Nigeria will continue to wallow in poverty, insecurity and massive unemployment unless the government divest itself from a consuming nation to a productive one.
Chief Executive of Officer of Centre for Value and Leadership, Prof. Pat Utomi gave the warning in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
He was guest speaker at the Podium, a socio-political platform for discourse on national issues of importance organised by the Akwa Ibom Christian Assembly (ACA) and the Spiritual Fathers of Faith Forum.
The platform is a rallying point for pastors and church leaders for participation in the political process and advocacy for good governance and the institution of righteous and transparent governance.
Speaking on the theme: ‘When silence is not golden’, the former presidential candidate lamented that the country remained poor despite her huge natural resources coupled with oil wealth, because the political class had showed excessive commitment to the sharing of the nation’s revenue than in production of wealth.
He said any nation that doesn’t produce wealth but share wealth could not progress and that this was the major problem Nigeria has faced in decades which successive governments have not been able to tackled and solved.
“The point of focus in our nation should be production and not revenue sharing. Unfortunately in Nigeria because of the oil our political class has this mind of sharing; what is our share of the fat account on oil earning? But revenue doesn’t create wealth in a sustainable way. A typical example is the north who have more and more revenue than any other parts of the country through the many local governments which they have had opportunity to create, but the more they get the revenue, the more they become poorer and poorer.”