Nigerian state constructed by politicians not to serve interest of Nigerians, but to encourage corruption_ Utomi
The Convener of the National Consultative Front (NCFront), Professor Pat Utomi has said that the reasons for Nigeria’s current economic challenges is due to the fact that the Nigerian state was constructed by politicians not to serve the best interest of the people, but to encourage corruption.
Utomi made this assertion in an interview with The Morning Show, ARISE NEWS tv on Tuesday, where he discussed the work of the NCFront with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the Labour Party (LP), and the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) as the political parties are focusing on creating a merger that will build a strong political party in Nigeria.
Utomi, as he spoke on the stunted economic growth and challenges faced in the nation, said that while he was interviewing civil servants for his book, a respondent said that civil servants do not work because the political party that come into power does not have an agenda for the government organisation in place to boost growth and development.
“The truth of the matter, the naked truth, is that what is happening in Nigeria is inevitable because the Nigerian State is not constructed to serve the Nigerian people. It is constructed to be bargaining between politicians looking to share booty. Because that is what it is, you will have all this corruption,” he said.
He said the reason for Nigeria’s lack of growth, and the reason for several multinationals leaving the country, is majorly because of the blatant corruption that has been displayed by Nigerian politicians and those in government.
Utomi further said, “Nigeria is not a working democracy, and part of the effort of building a strong and viable political party is to make our democracy work first and foremost, before other people begin to think about another election. The problem with Nigeria is that we’ve fought in terms of elections. We go through a mess that is called an election, we say okay, let’s wait for the next one. No, that’s not how countries grow and develop. Countries grow and develop, first of all, by founding political parties.
“I can say without any feeling of wrong that we don’t have a political party in Nigeria today. What we have managed to couple together since 1999 have been platforms for machine politics where the game is about just grabbing power rightly or wrongly and sharing spoils.”
