LazyNigerianYouths

The Lazy Nigerian Youth (Also known as "#LazyNigerianYouth" or "#LazyNigerianYouths") is a social media revolt by Nigerian youths against their President, Muhammadu Buhari. While speaking at the Commonwealth Business Forum in Westminster On Wednesday, 18th April 2018, Buhari said, in response to an interview question about a totally unrelated topic, that a lot of Nigerian youth have not been to school and want everything free (including education and healthcare) because the country is an oil producing state. Young Nigerian youths soon took to social media to protest against the comment of the number one citizen of the country.

Origin

The movement was birthed from an event that happened at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2018, the 25th meeting of the heads of government of the Commonwealth of Nations which held in the United Kingdom. At the Commonwealth Business Forum in Westminster, a journalist had asked the President of Nigeria why he did not sign the African Continental Free Trade Agreement in Rwanda, and while responding to the question, he was reported to have said: “About the economy, we have a very young population, our population is estimated to be 196 million in 2018. This is a very conservative one. 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 producing country, therefore, they should sit and do nothing, and get housing, healthcare, education free”.

After a report of the event by TheCable Staff Writer, Mayowa Tijani, who happened to be the only Nigerian journalist allowed to attend the business forum, Nigerians on social media voiced strong displeasure with millions of Nigerian youth tweeting about their ventures and how they work hard to make a living in a country that has done little to help her citizens survive.

Controversy

In a back story published by TheCable on the journalist who reported the story, TheCable said the media house came under pressure by the Nigerian Government to pull down the story. Some claimed that the journalist, Tijani Mayowa, a 2017 Chevening Scholar and who is currently studying Media Practice for Development and Social Change at the University of Sussex, UK must have misquoted or quoted the president, or reported out of context. But the video, released by the journalist and published widely across local media in Nigeria and republished by CNN, Aljazeera, BBC and a host of others, however cleared every doubt. While some of the president's supporters continue to defend him by buttressing the fact that he didn't use the word "Lazy", many Nigerians believe that what he said at CHOGM 2018 directly implied that Nigerian Youth are lazy.

Nigerian Youths at CHOGM 2018

They were a number of Nigerian youths at CHOGM 2018 who showcased youths of the West African country as hardworking, educated and enterprising. Some of them are: John Oluwadero, President/Chief Executive of Building Nations Initiative (BNI); Omowumi Ogunrotimi, founder Gender Mobile; Olaoluwa Abagun, founder Girl Pride Circle; Samson Itodo, convener of Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth & Advancement (YIAGA), leading the NotTooYoungToRun Campaign; Anuoluwapo Adelakun, founder Girl Unlimited Initiative; Peace Ayo, a 15-year-old ambassador of the Malala Fund; Nkechi Azinge, founder Sickle Cell Aid Foundation; Gideon Olanrewaju, founder of Aid for Rural Education Access Initiative (AREAi); Ife Ade Tokan, a financial and consulting expert, who graduated from the University of Nottingham; Afolabi Adekaiyaoja, the co-chair the SOAS, University of London, African Development Forum; Esomchi Agalamanyi, Regional Coordinator of Commonwealth Scholars in the West of Scotland.

Business Opportunities

Since the social media reaction started, a lot of young Nigerian have started creating business opportunities with the situation - using the avenue to protest while showcasing the entrepreneurial spirit of Nigerians. Some suddenly started advertising and selling shirts, caps and other materials with #LazyNigerianYouth printed on them. Similarly, some Nigerians started posting pictures showing them at work and how hard they work everyday to make ends meet, while others have used the opportunity to advertise their businesses.

According to a renowned human right activist, Omoyele Sowore the situation is a wake up call for Nigerian Youths to re-evaluate themselves and live up to positive expectations. Omoyele Sowore is the founder of Sahara Reporters and a presidential aspirant for the 2019 elections in Nigeria. Sowore advocates that the Lazy Nigerian Youths should perform their last act of laziness by forming a consensus of support for a candidate of their choosing with the capacity to deliver and voting out the current administration from power.

Implications for 2019 election

Many Nigerian politicians and especially President Buhari's political opponents have since capitalised on the social media backlash with many urging the youths who were instrumental to the president's election to vote him out in the coming 2019 elections. At the time of the incident, CNN was of the opinion that the president would face a tough battle to get the support of the nation's young people in his re-election bid. With this single trend still in the minds of the Nigerian youth they have become more alert to the Economic importance of their political rights and might lead a very challenging opposition against the incumbent government come 2019 Presidential election and youths are getting more enlightened of their ability to influence a change and make a significance in the political settings owing to the fact that they occupy a major percentage in the Nation's population.