Buhari’s gaffes from abroad
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari attends a reception at the closing session of the Commonwealth Business Forum at the Guildhall in central London on April 18, 2018, on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM).<br /> AFP PHOTO / POOL / Daniel LEAL-OLIVAS
First off, let me put on record that I am what you can refer to as a Nigerian youth, which, technically speaking, places me in the category of the people President Muhammadu Buhari recently slated before an international audience.
He said a lot of us have not been to school. There is no lie about that. The statistics are there for all to see. But to say the youths of this country sit on their lazy behinds, “do nothing” and expect the government to provide all of our needs is perhaps the biggest slight to every hardworking, resourceful, young Nigerian who hustles every day in Aba, Alaba, and Lagos traffic [and elsewhere], as well as those who have dedicated their lives to creating innovative technologies, products and services in and outside of the country.
But the latest comment is not anything new. It was not yesterday that the president would choose to cast the same people that gave him the mandate to lead in bad light before an international audience.
In 2016, Buhari told UK’s Daily Telegraph that Nigerians’ penchant for criminality has made them unworthy of acceptance in Europe and the United States.
“Some Nigerians claim is that life is too difficult back home, but they have also made it difficult for Europeans and Americans to accept them because of the number of Nigerians in prisons all over the world accused of drug trafficking or human trafficking,” he said.
And later that year came the famous the “the other room” comment.
“I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room,” he said during a joint press briefing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The comment literally reduced his wife to being just that – a wife who is good only to keep his belly full and satisfy his sexual needs.
I don’t expect President Buhari not to make another ludicrous statement before the general elections in 2019, especially if he has the chance to speak to a foreign press. Even if he does, it may not have any significant impact on the outcome of the elections just as I don’t expect a large percentage of the Nigerian youths to still remember the latest insult from him.
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