President Buhari’s Comment on Nigerian Youths: “a wakeup call”, by Musa Usman

Fed up with lack of performance and insensitivity of successive governments in Nigeria, especially that of the last six of 16 years of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) under Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, but apparently oblivious of ‘politics by tricks’ of most politicians in the country, Nigerian youths had gone to polls on Saturday March 28, 2015 with the mindset of “just send Jonathan and his party, PDP, away” without preparing themselves for the challenges that would follow.  When the challenges come, the same Nigerian youths have been unable to withstand them, as they have all along fallen for the antics of the same politicians they sent away on ground of wicked corruption, impunity, mismanagement of nation’s economy and whose major demand currently has been to #BringBackOurCorruption.  The antics come in many forms from core of deliberate creation of crisis (killings) through fake news, hate speeches to dangerous rumours and making twisted truth look like real, which is what they do constantly lately whereby they pick up every statement by President Muhammadu Buhari, for whose sake they were chased out of power, and twist it to advance the course of their 2019 ambition.  The Nigerian youths themselves don’t help issues because they are lost in the spirit as they take opposing direction in the execution of the task of #WarAgainstCorruption, in sharp difference from where the man – on whose shoulders the task is placed – stands.  It is the reason the targets of the politicking politicians are youths of Nigeria, whose population is acknowledged by Buhari to be on the high side considering that of elders and the toddlers put together.  It is also the reason the youths have played prominent role in all the controversies ranging from misrepresentation of the President’s statements, erroneously linking of the President to sponsorship of “killer herdsmen” etc.  Worried therefore that this has become the unfortunate situation of Nigerian youths, where many of them agitate without knowing the reason for their agitations and therefore have failed woefully to concern themselves basically on issues but character assassination against the person of the President, Musa Usman, Nigerian senior professional, wrote from Yobe State, North East of Nigeria, specifically for publication in The DEFENDER challenging the critics of the President’s UK comment to do two things: One, show the rest of the world at what point did Buhari say “Nigerian youths are lazy” and two, to deny that the issues raised in the authentic comment the President made in answering some questions after his keynote speech do not correctly describe the truth about the present day youths of Nigeria.  Excerpts:

“I saw lots of responses by different people saying Nigerian youths are not lazy, they are hard working etc.  Yes they are but we have forgotten to ask, what percentage?  The internet has been used by a lot of people to improve and better their lives, but majority of Nigerian youths sit in the comfort of their rooms and arm themselves with laptops waiting patiently for whatever they will swindle, they call it “Yahoo yahoo”. A lot of our youths sit at home and do nothing but every month they receive salaries in the name of amnesty program.  What an aberration!”

President Buhari’s comment on Nigerian youths should be seen as rather “a wakeup call” than the unnecessary criticisms that it has attracted from a section of the populace.

The President’s comment has elicited a huge barrage of reactions and narratives. While some claimed he said the youths are lazy, some disagreed he made such comment, some condemned, while some commended, some demanded an immediate apology, while some gave him a pat on the back, some tried to make political gain out of it, while some took him to the cleaners.

Now, for me, I can only accuse the President of one thing, being too sincere and straight forward or rather, may be, stating the obvious at the wrong podium. But, I bet you, most people reacted without even reading through the said comment by the President.  They merely went with social media craze, but most respondents were busy focusing on the messenger without looking at the message.

I have read through the comments and I never saw where the President said Nigerian youths are lazy rather he posited that his government has made progress judging from when they took over and it is worrisome that the youths make up 60 percent of the population and most of them are largely uneducated and because they feel Nigeria is an oil producing country, a lot sit and do nothing but expect the government to give health, housing, education free to them.

How does this translate to all Nigerian youths are lazy? People just twisted and misrepresented the President just to discredit him and present him as insensitive and cruel.

Now, his comment should have been a wakeup call to Nigerians and the youths to rise up and take their destinies in their hands. It is a common knowledge that most Nigerian graduates are unemployable, so, we should start questioning our educational system, the curriculum and quality of the teachers. Our curriculum should be such that will equip our graduates with the necessary manpower and entrepreneurial skills for them to be self reliant and employers of labour and not job seekers.

I saw lots of responses by different people saying Nigerian youths are not lazy, they are hard working etc.  Yes they are but we have forgotten to ask, what percentage?  The internet has been used by a lot of people to improve and better their lives, but majority of Nigerian youths sit in the comfort of their rooms and arm themselves with laptops waiting patiently for whatever they will swindle, they call it “Yahoo yahoo”. A lot of our youths sit at home and do nothing but every month they receive salaries in the name of amnesty program.  What an aberration!

Visit any betnija or nairabet shops across the country, you see a huge number of our youths seated there with their coupons waiting patiently for Man United or Arsenal to play a draw or a win.  Go to some communities in the country, you will see youths sit and drink, smoke but every month they receive salaries from companies working in the area.  They call it community chance; you put them on your payroll and they receive salaries without work.

I hear a lot saying Nigerian youths are everywhere in the world hustling and making it big.  Yes, there are some youths making it and doing us proud but a greater number indulge in drug peddling, financial crimes, prostitution, 419, armed banditry, marriage scam, etc and a huge number are languishing in various jails all over the world.  These are productive Nigerian youths.

I was thinking that this should have been an avenue for self introspection by the youths of this country and start asking questions: “How did we get to this level? How have we been suffering in the midst of plenty?” It is after that we start demanding for a change in a whole lot in our country. We should take PDP and APC out of the issue and take a bold step and start demanding for accountability from our elected officials from the Federal, state and local government councils. What have they been doing with our money?  Because I know for sure that these people go to Abuja every month and receive allocations from the Federal Government.  What did they do with it?

This is the time of mentorship instead of criticism.  Mentor our youths to look at the values inherent in them and tap into it instead of the get rich now syndrome that is the order of the day.  We should leave Buhari alone and make conceited efforts to make Nigeria a better place so that no Nigerian youths will make those tortuous journey through the deserts just to seek greener pastures when actually the land is green in Nigeria.