Temidayo Akinsuyi, Lagos

Prince Tony Momoh, a former Minister of Information on Monday said President Muhammadu Buhari owes no one any apology for saying a lot of Nigerian youths are sitting at home doing nothing.

Speaking in a chat with DAILY INDEPENDENT, Momoh, a national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Pro-Chancellor and Chairman Governing Council, University of Jos (UNIJOS) said those asking the president to apologise over the remarks made at the Commonwealth Business Forum are being unfair and playing politics with the issue.

While saying the president never described Nigerian youths as lazy, Momoh said President Buhari is never afraid of speaking the truth unlike other professional politicians who only say things they want the people to hear.

He said the current reality in Nigeria is that many youths are staying at home doing nothing due to lack of opportunities and that is the point President Buhari was making in his remarks at the forum.

“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” he said.