PAT UTOMI: NIGERIA 2007 AND THE EMPOWERED CASUALTIES

Nigeria is obviously at cross road, marred by a reckless political class, bundled by a garrison commander in the name of a President, and constantly conned by politicians who have no idea that power is exercised with responsibility. In Nigeria it is a season of victories and disputes in the political circle, a season of apologies, a season of declarations, a season of ‘look my way, I am a saint. I am not like them’ and ‘look at them they are the thieves’. A season for those holding the umbrella (PDP) and those wilding the broom (AC) to sweep away the umbrella men. It is really a season of accusations-the election fever that follow politicians’ endless and egoistic battle for the soul of our nation. The President fired a shot against the major opposition AC (Action Congress) led by the Vice President with the acronym ‘Alliance for Corruption’. The vice president fired back; the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a Poverty Development Party. It is a season when court rulings are celebrated and the same breached without consequences. While both present the thesis and the anti-thesis, obviously, the synthesis is that of the masses and our judgment is that it is a season for the casualties. It is a country, my dear country, where George Orwell will definitely finish the unfinished work in ‘ANIMAL FARM’.

The victims, the casualties are the poor masses, me and you who have been driven far across the borders to suffer indignation in the hands of immigration officers and some chronic racists. The casualties are the traders whose little money has lost purchasing power due to inflation and harsh business environment. The casualties, the lonely casualties -those voices we may never hear again, are those who died in motor accidents because of bad roads, those who got killed by armed robbers who lost out in the unemployment battle with hunger. Those pensioners, who gave their all to this nation, yet stand endlessly in queues begging for their hard earned money. The casualties are the teaming Nigerian youths who stay under rain and sun at Walter Carrington Avenue begging visitors (Foreign missions) in their own country to allow them to leave this fire called Nigeria. Among these promising breed of young men and women are found, graduates who by virtue of lack of engagement in their fields of study; are loosing the finer parts of their academic training. Those beautiful young ladies whom hardship has driven into prostitution are also there. Nigerian youths keep transversing seas and oceans, dangerous forests and deserts to escape from this grave of a home in search of a greener pasture. Many get to their destinations; others perish in the deserts and get drowned at the sea. Petroleum supply has remained top in our importation list and electricity supply the most epileptic in the continent, making many families unhappy possessors of generating sets that best pollute the already polluted environment. Nigeria is once again under a siege.

Forgive my style but the only business that thrives in Nigeria is the business of politics, where men who never knew what it means to do business are the controllers of the economy. Looters of treasury are celebrated and the vicious circle is entrenched in the mentality of an average citizen. Corruption has become the rule of the game rather than the exception. In spite of the roaring and posturing of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), those who control its operations are the architects of corruption. The campaign office of the Vice President recently questioned the multi-billion naira business of the seating President; who as at 1998 when he came out from prison had only 20,000 naira in his account. Mr. President responded that he borrowed 2Billion naira from a bank. In eight straight years, this borrowed money exponentially increased to a thousand fold. What a business environment, where only the President’s business witnesses a boom? Nothing could be farther from the truth or did Mr. President use Nigeria as collateral? (Probably the Petroleum ministry under him).

Is it not absurd that within the last eight years this country that generated its highest revenue ever and still lavish in poverty with untold hardship among the citizenry? Is it not even more dumbfounding, that Mr. President woke up one morning in a desperate bid to deal with his Vice and declared the former’s seat vacant? It took some wise counsels for the government to understand that the military man in President Obasanjo is not used to reading constitutions. Again, this action was at the prompting of a lame party structure whose officers are concerned more about getting settled by the President than looking into his eyes. Is it not absurd? Is it not absurd that a seating governor is kidnapped and those who perpetrated the evil were rewarded with heavy police security around them when many Nigerians perish for lack of security?

To borrow the words of Sen. Femi Okuruonmo, AC (Action Congress) like PDP represents the same structure, the same culture of corruption and subjugation of the citizens’ needs and rights. The two parties are ideological twins separated only by personal political differences and more strongly bonded by the creed of relative individual aggrandizement.

But the casualties are not only those who died in the war, they include also the emissaries of war. Yes, the ultimate casualty of this mess will definitely be these hawks in the corridor of power. This is the birth of a new season, when the present casualties must rise in unison and change the hands of time. This season is a season for ordinary Nigerians, the casualties, to reclaim their lost ground through their treasured vote. If our generation must see the light at the end of the tunnel, then we must turn to embrace new faces that hold those precious values of leadership as stewardship precious. Prof. Pat Utomi represents that hope, that aspiration, that yearning for a country whose leadership is driven by commitment, competence, accountability, transparency, humility and service.

2007 general election is decisive for the future of our country and those who care about its outcome would need to make informed choices. Many Nigerians have given up on the country and have taken to political disengagement. Prof. Pat Utomi calls it ‘Hope in Recession’. In a well articulated article in one of the Nigerian dailies, Sen. Udo Udoma emphasized that the power of one vote in a democracy is so fundamental that only that one can make the whole difference. If we are to re-live 1999 and 2003, will you vote (General) Obasanjo? If we are to re-live 1983-1985, will you vote for (General) Buhari? Can we trust Alhaji Abubakar Atiku with his rhetoric? Let us embrace the future with hope, action and not just resignation. Those who keep criticizing the system without making any attempt to change it would take responsibility for the evil that await us. A vote for Pat Utomi is a guarantee for the future, for progressive politics and for a government to which that home call to its numerous citizens abroad will be an irrevocable vocation and whose bonding with the poor masses will be a covenant of liberation and empowerment. If we cannot vote abroad, we can influence those at home to vote wisely.

MY PREFERENCE 4 UTOMI PRESIDENCY

PUT ON YOUR SEAT BELT!!!So many of my friends ask me on which side of the political divide do I fall into? My answer is that there are no political divides in Nigeria as that concept would be referring to the Right, Left, Center, Center Right, Center Left and as many of such categories that follow ideological leanings in western political thought and practice. I am as such on the fence, more for lack of choice than for lack of position. When there are no positions, what you get are accidental groupings that disintegrate as soon as differential interests manifest. In our jungle democracy what obtains actually is a concentration on winning elections. The consequence is that winning elections become the ends and not the means of democracy. Having lost out in seeking ideological leanings reflected in party structures, I am now a candidate-driven democrat. Pat Utomi is one person that Nigerians need as a matter of urgency. May be you are yet to know him.

If you have never believed me, this is your last chance to believe that a revolution is going on in Nigeria. The chief revolutionary is Prof. Pat Utomi. Pat is full of humanity, he is a man who through diligence and hard work earned for himself the admiration of all value driven Nigerians and even those who hate him for not trading the 'usual road' of unholy compromise, acknowledge that here is the man for today's Nigeria. When others are busy buying crowds in the big stadium, Pat is in the villages talking with the deprived, he is found among the market women encouraging and learning from them. When others float NGOs to seek government patronage, Pat is building a Center for Values in Leadership to make sure that my mindset and yours is not infected by the diseases of our villains past and present. When others are musing about creating ministries to take care of Niger Delta, Pat is busy constructing a road map in which the Niger Delta people will work themselves out of the situation. When others are buying and stock piling arms for elections, Pat is building the army of servant-leaders in the street, servant leaders in the schools, servant leaders in businesses, servant leaders in government, servant leaders among musicians, actors and actresses. He is the man who knows that everybody is a leader and that factor underlies every sincere approach to development.

The shepherd looks for his sheep and not vice versa. For those in Nigerian politics today the reverse is exactly the same. I bet you, Pat has gone to rural areas to look for his sheep because for a nation whose 75% of its population live in rural areas, mounting rallies in the cities and paying crowds marks the laziness of those who seek to shepherd to look for their sheep. Pat found me and I am sure he will also find you. ECCO LA MIA PREFERENZA!!! (ITALIAN)BEHOLD MY PREFERENCE. BUT BUT BUT: WE ARE THE ACTORS NOT THE SPECTATORS. VOTE FOR PAT UTOMI, CAMPAIGN FOR PAT UTOMI, HE WILL PAY YOU BACK BY GIVING BACK THE POWER TO YOU AND I. HE IS THE FACE OF A NEW NIGERIA

If I am not driving you too far, I suggest you just go further with two or three clicks at www.utomi2007.com, www.europe4nigeria.com, www.utominotes.com, www.nairaland.com and many more sites. Make sure you share with me your discoveries.

MY FRUSTRATIONS

So many are my frustrations with our beloved country Nigeria. They might not be different from yours because we are telling the same story from different points of view. Locked up in the web of identity crises and an ultimate search for where I truly belong, my heart and head are so separated by differences in desire as much as rage. My heart longs for my fatherland, where I was born and brought up, where the cheers in the neighbourhood bring an unknown joy, where the language I speak is part of me from origin, where the song I sang were those of my ancestors, where the dreams I dreamt were those of progress, where communal humanity enriches our collectivity and individuality, where I greet and acknowledge greetings from all. Disappointments is all that I see, as leadership fail and citizens praise corruption, admire arrogance and demonstrate resignation and weakness. Waisted are the labours of our heroes past, yet we can be heroes for the next generation.

Yet my head, that lone ranger is more at home with the West, where the basic comforts of life are assured, where the dignity of human person is sacrosanct, where the infrastructures appear to be wonderfully fixed by the arms of the creator, where the police protect the rich and the poor, where hunger exist in the media presentation of the Southern divide of the world, where the leadership is answerable to the people and where majority of the citizens have relatively comfortable jobs or conducive environment to do business. They are reaping the labours of their heroes past. My rage towards the West is by no means diminished by the above, the so called civilized West, where individualism threatens human relationship and constrains us to a mechanistic co-habitation, the West where colours determine acceptance and integration a paternal extension of the good will of the West.

My spirit succumbs in pain because laced with the milk of human kindness, with the brotherhood we share, we could achieve more. We can save ourselves embarrassment of race bias, of doing odd jobs with advanced educational background, of blaming immigration laws just by thinking home, yes, by looking at our frustrations from the actors perspective because those who hold our future hostage, who make it impossible to think that things can change for the better will sooner than later know, when my mindset and yours turn to those precious values which permeate and transform all social relations, that the end has come for the masqueraders.

WHEN HOME CALLS

Life is an accumulation of experience, a constant growth in knowledge, a plunge into the unknown, yet the invisibility of tomorrow is resolved by the provision of some 'safety nets' for the shape we want the future to take. Our knowledge base is thus a spring board, a bridge upon which the pathway leading to a sustainable future is constructed. How I admire Nigerians, the boldness of their aspiration, the wealth of their knowledge and the richness of their experience. How I bemoan the poverty of our action and the levity of our attitude, the pessimism of our hearts, the ability of formulating and postulating policies and the inefficiency that double cross our intentions. This blog is meant to stimulate our thought towards an action based approach to the resolution of our personal problems with our father land. It focuses on the life of those in diaspora and shares the experience of those at home who want to leave that country at the blow of the first whistle. We can share our experience and remember that the north and south pole do not define the anscestral blood in our vains. Home ultimately calls and the time to answer the call is not far...