Presidency Reacts To Controversy Over Buhari’s Comment

The Presidency has reacted to the controversy surrounding President Muhammadu Buhari’s comment where he criticised youths in the country at a Commonwealth Business Forum in Westminster, the United Kingdom.

Presidency on Thursday explained President Buhari was answering questions from on a keynote address he made on Making Business Easier, where he had to speak about some youths in the country.

According to the President, “We have a very young population; our population is estimated conservatively to be 180 million. More than 60 percent 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.”

Reacting to the controversy, President’s spokesman, Femi Adesina in a statement said that, “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 recognizes 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.