President Muhamamdu Buhari has said that most youths from the Northern part of the country were either uneducated or school dropouts.
He said because Nigerian media only do what they like, they refused to highlight the explanations in his recent statement in which he was widely quoted as describing a lot of Nigerian youths as lazy.
The President said this in an interview he had with Voice of America, Hausa service, in Washington, United States on Tuesday.
When asked about his reported comment on Nigerian youths while in London for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Buhari said the media only preferred to report what they like instead of concentrating on developmental journalism.
The President said, “You know they say we are over 180 to 200 million people in Nigeria and 60% are the youth below the age of 30.
“In the North for instance, most have not attended school or they abandoned halfway.
“If not because we had favourable rainfall in the past two seasons; most of them have no jobs, just idling away.
“People like them, even if they go to the South for instance, what they will make will not be enough to even pay their rent not to talk of feeding, clothing, and transport back home.
“That has not been explained enough and you know the media, especially the print, are simply doing whatever they like.
“We had two successful farming seasons, people went to the farm and did very well, but no one is talking about that; only insults.
“That is why the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, had to respond to the letter of insults released by Obasanjo. We spoke about it and I asked him not to respond but he refused and said he will just respond by stating the situation we met the country, where it is now and what was done in between and the monies we are getting.”
Buhari restated his position that the Peoples Democratic Party, in its 16 years in power, left debts for the country despite making huge income from oil.
He said there were no good roads or power supply to justify billions of dollars spent, adding that only God will judge.
PUNCH
