President Muhammadu Buhari seems unmindful about the outrage and backlashes that generated more than a week ago after he had made some comments on young persons in the country, as he has spoken on the “uneducated” youth in Northern Nigeria.
Speaking at the Commonwealth Business Forum on Wednesday, April 18, in London, Buhari had slammed a section of Nigerian youths, saying that “a lot of them haven’t been to school” but are after free things based on the notion that Nigeria is an oil-rich nation.
“About the economy, we have a very young population, our population is estimated conservatively to be 180 million. This is a very conservative one.”
“More than 60 percent of the population is below 30, a lot of them haven’t been to school and they are claiming that Nigeria is an oil producing country, therefore, they should sit and do nothing, and get housing, healthcare, education free,” Buhari was quoted to have said.
Buhari’s comment was met with backlash across the country.
Speaking on his purported comment on youth while in London, President Buhari dismissed the report, saying that the media only preferred to interpret and report what they like instead of concentrating on developmental journalism.
However, speaking during an interview with Voice of America (VON) on Tuesday, Buhari said most youth in the north are uneducated or school dropouts.
His words: “You know Nigeria’s population is now between 180 and 190 million and 60 per cent of this population is youth that is 30 years down ward.”
“You know in the north most youths are uneducated or school dropouts. If not because we had good harvests in the last two farming seasons, the situation would have deteriorated.
“These youths even if they travel out of the north for greener pasture they hardly make it economically because what they earn as income cannot afford them to meet their basic needs or return home.
“All these explanations I made, they refused to highlight them in their report and you know the media in Nigeria in most cases only do what they like.”