We are committed to marketing Nigeria’s potentialities abroad – APC chieftain

Lawal Ayoola, the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress in the Scandinavia, said on Wednesday that Nigerians abroad were committed to marketing the country’s potentialities for growth and investment.
He told the News Agency of Nigeria on telephone from Gothenburg, Sweden, that Nigeria as a regional bloc had the capacity to attract foreign investment.
Ayoola spoke against the backdrop of mixed reactions that greeted President Muhammadu Buhari’s misinterpreted comment at the just-concluded Commonwealth meeting in London about Nigerian youths.
The Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, had clarified in a statement: “At the Commonwealth Business Forum in London on Wednesday, April 18, 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari gave a keynote address on Making Business Easier Between Commonwealth Countries”.
The presentation was followed by a discussion, and question and answer session.
Adesina said: “Responding to a question, President Buhari had cause to talk about some Nigerian youths, and he said, ‘We have a very young
population; our population is estimated conservatively to be 180 million.
“More than 60 per cent of the population is below the age of 30. A lot of them have not been to school and they are claiming that Nigeria has been an oil producing country, therefore, they should sit and do nothing and get housing, healthcare and education free’.
“Typical of their stock-in trade, manipulators and twisters of statements of Mr President, who lie in wait to make mischief, interpreted the comment to mean that President Buhari had taken all Nigerian youths to the cleaners.
“But elementary English recognises a wide gulf between ‘a lot of’ and the word ‘all.’ How can ‘a lot of them’, suddenly transmogrify to mean ‘all of them?’ Mischievous and unconscionable.
“There is no way President Buhari, father of the Nigerian nation in every sense of the word, who equally has biological children
of his own in the youths age bracket, pass a vote of no confidence on all youths.
“It can only exist in the imagination of those who play what the President has described as ‘irresponsible politics’ with everything.
“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.’’
But Ayoola, who said he took Buhari’s reported comments as “personal’’, restated the resolve of Nigerians in the Diaspora majority
of who are youths, to continue to be good ambassadors of the country.
He urged government at all levels and well-meaning Nigerians in the country to empower the youths more to enable them participate actively in politics and other sectors of the economy.
He said: “Nigerians abroad are selling the country’s potential and possibilities to foreign investors.
“The country and the people are greatly endowed as Nigerian youths have been active in the productive sectors of the economy like ICT, entertainment, agriculture, media, manufacturing, marketing, consulting and trade.’’
Ayoola praised the Nigerian youths for their relevance and dexterity in the emerging global economy.