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Buhari Owes No One Apology Over Comments on Nigerian Youths - Prince Tony Momoh

Prince Tony Momoh, former Minister of Information and former chairman of the Board of Directors of the Nigerian Airways, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari owes no one any apology over his comment on the Nigerian youths

Prince Tony Momoh, former Minister of Information and former chairman of the Board of Directors of the Nigerian Airways, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari owes no one any apology over his comment on the Nigerian youths.

Momoh, who is also a ch‎‎ieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress said the President's comment that a lot of Nigerian youths are sitting at home doing nothing while expecting freebies from government was the truth.

The former Minister spoke in an interview with Daily Independent on April 23.

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Mr. Momoh said, “That the President should apologise. Apologise for what? Are many Nigerian youths not staying at home doing nothing? Why should he apologise for saying the truth? Is it not true that many of our youths are sitting at home doing anything because of lack of opportunities? If he is going to apologise, it will be because the government is trying to create opportunities for youths.

"To apologise for saying a lot of Nigerian youths are staying at home is unnecessary. The population of Nigerian youths that are jobless, is it high or low? If it is high, then one can rightly say that most of them don’t work. The fact is President Buhari is a very highly focused man. He says what is on his mind and is never afraid of doing so.”

‎“If you want to analyse the issue, you will discover that he is just speaking his mind unlike the professional politicians who are used to lying. Having discovered that many Nigerian youths stay at home and have no work to do, it is his responsibility to create avenue for them to work. If Shell is going to invest $15b or more in Nigeria, is it not a way of creating avenues for the youths who stay at home doing nothing?

A lot of Nigerians are focusing on unimportant things, playing politics with important issues by distorting what the president said. If I were to look at the issue, I will focus on the fact that Shell is going to invest $15b in Nigeria and create avenues for unemployed youths to work. He never used the word lazy in describing Nigerian youths, it is mischief makers who twisted his words and claim he described youths as lazy but the fact is that youths.”

This website had reported that a religious group, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) had also endorsed the president’s comment on Nigerian youths.

The group said that the comment is not in any way peculiar to Buhari as leaders of other countries had at one time or another also described their youths as being lazy.

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