President Muhammadu Buhari says many Nigerian youths just want to sit down and do nothing, banking on the notion that Nigerian is an oil-rich nation.
Speaking at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Westminster on Wednesday, the president said a lot of Nigerian youths have not been to school and they want everything free.
“About the economy, we have a very young population, our population is estimated conservatively to be 180 million. This is a very conservative one,” Buhari said.
“More than 60 percent of the population is below 30, a lot of them haven’t been to school and they are claiming that Nigeria is an oil producing country, therefore, they should sit and do nothing, and get housing, healthcare, education free.”
The president said he has done well on the three cardinal points of his campaign,
including economy and security.
“Recently, my minister for information was constrained to answer a question on people
accusing this administration of doing nothing, he said ‘let Nigerians be reminded what
position we were before May 2015, what condition we are now, and what we have achieved
between then and now and I think people were impressed with the answer.
“For security, we have done quite well. Economy, we are doing very well, especially with
agriculture; we are providing soft loans, and guarantee is that you have to belong to a
certain locality and you have got land, you don’t have to go to the bank and need a
physical collateral. I think a lot is being done.”
The president is expected to meet with business leaders and other heads of state as the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting progress through the week.
