Political economist and Founder/CEO of Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL) Prof. Pat Utomi has described the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as election machines and not political parties, saying both institution lacked ideology.
Utomi made this known while speaking on a programme monitored on Channels Television.
According to him, the ruling party only wants to grab power and does not have any intention about improving the lives of Nigerians.
He said to improve Nigeria, anyone that would be elected as President in 2023 must be able to double the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the next five years for the country to come out of the current economic morass.
He said other political parties besides APC and PDP plan to form a coalition to produce the best candidate in 2023, whose focus would be to transform the country.
“Anybody that cannot double Nigeria’s GDP in the next five years should not think of ruling this country. The new President will double the GDP in five years and double it again in three years,” he said.
Utomi said Nigeria would experience turnaround if a serious-minded person is elected as president, who would also be surrounded by serious minded people.
“The challenge is how do you redeem the people? Nigerians need to be rescued economically but they need leadership that has compassion. The people who have been ruling do not have compassion for the people because the ruling elite live in luxury while those in their neigbourhood are dying.
“We can create employment for all the graduates and pay them N100, 000 each by deploying many youths to the field where they will plant trees to stem the encroachment of the Sahara Desert and the world will provide the money to pay these youths.
“We can stem corruption and review downwards the emoluments paid to members of the National Assembly. Politics is service; not a profession, but today the money spent on the National Assembly is greater than money budgeted for education. Under the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo less money was paid to the National Assembly but today they their numeration has increased.” Utomi said.
He described the APC as a group of people that wanted power, saying after the party won the election, the actions of its senior party members showed that they did not come to serve the people but to seize power and what accrues to it.
“APC has no shared values. It is not a political party. It is election machine. We need to work with people who believe in something. Nigerian politics has become a place for big men. We want to change the situation because we are not served well. We need to elect the right leaders. APC is talking about consensus candidate, but democracy is about contesting and contestation, but both APC and PDP rig election,” he said.
Chinedu Eze
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 Prof. Pat Utomi has described the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as election machines</p>
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