By Bayo Davids<\/p>\n
Renowned\u00a0 political economist, Professor Pat Utomi has said the coalition he is spearheading ahead of the.2027 general election is aimed at birthing a true political party, distinct from the All Progressives Congress (APC).<\/p>\n
Recall that the APC was founded in February 2013 from a merger of Nigeria’s three largest opposition parties.<\/p>\n
Utomi, one-time political adviser to President Shehu Shagari had disclosed on Monday that\u00a0 opposition parties\u2019 candidates in the 2023 presidential poll have agreed to form a mega party.<\/p>\n
The APC in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, on Monday, described Utomi as a serial promoter of mega parties that never materialized.<\/p>\n
The statement read in part \u201cAs a serial promoter of mega parties that never materialize, Prof. Pat Utomi\u2019s statement cannot be taken that seriously.\u00a0 In 2021, Prof Utomi and his collaborators disturbed the airwaves with plans to launch a people-centred ideological party under the auspices of the National Consultative Front\u00a0 to dislodge the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). That plan did not go past the news headlines”.<\/p>\n
Reacting, Utomi in a statement on Tuesday described APC’s response as evidence of progress being made.<\/p>\n
He said APC’s reaction shows rational public conversation may become possible in the Nigerian public sphere.<\/p>\n
Utomi explained “To clarify, what I have been speaking to is not the hurried coupling together of interests to create a platform for machine politics like the Daley machine in Chicago to obtain desired elections outcomes and foist state capture on a weary people. That is what came out of the 2014 effort that birthed the APC. I was witness to it and have written the first book of a trilogy on that national tragedy.<\/p>\n
“What I have been speaking to is the founding of a real political party. This is something that has eluded this fourth republic. Our efforts begin with ideation that will birth a world view of this party. Some call it ideology.<\/p>\n
“Then we will develop shared values around the approach to a people\u2019s centered political party. Next will be a structure for community-based solutions to the personal troubles of people and flow of what the people want into the policy process”.<\/p>\n
He said they aim to reach an agreement on moving the country away from elite rent-seeking and mindless corruption to production on value chains erected on regional factor endowments.<\/p>\n
In the words of the public intellectual, “The major issues we adopt such as constitutional reforms and the emphasizing the principle of subsidiarity and bottom-up people\u2019s entrepreneurial capitalism will be agreed to before people sign up for leadership roles. Can old gladiators I have called out previously have a role? If they do a mea culpa and accept that this is about Nigeria and not themselves there will be room for embrace”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bayo Davids Renowned\u00a0 political economist, Professor Pat Utomi has said the coalition he is spearheading ahead of the.2027 general election is aimed at birthing a true political party, distinct…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110153,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n