By Chukwudi Nweje
Renowned economist and former presidential adviser, Prof Pat Utomi, yesterday, declared that Nigeria cannot progress unless the governance structure is reorganised to make local government areas economic development centers rather than the economic drain pipes they presently are.
“It will be foolhardy to seek progress without rethinking local government areas as the level of government closest to the people. Many like myself have argued they should be structured as economic development areas and not political drain pipes.”
Utomi, who is Chairman, National Planning Committee for the Nigerian Political Summit Group, as well as Chairman of the National Consultative Front (NCFront), said this at a pre press conference ahead of the national stakeholders political conference scheduled to hold in Abuja on May 12.
He also said public office should be built on “sacrificial citizen action to advance the common good rather than the terrain of graft.”
He further said, “A general spirit of devolution of powers and greater accountability that should make public office the domain of sacrificial citizen action to advance the common good rather than the terrain of graft, goal displacement in which private goals shuffle out public ones, and the place of unbridled narcissism.”
He said the government and people of Nigeria must tell themselves the truth that the present governmental structure is not working, and berated the incumbent political class, who he said rode to power on the promise to restructure and amend the 1999 constitution, only to reneged on their promises because they benefit from the abuse of institutions, which the extant document allows.
“This has been obvious for a long time but those who arrive in power under the steam of the extant document, even when they campaigned to reform it, find the allure of state capture too tempting for the benefits of abuse of institutions of government for personal gain to remember the truth they spoke the day before. This untruth has become an open sore upon which gangrene is about to set in. To avoid the amputation that is consequent upon the next stage of this disease we must apply the only medicine that can heal it, which is the truth. Just like conscience is an open wound and only truth can heal it, Nigeria’s existential crisis of now can only be healed by truth seen from the prism of the dignity of the human person and the purging from all of a willful desire to dominate others which is the root of fascism.”
He noted that the conference to which major political office aspirants have been invited is expected to discuss the political future of Nigeria.
“Nigeria is at a crossroads. Some are warming up for 2023 elections. Others believe the Nigeria project has collapsed for all intents and purposes. Even for those running for office many do not seem to have their hands wrapped around the issues of how we can continue to live together in a way that advances the common good. The patriots’ challenge here is to stimulate rational public conversation by stakeholders on the issues that affect the constitutional future of Nigeria so that those who seek power, confronted by the extant existential challenge between life and death may see enough light to choose life that we may live. Our hope and prayer is that the healing of truth will stir our country from its presently fallen state and cause dry bones to arise and walk”, he said.