Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) believes Nigeria has yet to discover the real potentials of her youths, saying they are a bunch of hardworking and resourceful people.
The opposition party said this in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary Mr Kola Ologbondiyan on Thursday in Abuja, a day after it held its National Executive Council (NEC) emergency meeting.
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President Muhammadu Buhari had in a video said that many of the youths below the age of 30 were uneducated, but waiting for everything to be done for them, just because Nigeria is an oil-rich country.
The President’s comment was, however, greeted by criticism from many Nigerians, some of whom accused him of describing the youths as lazy.
Also reacting to the statement, the PDP described the purported statement as a direct injury on the sensibility of the youths who are known worldwide to be hardworking.
“The PDP reaffirms its belief and confidence in Nigerian youths and boldly announces to the world that our youths are resourceful and agile. Our nation is blessed with hardworking young men and women,” it noted.
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The party, however, called on the youths to team up with the PDP Generation Next Movement, in a bid to vote out the All Progressives Congress (APC) government in 2019.
The PDP accused the APC of refusing to show interest in the well-being and development of the Nigerian youth as well as allegedly holding them in the “highest form of disdain”.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a PDP presidential aspirant, was among the prominent Nigerians that have reacted to the purported statement by the President.
Atiku, who commented in a Facebook post on Thursday, said “I’ve always said oil is not Nigeria’s greatest asset; our greatest asset is our youth who created Nollywood out of nothing and an entertainment industry that is second to none in Africa.
“I should know, I have thousands of youths working for me all over the country who have been the backbone of our success.”
In the meantime, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, has accused mischief makers of twisting President Buhari’s comments.
“There is no way President Buhari, father of the Nigerian nation in every sense of the word, who equally has biological children of his own in the youths age bracket, pass a vote of no confidence on all youths.
“It can only exist in the imagination of those who play what the President has described as ‘irresponsible politics’ with everything,” Adesina said in a statement on Thursday.
