Letters: International Slander

Dear friend,

Trust you are doing well.

Sort of, you should have an idea of what this letter is about, even if it is a faint idea…

Former President M. Buhari, in 2018, on April 18th to be specific, in a speech at the Heads of State Commonwealth Summit at Westminster, London, said something.

Here is how I wrote it in the posts I made on Facebook and my WhatsApp status:

On Wednesday, the 18th of April 2018, the then President of Nigeria, M. Buhari said at the Commonwealth Business Forum in London that:

"More than 60 percent of the Nigerian 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, and education free.”

He was said to have tagged many Nigerian youths as lazy.

I could remember that period when youths came online, ranting and cursing with anger.

The hashtag "#lazynigerianyouths" trended that time.

Why would he say such a thing? Everyone wondered.

I could remember my math teacher telling us that Buhari wasn't wrong; we all felt bad.

Well, join me on Wednesday on my weekly newsletter as I take you through that situation and we analyze together if he was actually right or wrong.

Don't miss the letter!

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Rooting for you, and I hope you too are rooting for me.

Love and light!

Was he wrong?

No! Remember, he said a lot, not all. So it may or may not affect you.

In a previous newsletter, I wrote about two types of laziness; kindly check it out here: https://abumchisom.com/life-letters/letters-hardworking-people-seem-to-be-the-least-successful 

In that newsletter, I highlighted two types of laziness: mental laziness and physical laziness, and I wrote on how changes in times have caused a drastic shift in what type is permissible.

What do you think PMB was talking about when he categorized a lot of Nigerian youths as lazy? He was speaking of mental laziness.

And, he was RIGHT! A lot of Nigerian youths are mentally lazy.

How many Nigerian youths can be disciplined enough to dedicate 2 hours daily to learning a new skill?

How many Nigerian youths can read a book for at most 30 minutes?

How many Nigerian youths can watch a 50+ minute YouTube tutorial straight up?

How many Nigerian youths can read an article or instruction longer than 700 words? They will hide under the mask of reduced attention span...

Alright, shall we turn the tables around?

• How many Nigerian youths can stay on TikTok for hours without getting tired?

• How many of them can scroll mindlessly on social media with no direction?

• How many of them engage in binge?

• How many of them can watch movies for hours, changing seasons…?

Hey, look, if you can't afford a one-year Netflix subscription without a second thought, you have no business watching movies. I know it’s hard; leave Telegram movies alone --- not just for piracy reasons, but because you don’t deserve movies yet.

If you can’t afford a cinema at will, leave movies alone. In fact, you have no business with screens unless it’s for tutorials.

There’s an endemic wave of laziness among many youths in Nigeria.

Leave your politicians alone; fight for yourself, and the only weapon you have is your brain and will. The only counterproductive energy to mess with your weapon is mental laziness.

Those you are competing with are not your fellow Nigerians. They are Americans, Canadians, British, Chinese, Japanese, Australians, and all of them in these advanced countries are younger than you. They are your competition, so why should your problem be Nigeria's oil and natural resources?

I deleted my TikTok account in 2022 and never went back to it. Why? It was a huge distraction to me.

No one will come to help you. Forget destiny helpers; they won’t come until you start.

Start now and shun the noise around!

Buhari has said his own. Scream and rant all you can; he is right, and your ranting keeps validating his point, because it is only mentally lazy folks that rant.

My advice? Read! Don’t joke with reading. Read! Dedicate your life to the act of reading…

Love and light! 

Rooting for you, and I trust you too are rooting for me.

Best Regards,

Joseph Chisom Ofonagoro.

Till I write next, Goodbye!