough to even pay their rent not to talk of feeding, clothing, and transport back home.
“That has not been explained enough and you know the media, especially the print, are simply doing whatever they like.
“We had two successful farming seasons, people went to the farm and did very well, but no one is talking about that; only insults.
“That is why the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, had to respond to the letter of insults released by Obasanjo. We spoke about it and I asked him not to respond but he refused and said he will just respond by stating the situation we met the country, where it is now and what was done in between and the monies we are getting.”
Buhari restated his position that the Peoples Democratic Party, in its 16 years in power, left debts for the country despite making huge income from oil.
He said there were no good roads or power supply to justify billions of dollars spent, adding that only God will judge.
He said on the grounds that Nigerian media just do what they like, they declined to feature the clarifications in his current explanation in which he was broadly cited as depicting a ton of Nigerian young people as lethargic.
The President said this in a meeting he had with Voice of America, Hausa benefit, in Washington, United States on Tuesday.
At the point when gotten some information about his detailed remark on Nigerian young people while in London for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Buhari said the media just wanted to report what they like as opposed to focusing on formative news coverage.