Olumurewa Damilola

“Nigerian youths are lazy” as declared by the former president Mohammad Buhari in a speech has made me question myself on whether Nigerian youths are really lazy. I keep asking myself if the statement is true or if it is just an idea that the former president nursed in his head? Or is this statement a mere stereotype about Nigerian youths or is it a fact? By the way, when I say “lazy” I’m questioning the Nigerian youths contribution to Nigerians economy and the steps they’ve taken to help in Nigeria’s development in general.

  Firstly, 65% of the active population in Nigeria ranging from 15_25 years is made of the youths which shows that more than half of Nigeria’s  population are the youthsso, it’s logical that Nigeria  invest in her youths in order for them to give back to the economy  and progress of the country. But it seems that overtime the reverse is the case as the youths are suffering from unemployment and deployment. Although statistics shows that Nigeria’s employment rate has increased from 4.1%to 5.1% which is still an insignificant growth if we are to look at the number of youths that are out of job today. We have youths with certificates  who  went to school with the hope of getting a job afterwards then, reality hits them, and  they realize that; they have no job available for them to channel the knowledge gained in school so they end up starting or doing small businesses just for survival. So, can we classify youths faced with this challenge “lazy youths?” No, I don’t  think so, because, before we label Nigerian youths as lazy, we have to first create  job opportunities and different opportunities for them to contribute to the society and the  only way to go about it is by solving the issue of unemployment and deployment.

Unlike those who went to school whodidn’t end up getting a job, we have some youths who aren’t privileged to step their foot into the  four walls of the classroom or evenperceive the scent of a chalk. These categories of people have little or no hope of getting a job if there’s a job  available in the first place .Even if these set of youths decided to get a job to fend for themselves, we couldn’t be assured they wouldn’t  experience what we call a burn out (This is when  one gets frustrated or tired of something) as they struggle to just make ends meet due to  the harsh economy of the country and just decide to quit. Should we call these ones lazy youths because they got frustrated with the system?

However, we have some “exceptional youths” who will take advantage of economic crisis like unemployment and deployment, these categories of youths are those who take into fraud. A report on business day reports that there’s174% increase in cyber crime in 6 months in 2022  carried out by youths. Instead of contributing to the economy positively they do otherwise, thereby, they take from the society instead of adding to it. So why should these ones not be labeled lazy Nigerian youths?

  Unlike the fraudsters, we have another category of youths who don’t get themselves involved in fraud but get themselves involved in doing nothing, owing excuses to the harsh economy crisis. These set of youths rain invectives on government without making efforts themselves to be the form of change the society needs. Also, we have some youths who just want to enjoy life and “cruise”; Yes of course, we are expected to have these ones in the society because this world is diverse  with people with different behavioral pattern.

    In all, stereotyping Nigerian youths as lazy could be a generalization as not all Nigeria youths are lazy. Also, these Nigerian youths  could eventually experience a   result of the stereotype which could eventually make them live up to the label; “lazy Nigerian youths”. However, we shouldn’t be quick to ignore the fact that humans don’t act alike so we would always have the “black sheep”; the actual ‘lazy Nigerian youths”.