Lazy Youth Comment: PDP, CD, CDHR, Others Slam Buhari

Buhari

The Peoples Democratic Party, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and civil rights groups have berated President Muhammadu Buhari for saying many Nigerians youths are lazy and not ready to work.

The President, during a panel discussion on Wednesday at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Westminster, London, had said, “We have a very young population and our population is estimated conservatively to be 180 million.

He had said, “About 60 per cent of the population is below the age of 30. A lot of them have not been to school and they are claiming that Nigeria has been an oil producing country and therefore they should sit and do nothing and get housing, healthcare and education free.”

The PDP and Atiku on Thursday said the statement showed that Buhari did not believe in Nigerian youths.

Atiku, in a statement posted on Facebook, described Nigerian youths as hardworking and great assets to the country.

“I will never refer to Nigeria’s youths as people who sit and do nothing. They are hardworking young people. I should know; I have thousands of youths working for me all over the country who have been the backbone to our success,” Atiku’s post read.

In the same vein, the PDP said Nigerian youths could not in any way be described as lazy.

The opposition party said it was shocking that Buhari could make “a false, derogatory and unpatriotic” comment against Nigerian citizens at a time the nation was looking up to him to properly present their potential to the global business community.

The PDP, in a statement on Thursday by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, said it was unfortunate that the President used every opportunity of his international engagements to de-market the country.

Ologbondiyan said, “It is alarming that at every international event, the President makes it a favourite past time to paint and denigrate our dear nation and her citizens in very negative light, an indication that he has stopped believing in Nigeria.

“Mr. President’s latest salvo is totally unacceptable and must be condemned by all right-thinking people.

“How can President Buhari describe Nigerian youths as lazy, when they have proved, without doubt, to be one of the most industrious sets of individuals across the world?

“Here is a President, whose administration has in its three years of governance, contributed nothing towards providing opportunities for our youths and who has not initiated or implemented any development project or set up any industry to provide jobs for our aspiring youths.”

Ologbondiyan added that the President had been watching Nigeria youths struggle all over the country without doing anything to ameliorate their plight.

He said, “These are the same set of Nigerians who, upon being afforded the right opportunities in other countries of the world, are known to have excelled in various fields of endeavour.” -PUNCH.