President Buhari couldn’t have derided Nigerian youths – Presidency

By Adekunle Aliyu with Agency Report

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose has called on youths in Nigeria to show President Muhammadu Buhari that they were not lazy and uneducated by voting against him in 2019, saying; “it is painful that the President could describe youths in Nigeria that are daily struggling to make a living under a harsh economy as lazy people.”

Fayose

But the Presidency dismissed the report by some traditional and social media outfits describing it as a deliberate mischief by manipulators and twisters of statements of the President.

Speaking through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, the governor said; “Contrary to the morale-killing comment of the President, Nigerian youths are hardworking, intelligent and enterprising. Their future was mortgaged by past leaders like President Buhari, who had everything at their beck and call as youths. I imagine the youths of today having half of the opportunities available in the 50s and 60s.”

He said; “At 19, President Buhari left Secondary School to join the Army. At age 21 (two years in the army), he was commissioned a second lieutenant and appointed Platoon Commander of the Second Infantry Battalion in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Within his 24 years in the Army, the President was Governor of North Eastern State, Minister of Petroleum, Chairman of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Head of State. Where can our youths get such opportunity today?

While telling the President to stop de-marketing Nigeria and its people in foreign lands, Governor Fayose reminded Nigerians how he (Buhari) said in an interview with UK Telegraph in February 2016 that some Nigerians in the United Kingdom were disposed to criminality and should not be granted asylum there.

The governor, who insisted that the negative foundation the likes of President Buhari laid for Nigeria has made life impossible for the youths, asked; “As Military Governor of the North Eastern State, what difference did President Buhari make in the lives of youths in the North?”

He described Buhari as an analogue President, saying; “There is no connection between him and the youths because I doubt if he can even use common android phone. One can’t really blame the President; he does not understand what is obtainable in the country anymore. That’s the reason he was still seeing West Germany and Deutschmark in 2015.”

Urging the youths to use their votes to send President Buhari out of office in 2019, Governor Fayose said; “I did say before now that majority of the youths that voted for President Buhari in 2015 never knew who they were voting for because they did not experience him (Buhari) as a Military ruler. Most of them were those that were born in the 80s and they did not witness Buhari’s clueless and draconian government.

“Now that our youths have seen President Buhari and he has top his cluelessness up by going to London to insult them by calling them lazy and uneducated people, they should be prepared to vote against him next year and installed a President that will value and respect them.”

President Buhari couldn’t have derided Nigerian youths – Presidency

The Presidency has dismissed report by some traditional and social media outfits that President Muhammadu Buhari had taken all Nigerian youths to the cleaners.

Mr Femi Adesina, the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity in a statement in Abuja on Thursday, condemned the report, describing it as a deliberate mischief by manipulators and twisters of statements of the President.

The presidential aide stated that the president, who was responding to a question at the Commonwealth Business Forum in London on Wednesday, had cause to talk about some Nigerian youths.

Adesina quoted what the President said at the forum as follow: “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.”

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!

“There is no way President Buhari, father of the Nigerian nation in every sense of the word, who equally has biological children of his own in the youths age bracket, pass a vote of no confidence on all youths.

“It can only exist in the imagination of those who play what the President has described as `irresponsible politics’ with everything.’’

He noted that President Buhari had always applauded and celebrated Nigerian youths who excelled in different areas of endeavour, from sports, to academia, and other realms.

He added that the president would continue to do so, because “he values the youth, and knows that they are the fulcrum on which the future of the country rests.

“Indeed, every country has its share of idle population, and it is the bounden duty of government at all levels, to create an enabling environment for them to actualise their potentials.

“That is what President Buhari is committed to doing.’’
According to him, the focal areas of the Buhari administration; securing the country, reviving the economy and fighting corruption are actually intended to give youths a future and a hope.

He said the president emphasised this on April 5 in his comments while receiving Letter of Credence from the Head of Delegation of the European Union to Nigeria.

The president then said: “Our insistence on probity is to encourage people to be accountable and accept honesty as a lifestyle so as to secure the future of our youths.’’

The President also said more than 60 per cent of Nigerians fall into the age category of youths and deserve to inherit a stable and prosperous country that they can be proud of.

He added that the government would work assiduously to prevent waste and the depletion of resources by corrupt Nigerians.

“It is futile for mischief makers to lie in wait, and take a minor part of the words of the President, and turn it into negative commentary, peradventure they could diminish the profile of the President.

“Nigerians across all walks of life know who is serving them faithfully and truly, and they will always reciprocate such fidelity as occasions demand,’’ Adesina said.(NAN)