Buhari gets ultimatum to retract ‘lazy’ comment against youths

A group, the Unified Nigeria Youth Forum (UNYF) has given President Muhammadu Buhari a seven-day ultimatum to retract his comment that Nigeria youths are lazy.

The forum described the statement as the worst that any head of state could make in a foreign land against his people.

President of the forum, Abulsalam Mohammed Kazeem, declared this yesterday in a statement in Kaduna.

He said Nigerians deserve an unreserved apology from Buhari and his administration.

He said: “Our respect for elders, mentors, leaders and constituted authority should not be taken for granted or misrepresented for being idle.

“The president should tender an unreserved apology and a public reversal of such statement within 7 days from today.

“Buhari’s administration lacks the moral right to call us names because the only thing that the government has in stock is to blame past regimes. This is despite the fact that over 80 per cent of the cabinet members were once part of that mismanagement.”

The statement accused the Buhari administration of misinforming the world by trying to hide his inadequacies, and blaming the youths in the face of insufficient budgetary provisions for education and health.

The forum lamented that both past and present administrations had failed to fix the power sector to boost production, despite the country’s huge population and vast resources.

According to the UNYF leadership, “Mr. President should be ashamed of himself, his generation and administration for spending over $20 billion from 1999 till date on power, while the consumers continue to pay for darkness.

“No investors would spend in any nation as Nigeria, where there is no stable power supply. Where are the youths going to get the jobs from?”

Kazeem added that Buhari’s idle generations have “stolen the patrimony of Nigeria youths,” who are doing their best in various endeavours.