Patrick Okedinachi Utomi, born in Kaduna but of Delta state extraction, is passionate about Nigeria. Perhaps the only other Nigerian whose passion for Nigeria rivals that of Utomi was another Kaduna-born Delta Nigerian nationalist, Chukwuma Nzeogwu, whose effort to rid Nigeria of “ten percenters and others that make us ashamed of being called Nigerians” was betrayed by some of his military colleagues including Ifeajuna, Ironsi and Ojukwu who sabotaged Nzeogwu’s revolution in Lagos, Enugu and Kano.

Prof. Pat Utomi, like Nzeogwu, has a vision of good society which became more elusive the closer they came towards it despite deploying all his talents and energy towards securing a better Nigeria for Nigerians since he started his crusade in the early eighties.

He first bewitched the Shehu Shagari administration with his in-depth newspaper analysis of the state of the economy, an endeavour that earned him a place in Shagari’s cabinet. Even after the collapse of the administration, he was given a chance to put into practice all his theoretical postulations at V/ Wagon Nigeria Limited which, under his control, suffered the same fate as other assembly plants of the period.

Utomi, a resourceful professor of political economy, is perhaps the face of Nigeria’s public intellectual home and abroad. He belongs to many professional bodies, including the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, (NIPR), Institute of Directors (IOD), Nigeria Economic Summit Group and Nigeria Economic Society. He has served in various private-sector associations, including the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), the National Council of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, and the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA).

He has carried the crusade for a better Nigeria through intellectual debate beyond the shores of Nigeria, especially at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, and Chatham House in the UK. 

He has to his credit several books and journal articles on economic underdevelopment, including, ‘Nigeria as an Economic Power House,’ ‘Crafting the New Nigeria – Confronting the Challenges,’ Nigeria ‘Changes as Prospects,’ ‘Values and Economic Stagnation in Africa: A Paradox of Poverty in Nigeria,’ ‘Managing Uncertainty: Competition and Strategy in Emerging Economies,’ ‘Critical Perspectives in Political Economy and Management’ etc.

The labour of Utomi has not gone unacknowledged.  For his pains, it has been honours without end.  Numerous awards. He has been nominated and voted for by the public as one of Nigeria’s top ten Living Legends in the Vanguard/Silverbird Television Awards, Great Nigeria Lives of the 20th Century and Who is who in Africa.

Unfortunately, Utomi’s theories have not reflected positively on the state of our economy.

The record of his intervention in politics has, however, not been any less dismal. But this has not diminished his enthusiasm for a vision of a better society. Thus, he last week once again came up with his “Big Tent Coalition Shadow Government,” over which he declared himself ‘Leader of Opposition.’ The initiative, which is to serve as critique of the President Bola Tinubu’s administration, was, according to him, dictated by his desire to save Nigeria’s democracy following his inability to stop the gale of defections from Labour and PDP, where membership of his new coalition was selected.

The task before the group would be to regularly scrutinise government actions, identify policy failures, and propose alternative solutions in key areas- economy, education, healthcare, infrastructure, law and order, and constitutional reforms of the present government.

These are no doubt noble objectives except that the Information Minister, Mohammed Idris, has said, the idea of a so-called ‘shadow government’ is an aberration as “Nigeria is not a parliamentary system where such a system is practiced.” Many seem to agree with the minister that “Our bicameral legislature amply features members of the opposition, and it should be the right place to contest meaningful ideas for nation-building.”

Besides government opposition, Utomi’s current search for a vision of good society seems threatened by the choice of his crusading team drawn from opposition PDP democrats without democratic ethos and the ‘obidients,’ an unthinking mob Obi, as the falconer, cannot control.

For instance, Dele Farotimi, who will lead the Ombudsman and Good Governance portfolio, is a man many of his critics believe talks more than he thinks in order to prove his valour. Not too long ago, he was ready to publicly disrobe Chief Afe Babalola, an elder statesman, over unproven allegations, just as he, on account of some bad eggs, didn’t mind pulling down his own noble profession without which we all return to a state of nature where life is ’nasty, brutish, and short.’ And this was a self-confessed ‘obidient’ who, in search of ‘Obi’s imaginary ‘stolen mandate,’ recklessly declared without proof before his American audience, “in a few days’ time a convicted drug baron will be sworn in as the president of my country.”

Before Prof. Utomi’s latest gamble, most of his past efforts at building a coalition in pursuit of a new vision of good society failed. He contested the 2007 presidential election on the platform of the obscure African Democratic Party and failed. Following his initial setback, he formed another party, the Social Democratic Mega Party, on which platform he tried to contest the 2011 presidential elections before withdrawing at the last minute.

But in 2012, he joined the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) “because the progressive opposition in Nigeria has been unable to bring itself under one umbrella while the enemies of the progressive struggle are disciplined enough to coalesce under the conservative/retrogressive Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).”

Utomi is a rolling stone. His attempt at contesting a senatorial seat in Delta under PDP failed. I have heard him declare publicly that the APC manifesto was drafted on the dining table in his house. Indeed, Utomi was declared as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the 2019 general election in Delta State by a faction of the party until it was overturned by the national working committee of the party.

In January 2018, Utomi floated the Nigeria Intervention Movement (NIM), with former Cross River State governor, Donald Duke, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Charles Soludo, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, Tafawa Balewa, former Education minister, Oby Ezekwesili, former Information minister, Frank Nweke Jnr, Col. Abubakar Umar (retd), Ayo Obe, Rabiu Ishyaku Rabiu, former presidential adviser, Akin Osuntokun as members.

The group described itself as a pro-democracy movement and pressure group of like-minded Nigerians, “Concerned that left to their schemes and antics, a class of entrenched leaders will lead Nigeria into a state of indescribable human misery, characterised by death, hunger, disease, illiteracy and manipulation.” They decided to create a third political force, a platform to mobilise all citizens of goodwill and conscience towards engendering a new political system and culture in Nigeria. The intervention movement brought no relief to Nigerians.

Restless Utomi in 2020 and Naaba formed a group to lead mass action against corruption and insecurity in Nigeria. They wanted Nigerians to rise up and put an end to the situation where the president was being caged and his office being run by some unelected proxies and power

traders operating without any form of mandate from the Nigerian people. Chasing out that clique of ruinous political cartels ravaging our commonwealth enabled by their self- serving capture of our Government and State. The result was not different.

Then ahead of the 2023 general elections, Utomi was among prominent Nigerians that established a third force, Rescue Nigeria Project (RNP), ostensibly to give Nigerians an alternative platform, other than the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic

Party (PDP). Other founding members of RNP included former governor of Kwara State, Ahmed Abdulfatai, Prof. Tunde Adeniran, former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, Senator Lee Maeba, Usman Bugaje, Prof. Attahiru Jega, Amb. Nkoyo Toyo, Yomi Awoniyi, Dr. Rose Idi Danladi, Dr. Sadiq Gombe, among others. They set out to fight “the high level of nepotism and lack of inclusiveness” which had given rise to agitations by different ethnic groups.

“We want to salvage this country and see how we can fix the mess. We want to set a template and key criteria leaders must have before they can attain any political position.” Abdulfatai had hardly finished delivering this keynote address when Utomi was discovered to be gunning for the presidential ticket of the Labour Party, which he later ceded to Peter Obi.

While the closer we came towards Utomi’s vision of a good society, the more elusive it became, it has not been all doom for Nigeria’s foremost professor of political economy and management at a personal level. He is the chairman of close to two dozen Nigerian companies and a shareholder in many others.