A non-governmental organization, Unified Nigeria Youth Forum, on Monday described President Muhammadu Buhari’s remark that a lot of Nigerian youths want to sit and do nothing as the worst statement any head of state can make about his people in a foreign land.
The forum stated that the youths of Nigeria deserve an unreserved apology from Buhari and his administration, giving the President a seven-day ultimatum to do so.
President of the forum, Abulsalam Mohammed Kazeem, in a statement issued in Kaduna, told Buhari, “Your administration lack the moral right to call us names because the only thing your administration have in stock is to blame past administration where over 80 per cent of your cabinet members are once part of that administration. Yet Mr. President is misinforming the world by trying to hide his inadequacies by blaming the youths when even the budget for education and health is not even enough to fund the sectors.
“Our population as a nation is supposed to be an added advantage, but is not, because of the inabilities of both past and present administrations that have failed to fix our power sector.
“Mr. President should be ashamed of himself, his generation and administration for spending over 20 billion US dollars since 1999 till date and yet we are paying for darkness, no investors will invest in any nation where there is no stable power supply like ours (Nigeria). Where are the youth going to get the job from?”
The forum insisted that Nigeria youths are not waiting for free money, stressing that “The youths are making the most of what has been left for them, which is nothing as we can all see and feel rather Mr. President should tell the world that their generation was the idle generation because they have stolen the patrimony of Nigeria youth.
“It took the same president six good months to form his cabinet and yet the only new faces on the list were Kemi Adeosun, late Ocholi and Bar.Solomon Dalung, at this point it’s not wrong for we “the youths” to say that Mr. President is suffering from intellectual idleness for his in-abilities to give us a strong, new and viable cabinets within seven days of his inauguration?
“Under his watch, unemployment has climbed from 8.2% in 2015 to 18.8% in 2018. Many of us want to work but have no opportunities. Most youth today are willing and able but the fraudulent system we found ourselves could not provide the enabling environment.”
The NGO, however, observed that Nigeria remains a country of enormous potentials for several decades, adding that the country ought to have performed much better in terms of human, capital and economic development.
