Pat Utomi, a political economist and prominent member of the Labour Party (LP), has responded to the nation’s present economic circumstances, which are being overseen by the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.
According to reports, Utomi stated that everyone in Nigeria is dressed right now, with the exception of those who steal money, in an interview with PUNCH.
He disputed the APC’s assertion that the current government is headed in the correct direction, emphasizing that President Bola Tinubu’s administration must be detailed in its proposal for resolving the current predicament.
Utomi added that many Nigerians are dying and starving, yet the government is unbothered about the situation.
He said, “What I know is that most people I run into are in distress. I have to struggle to buy fuel and shout at the driver when the fuel is empty from the tank. I say, ‘Come, my friend, when did we enter the filling station last? Why is the tank empty?’ Everybody is facing this situation except those who are stealing money.
You can’t stay on the right path; to where and what? They must be specific and show us how they are on the right path. You don’t generalise. For instance, the exchange rate, how are we managing it? Our debt profile, how are we managing it? The poverty rate in our society, how are we managing it? How are we managing the diversification and production of the economy?
Let’s look at how we are managing education in our country. What about healthcare? How are we managing it? How many Nigerians are dying every day from curable diseases? These are the issues we should bring to the front burner of discussions and address, and not stating emotional issues. We have gone past those stages; we should be looking forward to how we will save the country.
Let’s stop playing games. It is like in the scriptures where God said, ‘I put before you, life and death, choose life.’ Before us is an existential crisis. Nigeria will either continue as it is going and end up like Somalia or dramatically do something and have the chance of going the way India did. I practically like citing India these days because the story of India shows that it is possible when people take themselves seriously to have a turnaround.
Nigeria has travelled the wrong way, but it is possible to turn it around. But we have to get serious, and not go into power to share money. Look at all these stories of corruption everywhere.
As if these people don’t have a conscience, how can they sleep when people are starving and dying, yet they are busy stealing money? But a political scientist of mine in the US has a theory that basically explains it.
He said the Nigerian political class negotiated how to stop the military and how to share the things that fell to them, but somehow failed to discuss the people. So, politics in Nigeria right now is all about who can corner power rightly or wrongly, and who he/she is giving a share of the booty not minding whether Nigerians are better off or worse off.”
