thought provoking words

Business tycoon, an entrepreneur, 2007 Presidential candidate and political reformer, Prof. Pat. Okedinachi Utomi has accused the educated middle-class in Nigeria of playing the ostrich while the country is steadily decaying. He made this statement in a dinner organized by his friends to celebrate his contributions towards nation building at Golden Gate Restaurant, Ikoyi on July 10, 2009.

He further stated that the present situation of things in the country has made Nigeria the worst place to live compare to how it was in the 70s, whereas in most societies, the natural trend is an improvement to the development of the society.

On account of these, he called for an alliance for progress where people from private sectors, civil societies and nation-builder politicians to come together for the purpose of sustaining progress in our beloved country no matter who is in control of political power. The effort is of necessity non – partisan, he said.

Prof. Utomi outlined four vehicles around which the alliance for progress should work in order to build institutions which will sustain democratic ethos, wealth creation, security, law and order. The first is LIFFE, which is lawyers interested in free and fair elections presently coordinated by Ruddy Ezeani, a member of the Lagos Bar. LIFFE has a working council which includes senior advocates like Wole Olanipekun, Olisa Agbakoba, OCJ Okocha as well as the incumbent NBA President, Rotimi Akeredolu while other Senior lawyers like General I.B.M. Haruna are also considering the invitation to serve on the council alongside Ahmadu Abubakar. The goal of LIFFE is to have about 5,000 lawyers dedicating their time to monitor from voters registration to post-election petition resolution, as well as to assign at least two lawyers to every ward in the country.

The second vehicle is Citizens United to resist ballot box rigging. This requires recruiting thousands of people to realize that their future depends on the fairness of the vote and they are to defend with their might or where necessary, their blood, the ballot box. This group must have the orientation of freedom fighters passionately interested in liberating their people from bad governance. The third vehicle is the committee on voter’s education which recruits its membership mainly from the academia, the Clergy and Civil Society organizations. It is designed to run programmes to get voters to focus on issues, the characters of the candidates, their competence and their antecedents, and to bring the contents of Nigeria’s electioneering progress into line with what obtains in decent societies where candidates talk in town hall meetings and answer to queries from voters instead of the caricature that obtains in Nigeria.

The fourth vehicle which is the council for recruiters of middle – class persons into politics has a primary objective of educating Nigeria’s middle-class about the dangers of the current practice where politics is relegated to people who have nothing to lose. The far extreme of the spectrum which excludes the majority of people was significantly the reason for leaders’ discrimination from the people. He noted that politicians failed to focus on issues of everyday well being for the things that affects everybody which is why in most developed countries, the politicians are neither the very rich nor the very poor but the educated people.

Prof. Utomi also paid tribute to the founding fathers of the present Nigeria who he said did not amass wealth but exemplified the true meaning of leadership just as he condemned the current dispensation where a few thousands suck up the country’s resources.