President Muhammadu Buhari, has for the first time, made a reference to
ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo’s widely talked about letter, calling it
“abusive’’.
Buhari said he did not want a response to the letter which derided the government and urged him not to seek a second term.
“Even
when the Minister of Information and Culture wanted to reply that
abusive letter written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo I had
wanted Lai not to reply to the letter, but I said I should allow him to
highlight the achievements of our administration.’’
Obasanjo wrote a damning letter to President Buhari and touted Coalition for Nigeria Movement which has been launched.
The
former president in a lengthy and critical public statement on January
23 suggested the formation of the movement and advised Buhari against
seeking a second term in office.
But Buhari, in a special
interview session with Voice of America, Hausa service, in Washington,
United States on Tuesday morning couldn’t say much about the letter.
On
his purported comment on youth while in London, President Buhari
dismissed the report, saying that the media only preferred to interpret
and report what they like instead of concentrating on developmental
journalism.
“You know Nigeria’s population is now between 180 and
190 million and 60 per cent of this population is youth that is 30
years down ward.
“You know in the North most youths are
uneducated or are school dropouts. If not because we had good harvests
in the last two farming seasons the situation would have been worsen.
“Even
if these youths travel out of the North for greener pasture they hardly
make it economically because what they earn as income cannot afford
them to meet their basic needs or return home.
“All these
explanations I made they refused to highlight them in their report and
you know the media in Nigeria in most cases only do what they like.’’
He
said, for instance the nation’s achievements in the agricultural sector
where millions of Nigerians benefitted financially was left unreported
by the media.
Buhari also used the opportunity to debunk the insinuation that Christians were being killed by herdsmen.
He
said that clashes between farmers and herdsmen had been existence for
the past years, saying that Nigerian herdsmen were not of the habit of
carrying dangerous weapons while moving their animals around the
country.
Buhari said he approved the recruitment of 6,000 policemen in addition to the current strength.
The
recruitment, NAAN reports, is part of measures to address the nation’s
security challenges including the clashes between farmers and herders.
