Ndidiamaka Ede
The convener of the Big Tent, a coalition of several political parties, Civil Society Organizations and Social movements, Prof. Pat Utomi has charged Labour Party aspirants not to wait till they are in government to begin the people centered policies they have been deliberating on.
He said that the impact must begin to be felt now, stating that a better and highly reverred Nigeria with global strategic relevance is possible.
According to press statement from the the Big Tent, Secretariat, signed by Austin Kemie, Prof. Utomi who is also the chairman of the National Consultative Front (NCF) and the National leader in the Labour Party made this known on Friday 29 July at the Centre for Values in Leadership in Lagos where he had unveiled the coalition’s programme for August.
The programme according to the statement includes: mobilizing the youth for a fight to reverse climate change; entrepreneurship training for youth across the country with capital support strategies, and Business Angels networks, to give muscle to and help strengthen the new ventures in their approach to capital, for rapid economic reversal and private sector led growth.
He also announced that a broader level strategy session will take place next week.
“Quick solution to the power sector problem is imperative for the shift away from focus on revenues and conspicuous consumption to production. Dr Jerome Okolo’s role in the Policy response team to be announced next week is aimed at making this goal swift, just as that of Professor Murtala Sagagi’s role in the team for Agriculture, will fashion the base of Agriculture factor endowments for value chains to return Nigeria to high employment manufacturing, and that of Dr Muiz Banire on Legal reform, in the Policy team to ensure the rule of law facilitates the goals of the new Nigeria.”
“A new Policy Rapid Response team had been constituted and will be formally unveiled next week.”
These efforts, he assured, will bring dignity back to Labour.
In addition, the longtime civil society advocate and Third Force politician announced that a series of policies guiding the interaction between an awakened new generation of voters will be put before the Nigerian people during the month of August in a collaboration between the Third Force, the CVL and the 22-year-old television series Patito’s Gang which airs on Channels Television.
He also opined that the big ideas in the package will take young Nigerians out of desperate poverty that has assaulted their dignity to a prosperous and educated generation from Biu, Malumfashi and Ihuoma to Okitipupa.
He said such set of activities will pave the way for an empowered youth that will bring Nigeria a demographic dividend include:
National Development and Growth strategy; Tech for Growth; Winning Value chains; Agriculture for Food security; Outperforming SDG targets; Creating seamless collaboration and interface in sectors such as Maritime and Aviation; Public service reforms; Values for Leadership Effectiveness and Finance sector reforms designed to ensure massive capital inflows pegged on a national asset register and ensuring that markets work.
Prof. Utomi who is also the founder of the CVL, noted that achieving the desired goals will depend on mindset shift and value re-orientation and so the National Orientation Agency needed revamping.
If values shape human progress, he insisted, and the PDP/APC era has led us to this sorry pass of a collapse of culture in Nigeria, that agency had to be the anchor for where we are going.
He further noted that poverty must be anathema everywhere in Nigeria from Sokoto and Maiduguri to Yenegoa and Oshogbo and Abakaliki.
The Prof. of Political Economy who said poverty and misery speak all languages from Hausa to Efik, Igbo, Kanuri and Yoruba lamented that most politicians have tried to divide Nigerians with ethnicity and religion forgetting that non is the child of a lesser God but trusted that God’s hands are not shortened that he cannot save, assuring that the policy errors of yesterday by leaders wrongly motivated can be corrected by a new generation of self-sacrificing leaders as we can see in the experience of countries like Malaysia, Brazil, India and China.
He said August was Africa climate change month and it provided an opportunity to mobilize the youth to clean up urban areas and reduce disease spread in cities. He said the event will flag off in Aba where Labour Party candidates will “tee off” the initiative. He also indicated that the Sultan of Sokoto has expressed willingness to collaborate with the stop Sahara initiative of Tree planting to be flagged off in Sokoto.
Assuring that a serious minded team can reach an accord with Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in one week, Utomi vowed that the University system in Nigeria must be returned to the glory years of the 1950s and 1970s when he was a Student Union Leader at UNN.
He praised the leadership of the Labour Unions for the two-day mobilization in support for ASUU, lamenting the attitude of the current government towards education and asserting that victory will come to the people
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