Victor EzejaCHAIRMAN of the National Consultative Front (NCFront), Prof. Pat Utomi has called on Nigerians living abroad to make commitment towards entrenching new leadership that would bring progress.
He said this is imperative as the current structure seems to be failing, given the level of poverty, insecurity, poor health care and education system in the country.
Prof. Utomi made the call while speaking at a Christmas dinner organised in honor of he and his wife, Prof. Ifeoma Utomi, by a group of Nigerian professionals in Chicago and Northern Indiana.
NCFront, also regarded as a ‘Shadow Cabinet’, is a coalition of various political parties and civil society organisations, formed with the intention of causing a change in political governance for good of the country.
Utomi said the Nigerians in Diaspora should see it as a duty to make conscious effort in engaging to ensure change in the country as their Indian colleagues did which brought Prime Minister Narenda Modi to power, thereby changing the old style Indian politics.
Utomi who is also the founder of Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL), urged Nigerians to demand that political leaders should be accountable for their conducts in office.
He said Nigeria has been wrecked by wicked political leaders since the return to civil rule in 1999, making the country the poverty capital of the world, situating it at the bottom of almost all MDG and SDG indicators.
He said, “we must face the future and not allow the wrongs of yesterday distract us. We cannot but work to ensure that all who made yesterday a horror story should not be allowed to pollute the future.’’
Utomi remarked that while intellectuals in the country continue their call for exclusion of all who have held elective positions since 1999 from participating in the 2023 elections, he however, said he would prefer that the people in street protests and in polling booths ‘outlaw’ the politics of self love and nauseating narcissism which has characterized the polity for more than two decades and impeded progress and development in the country.
Utomi further stated that any politician who could not explain any significant asset traceable to him, in the way Afenifere leader Chief Ayo Adebanjo has done, should stay away from politics or risk street uprisings as consequence for corrupt practices.
“They may think they have looted the Treasury enough and abused Security votes enough to have a war chest to buy the streets but they will soon see what is coming to them,” Utomi told the audience.
On the introduction of a Shadow government Utomi explained that the team is practically working to ensure that the ideals of democracy are entrenched in the system, adding that priority of the movement which is also an alternative government platform was poverty eradication through making Nigeria the world’s next great factory and a focus on education and healthcare in a way without precedent in human history while allowing Markets to stimulate a prosperity paradox that will generate a massive infrastructure boom that would relegate the China and Dubai experiences as examplars.
The renowned Political Economist and seasoned and entrepreneur said the shadow team advocates a development strategy anchored on driving dominance of global value chains built around factor endowments in the country and the latent comparative advantage accruing there from.
He also said part of the Shadow government ideas is to project the culture of accountability to the people on a continuous basis.
He disclosed that the already functional shadow teams which are coordinated from his office cover the economy, finance, health education and Agriculture.
Prof Utomi urged the professionals in diaspora to deploy their skills in development of the country.
“I am here to put you on notice that your skills, networks of contacts and love for the mother country will be required to get our country to where it must be going in a big hurry.”
In response to a question by one of the Doctors at the dinner, Utomi said the people can reclaim their country easily by ensuring that stolen money from corrupt politicians are kept out of elections by a combination of the work of INEC and Civil Society and making debates central to the electoral process.
He said it was regrettable that President Buhari was setting back the hands of the clock by failing to accent to the proposed electoral reforms passed by the National Assembly.
He said it is hypocritical for Buhari on one hand to join the U.S. President, Joe Biden in a summit on Democracy and promise Eldorado in 2023 elections but with another hand subvert what can make those elections less subject to rigging.
Utomi whose current tour of the Americas will include a talk at the New York area African Economic Group monthly session for January and presentations at the New York Stock Exchange on prospects of an African economic surge as a result of AFcFTA, plans to meet several Nigerian groups in the US Midwest and NorthEast.
Prof. Utomi who is also Chairman of PAFTRAC, the African Union’s private sector Think Tank on Trade and Investments with its Secretariat at the Afrexim Bank in Cairo, plans to showcase how AFcFTA can be the path to Nigeria becoming the next factory of the world, as he invites power companies into the Nigerian market to generate the powering of that expected growth surge that will actualize that prosperity paradox of private funding of infrastructure he has repeatedly pointed to, using Australia as example.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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