Muhammadu Buhari has denied reports that he had stated that Nigerian youths are lazy in an interview in the United Kingdom. He made this known while speaking in a special interview session with the Voice of America, Hausa service, in the United States on Tuesday.

The president stated that the media only preferred to interpret and report what they like instead of concentrating on developmental journalism.
 
Buhari said:

“You know Nigeria’s population is now between 180 and 190 million and 60 per cent of this population is youth that is 30 years down ward.

“You know in the North most youths are uneducated or are school dropouts. If not because we had good harvests in the last two farming seasons the situation would have been worsen.

“Even if these youths travel out of the North for greener pasture they hardly make it economically because what they earn as income cannot afford them to meet their basic needs or return home.

“All these explanations I made they refused to highlight them in their report and you know the media in Nigeria in most cases only do what they like.”

The president noted that the nation’s achievements in the agricultural sector where millions of Nigerians benefited financially was left unreported by the media.

Speaking at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Westminster, Buhari is reported to have said many Nigerian youths believe that it is their right to get everything free because Nigeria is an oil-rich nation.

He is reported to have stated that Nigeria had a very young population, most of whom were uneducated, but wanted everything offered them on a silver platter.