President Buhari made a statement on Wednesday during a panel discussion that was held at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Westminster, London, where he said that youths, who make up 60 percent of the population of Nigeria, were waiting to get social amenities free without doing any work, has been countered by Governor Ayodele Fayose.
Reacting to Buhari’s claims, Governor Fayose tweeted this;
At 19, President Buhari left Secondary School to join the Army. At age 21,he was commissioned a second lieutenant and appointed Platoon Commander of the Second Infantry Battalion in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Where can our youths get such opportunity today?
Nigerian youths are hardworking, intelligent and enterprising. Their future was mortgaged by past leaders like President Buhari, who had everything at their beck and call as youths. I imagine the youths of today having half of the opportunities available in the 50s and 60s…
President Buhari at the event, also said he had carried out all his campaign promises by enhancing the nation’s security and economy.
President Muhammadu Buhari, while awarding his administration a pass mark in terms of security, said the federal government had been able to reduced the Boko Haram sect, whose activities, he said, had damaged the education and health sectors.
“And then the economy. We have a very young population and our population is estimated conservatively to be 180 million. The 60 per cent 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 and therefore they should sit and do nothing and get housing, healthcare and education free,” he added.
On Agriculture, President Buhari said his administration had also made an huge impact by giving loans to Nigerian citizens without collecting collateral.
“Recently, my minister for information was constrained to answer a question by people accusing my administration of doing nothing. He said let Nigerians be reminded the position we were before May 2015 and the condition we are now and what we have achieved between then and now and I think people were impressed with the answer.
“In economy, we are doing very well, especially in agriculture. We are providing soft loans and the guarantee is just that you have to belong to a certain locality and you have land. You don’t need to go to a bank to bring physical collateral. I think a lot is being done,” he added.
