Prof Pat Utomi is a political economist, rights activist and a former presidential aspirant.
In this interview, he speaks on the problem with Nigeria, why the country has not advanced progressively, leadership failure, Diaspora challenge and the way forward, among other issues. Excerpts:
Unarguably, your generation benefited so much from Nigeria. As a graduate, we learnt that you got a brand new Peugeot vehicle, your generation spent almost nothing going to the university, getting scholarships to Harvard, to Cambridge on the bills of the state. The country is depreciating by the day now. How did we get here?
We can make light of it and joke, but it’s not a joking matter. Fifteen years ago or there about, I think, I wrote an open piece in The Guardian, titled: ‘The generation that left town’, and what I was trying to reflect on was, that the generation in which in a country, you have invested enormously into in terms of quality education and all of that, that generation has never really governed Nigeria. That generation, when they could have governed, the soldiers who were in power governed in a way that made many of the people from my generation opt out. I disagreed with them, opted to leave town and literally, the Diaspora we know of today is the effect of the frustration of the educated elite from my generation with Nigeria. And my argument, which is part of the reason that I am building up this so-called ‘New Tribe,’ is to get a heavy Diaspora ‘Give back’, to say, look, ‘ask not what your country can do for you, because your country did something for you before’. We were on yesterday, we had a cardiologist in Atlanta, Dr Nath Ndoye; Dr Adisa, a surgeon; Dr Emeruwa from California, what a comprehensive idea that they have come up with within the New Tribe umbrella to give back to Nigeria – to change the healthcare system, all completely free. So, maybe that’s the way my generation is paying back for leaving town. But I agree with you, there is a lot of accounting to be done, and those of us who chose to stay and fight the rot, we have paid a price, but there is no price you can pay that is enough for building a country. Seventy per cent of black doctors in America are Nigerians. Ten per cent of pharmacists in Maryland are Nigerians. Nigerians are now considered perhaps the most well off ethnic nationality group in all of North America. The thing is, how do we transfer home these accomplishments outside Nigeria? How do we now reverse the brain drain and make it become brain gain; it is possible, and we are working very hard at it. Today’s question is a leadership failure problem. Look, we have converted what is our biggest strength, our diversity, into a weakness. You take that diversity and just look at culture and selling culture from different parts of Nigeria. What that means? There is restaurant in Washington now called The Continent, established by three Nigerians, Igbo and Yoruba, they came together to establish that fantastic restaurant. I took President Obasanjo there when he came to visit last month, and he is still talking about the food we ate there. Look, Nigeria has great strength in its diversity, but weak, horrible politicians have chosen to exploit it in a manner where emotion has struck reasoning and the gap between us and them is widening every day. You look at the America, it’s a melting pot. Why don’t they say you are a Korean, Vietnamese, you are an Italian-American, you are Irish-American, because those who led America, its founding fathers had such great vision and wrote one of the greatest constitutions in human history, and built institutions that allowed for that melting pot culture to enable Americans govern the greatest people on the planet. I believe leadership can help us turn things around in our country. I’m willing to go to the firing squad if it will stop the mess in Nigeria. And I assure you I’m willing to do that.
Where do we go from here? When are you people leaving the scene for younger generation to have their own input, a new style to infuse in leadership?
It was George Orwell who said that ‘those who elect corrupt politicians are not victims, they are accomplices’. So, part of what has happened to Nigeria is that there is this middle that has become complicit. Your generation is complicit. I wrote this book. ‘Why Not’? I talked about state capture, keeping fascism and the criminal hijack of politics in Nigeria. And the central theme of that book is essentially a complicit middle – your generation could have acted to get rid of these people a long time ago, you mentioned that I was in the presidential advisory position at 27, that is correct. It did not come from godfather or anything. I just showed up and John Momoh and co, I think were young fellows on television back then, the Director-General said to Mohammed Ibrahim, ‘who is that guy in television’? Then I was talking on television and the president and vice said ‘who is that boy’? Can we find him? Look, we had leaders that thought that way in those days, but today, now all you think of is ‘who is from my village, who will do this or that for me’? That is what we need to change in this country. If we change that, our country is reclaimable, we can win. In 1991, India was technically bankrupt, three weeks trading money. Everything was going South, and today, India is the big economy in the world, literally that everybody is turning to. In the next 25 years, they would be the second largest economy in the world. If India can do it, we can do it.
Where do we start from, not only in politics, but all round of our national life?
It’s more fundamental, even more fundamental than public sector private sector. But let me stick on both sides quickly. On the side of public sector, private sector and all of that, what I have advocated for years, and again, it’s not extraordinarily original. In 1985, there was a conference in Nairobi, Kenya talking about a tripartite approach to governing, where the private sector, the public sector, and the social enterprise sector, as we now call it, governed almost like equals and hold each other accountable. That led to what was called the enabling environment forum which gave birth to the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, which unfortunately did not go the way the ideas were supposed to go. So, that is one in terms of the structure of governing that can change things. But more importantly, the biggest challenge we have is culture, it has collapsed in Nigeria, values shape human progress. How do we get values revolution? Institutions are critical for human progress, if we can commit to building stronger institutions that push back on people who do not do right, and the rule of law is fully in place. Look at our judiciary, our judiciary is a laughing stock. Is a joke! No country can make real progress without a judiciary that you can rely on. Look at other institutions, whether it is INEC or this or that, they are weak. How do we ensure that we build strong institutions and that have values that really ensure that character matters and that people of character can show a light. It is completely doable, I am absolutely confident, because I have seen it happen in human history. Look at the example of Singapore and corruption and even the ideas that I suggested, the so-called roadmap of the last administration, the Bolsonaro familiar idea and how Lula da Silva implemented that in Brazil, but we didn’t manage to implement it here like it should have been implemented, because of our values. Ultimately, values shape human progress. When we have the right values, and ensure that people of character and commitment to service are in positions of public authority, our country will turn around, we have ingredients, the human capital that it takes to show the way. With right characters in leadership, with strong institutions in place, we shall win. All hope is not lost.
