A political economist, Professor Pat Utomi said the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) have agreed to form a mega party that will wrestle power from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2027.
Utomi made this revelation in
an interview on Channels Television on Sunday.
He said, “It’s a really clean
start. You have to start from the premise that Nigeria has not had a political
party since 1999. And let’s be very honest with ourselves. What we have managed
is to create platforms that enable machine politics from which to grab power,
usually for the purpose of state capture. If you will want to test that, check
how much the quality of life of a Nigerian has improved since 1999.
“It’s frightening but the truth
is a matter that in 1999, a political class managed to build a certain
coalition of accommodation to keep the military out and share the spoils of
power in Nigeria and somehow did not manage to create an alignment with the
Nigerian people to improve the quality of their lives. This is why you can see
Nigeria deteriorating, becoming the poverty capital of the world, becoming the
centre of widespread violence everywhere.
“And if you want to take some
clear examples, I want anybody who is a political scientist, or economist in
Nigeria to look at where India was in 1999 and where Nigeria was in terms of
mood, violence in politics, the quality of life of people and where they both
are today in Nigeria versus India.
“In 1991, India was technically
bankrupt. Foreign Reserves could not accommodate more than three weeks of
trading. What has happened since 1999 is that India’s politics has managed to
focus on the rational engagement of a developmental state.
“If you look at the numbers
today, India is now speeding past the so-called miracle economies of South-East
Asia. Nigeria, on the other hand, has been traveling in the reverse direction.
What better explanation can there be than the fact that Nigeria has not managed
to organise the structures for political participation that can focus on the
Nigerian people and lift their lives?”
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