Are Nigerian youths really lazy? Voxpop

On Wednesday, last week, during a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London, President Muhammadu Buhari allegedly insinuated that many Nigerian youths are lazy and illiterates. Though the Presidency immediately debunked the controversial assertion, it has continued to generate comments among Nigerians, especially the youth. PAUL OKAH seeks the opinion of Nigerians.
Gowon ruled Nigeria as a youth I was recently on air to contribute on the trending news with a radio station. I told those anchoring the programme that these youths that have been labelled lazy by the President are not lazy in any way.
I went further to tell them that those ruling Nigeria or have ruled Nigeria did not work harder than youths of nowadays. I mentioned Gowon as an example. He is the youngest president Nigeria have produced when he occupied office.
He occupied there when the opportunity favoured him, not because he worked harder than these day’s youths. At this juncture, the organisers cut me short. What I wanted them to know is that the likes of Gowon, Obasanjo, Jonathan, and even Buhari did not rule Nigeria because they worked hard. If Gowon were to be in the Army today, he would have not attained the rank of Second Lieutenant.
Now, tell me how he could have gone to that extent of ruling Nigeria. He was at a time doubly promoted because of the federal character principle. We also know how others that I mentioned emerged as president. Before I digress, I want to let the world know that Nigerian youths are hardworking. They are inured to hardship, yet they are surviving. Michael Otu, a teacher.
The bitter truth The truth is bitter, but it has to be told. The problem lies with the acceptability of the truth. It is a well known fact that if you are to engage in an intellectual debate with an opponent, if your opponent does not have an answer to your superior argument, the next tool available to him would be that of verbal, vitriolic and scathing personal attacks on you; in order to hush you up. Many Nigerian youths are actually lazy and that’s the sad truth. Gone are the days when the youth aspired to achieve things by merit and by dint of hardwork. They now prefer the easy way out.
In education, social, business and all aspects of human interaction, the average Nigerian youth would always seek the easy way out. A visit to many of our schools will prove that the standard of education is at its lowest ebb, due to the fact that students now prefer to indulge in examination malpractice and “sort” lecturers, instead of studying very hard to pass their exams. As a result, we have half-baked graduates who are not only unemployed, but unemployable.
It is a well known fact that a Standard Five graduate of the 50s, 60s and 70s was better educated and had more prospects than many of the University graduates being churned out by our universities every other day. Idris Cynthia, a political scientist.
End of Buhari’s political career I pity President Buhari for his nescience of current events. The backlash is yet to abate. Even CNN has joined to correct him. There are many things that you just can’t say about your own people, especially before an international audience. He really missed it.
As a politician, if you don’t want to become a target of the writer’s satire, try to avoid doing anything foolish in the public. Nigerians are people that need just a little encouragement to express the anger that they have been keeping at bay, especially since the APC government came into power with a lot of unfulfilled promises. More pathetic is the fact that people really looked up to Buhari to find a means to Nwachi Agha Daniel put an end to the economic hardship that has been spreading across the country, but he has been disappointing so far. Now he has realised his words have caused a social ramification that could end his political career. Adewale Daniel, a civil servant.
Buhari should apologise The President calling the youths lazy and illiterates was not unexpected. How would you expect an illiterate not to see the people who voted him in, irrespective of his shortcomings and lack of a credible manifesto? That person will always see those people as himself. If I must advise the youths, to prove this man wrong, they should get their PVC ready to vote out Buhari in 2019.
However, I doubt if that will be possible, because the youths will still vote for him, for peanuts. The President should just tender an official apology to the populace. The only way to do that is by creating millions of jobs and let him see if those jobs will not be taken up within minutes. Regrettably, that is next to impossible: given the level of corruption in his government.
The President, I believe, already has a laid down plan on how to return to office, which is the reason why he can talk anyhow. Joseph Omosimua, a graduate.
The matter should be rested I heard of the controversial speech last week and I am disappointed in the President, just like many Nigerians. He doesn’t have any right to insult Nigerians no matter what. Nevertheless, if what I read in the media is anything to go by, then I believe that the President was quoted out of context, as was implied by his aide, Femi Adesina. Whether he said it or not will not solve the problems in Nigeria. Honestly, the issue has been over flogged and over emphasized. However, it’s obvious that our President is no longer and has never been capable in all angles to speak without scripts. So, I see no reason for the unending rants on the internet. 2019 elections is just around the corner, and that’s where the youths should show themselves, not the internet. Blaise Ibe, an IT expert.
Unjustified mocking of Nigerian youths After reading and digesting the statement made by our president during Commonwealth Business Forum held at Westminster on Wednesday, where he described Nigerian youths as people who don’t want to go to school, who are lazy, who wants everything free for them because Nigeria is a rich oil producing country,I wondered at the moral justification he has to make such an unguarded utterance. Although, the above description of Nigerian youths is not actually my problem, my main concern is the individual who made the utterance. How can a nonentity who didn’t see the four walls of the university and still facing trials in court regarding the authenticity of his ‘O’ level, have the guts to call Nigerian youths, illiterates and lazy people?
What moral justification does he have to make such a reckless utterance or is it because he rose to the throne of power through electoral malpractice which has caused us a lot of pains and backwardness? Kelechi Agha, a student.
Youths not given opportunities He said Nigerian youths are lazy and I ask: which job has he created since his reign as president? Has he built any industry to reduce the rate of unemployment?
Is he aware of the number of graduates the tertiary institutions produce every year? Is he aware of the number of graduates carrying files from one place to another, in search of jobs? He said Nigerian youths want everything for free and I still ask: is there anything that ever existed as free in this country?
Is it health, housing or education, which is now meant for the rich; due to the high cost of charges? Buhari, since he was elected as President, has been taking decisions and making policies that can only be traceable to an illiterate, who has no foresight and plan for a better Nigeria.
We are not surprised to hear this from Mr President, because you can’t expect a stark illiterate, who has no focus, to reason above his mentality. It’s only from people who operate on his level of reasoning that you hear such careless and unjustified utterances from. Buhari must apologize to Nigerian youths for insulting them before the world or better still, he can resign. Mustapha Yahaya, a motorcyclist.
Social media’s negative effects In this era of social media craze, you only have to visit Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any of these social media platforms to see just how lazy many Nigerian youths have become. Grammatical blunders and abbreviations have become the norm that it is now difficult to understand what someone is trying to communicate. Icons, images and smileys are now used in place of actual words by the addicts, who are actually too lazy to type. What business does an unemployed youth have with spending more than twenty hours on the internet, instead of searching for the supposedly non existent jobs or even creating one for himself and becoming an employer of labour?
The excuse that there are no jobs in Nigeria has made many of these graduates to virtually live on the internet. They are always online, posting rubbish and attracting hundreds of Retweets, Comments and Likes from their more lazy comrades. Nigerians gather on social media to while away their time and do nothing to better their lives than talk about BB Naija.
I have posted intellectual articles on social media, but I got discouraging comments like “too long to read” “can someone summarize, please?”
“I didn’t finish reading” and so on. Some simply shied away from my articles that attempted to analyze topical issues. They preferred to talk about how to make money by sleeping with a sugar daddy or a sugar mummy and I let them be. Only stupid posts make sense on social media.
There is nothing a professor will say or the type of intellectual exercise that would be undertaken by any one that would attract more retweets, likes or comments more than a stupid post from a girl that she is missing her boyfriend, that she is going to shop and what have you. Instead of thinking of creative ways of bettering his lot, the lazy youth would lie in wait for a post by a gullible Nigerian that would require him to comment “Amen” or “I claim it”, in order to own a billion dollar business, a mansion, a car or what have you; which does not require him to work for a day. How gullible can people be? Ogbonnia Nwachi, a Political Scientist and Public Affairs Commentator