The Provoking Fact From President Muhammadu Buhari Concerning The Attitude Of Nigerian Youths -By Nwogboji Emmanuel Usulor

Nwogboji Emmanuel Usulor

Some words are sweet but unprofitable, while some are bitter but important. People always choose between the sweet lies and the bitter truth. President Mohammed Buhari disclosed a provoking, but indispensable fact; not because it is sweet, but because it contains nothing but the truth.

In this tribune, permit me to take the liberty to unemploy the argumentum ad hominem that resulted to heavy attack on personality of Mr President rather than addressing the issue at hand due to misconception, conflict of interest, faulty motives and naive cynicism.

During the 2018 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), where leaders of Commonwealth countries come together to discuss global and Commonwealth issues, and decide on collective policies and initiative that will make the Commonwealth countries safe, fairer, more prosperous and more sustainable; President Buhari buttressed the issues hindering the performance of the Nigerian young youths as the theme for this year’s summit was centered on young people. He said and I quote, “…more than 60% 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, health care and education free…”. This is the statement that attracted lots of criticisms to Mr president. It is quite otiose for bat hats to turn a comparatively insignificant part of the President words into negative commentary just to disparage his public image.

Nevertheless, it behooves me to consider if some Nigerians cannot differentiate between “a lot” and the word “all”. This obviously limns the laziness of some knavish Nigerian youths who have successfully turned social media into a cesspool of false rumors. It is equally the lazy and disabled brain youths that will accept such groundless scuttlebutt hook, line and sinker without an effort to know how and what led to the president’s protestation. In fact, it is only those that have not been to school (as captioned by Mr President) that coalesced with the propagandists who quoted Mr President as saying that all Nigerian youths are lazy. Such unschooled and benighted youths are not aware of YouTube where such statement could be confirmed. As such, they wallowed in confusions, depravities and rakishness.

It is high time we refrain from hasty generalization. No country is without a share of idle youths, and Nigeria is no exception. These idle youths are parts of the beholden duty of all the levels of government, as well as the individuals. We cannot continue to wait for federal government to do everything for us. The youths should equally think outside the box on what to do for Nigerian government, because It takes only a joint effort to rivive an economy and ensure better future for the coming generations.

Finally, in the words of Albert Einstein, information is not knowledge. Adequate knowledge of why things are happening can adjust the expectations and reactions of everyone accordingly. Let’s learn how to handle information to avoid dragging the integrity of this nation to mud.

Writing from Accountancy Department,
Federal University of Ndufu Alike Ikwo,
Ebonyi State.

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