A political economist and convener of the Big Tent political coalition, Professor Pat Utomi, has said Nigeria is facing what he described as a near-existential crisis.
He said Nigeria is currently besieged by poverty, insecurity, infrastructural decay and corruption that have hampered its growth.
Speaking in Lagos, Utomi decried the deepening poverty, particularly in rural communities, where he cited alarming figures showing 75 per cent of rural Nigerians now live in chronic deprivation.
He remarked that hunger has become so widespread that statistical validation is almost redundant, saying, “Walk through Ibadan or Maiduguri and witness the new destitution.”
Utomi noted that despite early warnings from the coalition’s shadow agriculture team, the government’s inaction has worsened the crisis, lamenting that, “Food aid agencies are now preparing to rescue a nation that should be feeding the world.”
He advocates for private-sector-driven agriculture value chains, land reform, and engagement of universities in agricultural extension services.
Utomi added, “Insecurity has become both a human rights issue and a development impediment. The farmer cannot farm, the traveller cannot travel, and the investor cannot invest.”
He proposed decentralised policing and the revival of the Forest Rangers scheme, while calling for a security model that empowers local actors and reorients policing towards service rather than repression.
While speaking on the manufacturing and trade sector, he emphasised the untapped potential of Nigeria’s regional factor endowments.
The former presidential aspirant proposed a strategy aligned with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to boost industrialisation. This strategy includes sector-specific industrial parks in each geopolitical zone, powered by private capital and de-risked through government policy. “We can be the new India,” he asserted.
He, however, accused the current administration of perpetuating “state capture” through opaque contracts and misplaced priorities, citing the controversial Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway as a case in point.
He stressed that The Big Tent’s education and health teams, led by Prof. Awuzie and Dr. Adebayo, respectively, have developed strategic frameworks to transform these sectors.
Utomi lamented that despite producing a significant portion of the Black medical workforce in the U.S., Nigerian doctors fled due to poor conditions and collapsed infrastructure. “What future does a nation have when its teachers and doctors are fleeing in droves?” he fumed.
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