President Muhammadu Buhari has come under intense fire for tagging Nigerian youths as  lazy, forcing his media team to release a statement which seeks to clarify what the President meant to say.

Buhari had on Wednesday in London,  at the Commonwealth Business Forum described Nigerian youths as ill-educated, lazy and in the habit of looking for freebies.

“More than 60 percent of the population is below 30, a lot of them haven’t been to school and they are claiming that Nigeria is an oil-rich country, therefore they should sit and do nothing and get housing, healthcare, education free,” Buhari had told the room full of business and global leaders.

His statement has equally elicited  outrage from youths and several prominent Nigerians who have berated the President for failing to recognize the ingenuity of Nigerian youths and not being responsive in the provision of decent healthcare services, education and  jobs to the millions of unemployed youths in the country.

Reacting to the President’s remarks, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, in a statement released by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan faulted the President’s remarks, arguing that nobody deserved to call Nigerian youths lazy going by their demonstrated industry.

The party said the PDP and indeed Nigerians found it extremely shocking and disappointing that the President could make such a false, derogatory and unpatriotic utterance against citizens at a time the nation was looking up to him to present its potential to the global business community.

Former Vice President and presidential hopeful, Atiku Abubakar took to his Twitter handle to say that he would never call Nigerian youths lazy, stressing that they were very hardworking and industrious.

“Our youths are charting new frontiers, creating huge tech industry on their own! Their entrepreneurial spirit, work ethic and creative abilities are things of pride and should be applauded, encouraged and nurtured.

“I will never refer to Nigeria’s youth as people who sit and do nothing. They are hardworking. I should know, I have thousands of youth working for me all over the country who have been the backbone to our success,” Atiku tweeted.

On his own part, Senator Ben Murray-Bruce, the Senator representing Bayelsa East Senatorial District in the National Assembly in his Twitter post, accused the President of being the lazy one.

“Whoever says Nigerian youths are lazy should just buy a mirror and he or she will see the real definition of laziness! I have over 1,000 Nigerian youths in my employ and not one of them is lazy,” he tweeted.

Femi Fani-Kayode, former Minister of Aviation also lampooned the President on Twitter, saying: “What type of leader takes pleasure in slandering, shaming, denigrating and humiliating his own people before the world? What type of man tells foreigners that his own children and youths are lazy and unproductive? You have destroyed our people and shamed them before the world!”

The Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose through a statement issued by his Media Aide, Lere Olayinka called on Nigerian youths to show their strength by voting against the President in 2019.

Fayose said it was painful that President Buhari could de-market the country by describing Nigerian youths who are struggling daily to make a living under a harsh economic condition as lazy people.

However, the Presidency on Thursday dismissed the insinuations that the President had mocked Nigerian youths at the Forum, stressing that Buhari’s statement had been manipulated by some mischief makers.

According to a statement issued by the President’s Media Aide, Femi Adesina, the presidency said such persons had cultivated the habit of misinterpreting the President’s comments, arguing that  there was a wide gulf between “a lot of” and the word “all”.

Adesina added: “President Buhari has always applauded and celebrated Nigerian youths who excel in different areas of endeavour, from sports to academia and other realms. And he will continue to do so because he values the youths and knows that they are the fulcrum on which the future of the country rests.”