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Speaking at an international discussion panel with world leaders at the Commonwealth Business Forum in London, President Muhammadu Buhari on the 19th of April 2018, said ‘a lot’ of Nigerian youths are unwilling to work and exhibit an entitlement mentality where they expect the government to provide them education and healthcare because Nigeria is an oil rich country.
While the President did not use the word lazy in that unfortunate comment, it nonetheless translates to describing young people in Nigeria as such.
It will be recalled that the President made similar disparaging comments to an international audience at London in 2016 when he accused Nigerians seeking lives abroad of being criminals.
This statement by the President is totally unfounded and runs contrary to all known evidence about young people in Nigeria.
In direct opposite to the expressed views of the President, Nigerian youths are exceptionally resilient people who have had to endure and survive in a country with:
- one of the worst infrastructures on earth,
- the second worst electricity supply,
- criminal leadership,
- one of the worst unemployment rates on earth;
- as well as a dysfunctional health and education system that is still beyond the reach of the majority.
Despite this, they have managed to create employment for themselves, including the biggest movie and music industry in Africa.
They have made fantastic strides in information technology, sports and industry. The exploits of Nigerian young people are recognized in all parts of the world.
It is simply fallacious for the President to describe young people in Nigeria as unwilling to work.
In 2014 scores of Nigerian youths were killed in a stampede where millions of them applied for very limited jobs at the Immigration Service.
Not only did they apply in their millions for these few jobs, they were asked to pay a registration fee which they did and also dress in white shorts and T shirts which they also did.
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This level of desperation to get jobs is certainly not the attitude of people who would rather rest back and lazily expect handouts.
Similarly, in 2017, over one million applications were received for limited Npower jobs advertised by the federal government that pay a meagre N30,000.
What the evidence shows is that while young people in Nigeria are willing and eager to work, it is the government that has consistently failed to provide the enabling environment, employment opportunities and support for them to do so.
Turning around to denigrate young Nigerians on this account is unconscionable and unacceptable.
The President’s insensitive, unfounded and unfortunate statement to an international audience has the capacity to de-market Nigerians in the global workplace.
PWhen next a Nigerian applies for a job, the President’s remarks may cost him or her such opportunity.
We the People call on the President to quickly clarify the comment to reflect the true hardworking and enterprising spirit of the Nigerian youth.
Ply Ken Henshaw
Executive Director, We the People
