WorldStage Newsonline— Nigerian youths have continued to react on the social media about a recent comment credited to President Muhammadu Buhari, where he described lots of Nigerian youths as lazy and illiterates . Many of the youths are calling on the president to tender apology or forget about re-election in 2019.
President Buhari who was responding to a question at the Commonwealth Business Forum in London on Wednesday said: “We have a very young population; our population is estimated conservatively to be 180 million.
“More than 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, therefore they should sit and do nothing and get housing, healthcare and education free.”
Abdurrahman Idris Yahaya in his reaction on Facebook asked President Buhari to apologise publicly to the Nigerian youths who sacrificed energy and money to vote for him in 2015.
“Buhari should come and apologize publicly. It’s unfortunate as a leader to come out and call your citizen lazy and illiterates especially the youth that sacrifice their energy and money for your election. We never expect such from you Buhari,” he said.
Mr Femi Adesina, the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity in a statement in Abuja on Thursday, condemned the report about the president’s comment, describing it as a deliberate mischief by manipulators and twisters of statements of the President.
He, however, noted that the statement was twisted, saying “Typical of their stock in trade, manipulators and twisters of statements of Mr President, who lie in wait to make mischief, interpreted the comment to mean that President Buhari had taken all Nigerian youths to the cleaners.
“But elementary English recognises a wide gulf between “a lot of” and the word “all.” How can “a lot of them,” suddenly transmogrify to mean “all of them?” Mischievous and unconscionable!
Alaka Akeem Abioye who was reacting to Adesina’s claim on social media said: “Why did he use the word “a lot of them” if not referring to most of them. If he was talking about few of them it should be “Some of them”. Let him just retract the statement and apologize.”
