Professor of political economy and former presidential candidate, Prof. Pat Utomi, said the proposed mega party will be a movement of values, and not a typical political party.
Utomi stated this while speaking in an interview with Arise Television on Tuesday.
He said, “It is very easy to play propaganda politics and put people against one another, so this new tribe is about values, human solidarity, etc. “My first point of call is to create this new tribe, and the new tribe is not a political party. It is a movement focused on values that shape human progress. In this, we understand, look, this politician settles against one another by talking about ethnicity, religion, and all of that.
“Nobody has become richer because of the ethnic group he comes from or has had a better life because of the religion he comes from. So they use it, and in this age, it’s very easy to play propaganda politics and put people against one another. In the end, everybody loses.
“We play a zero-sum game. So let’s accept certain fundamental values: the dignity of the human, human solidarity, and work ethic—all of those things,” he said.
The political economist further stated, “As people begin to walk their talk and live in this domain, you can say to these people that the only way that you can change the world is through a political party.
“So we have an initiative to then say, Here is a political platform in development that’s values-driven, that has to have an ideology and goals that people can be held accountable for. All of this must be in place and tested before the people.
“It can happen fairly quickly—more than people realize. Look at what happened in Senegal. It can become more challenging, depending on how the young people in Senegal manage it.”
Uromi noted that the people are so fed up with the political class in Nigeria, adding that, “I mean, somebody gave me an analysis and said, ‘Nigeria will be in popular insurrection within the next four months,’ the way things are going. Somebody sent me this analysis from Nigeria just two weeks ago, and I’m saying to myself, We’ve got to stop our country.
“Much more than that. I’m saying that we cannot exclude people because we’re creating cohorts; these are guys who know that what they did was not what’s best for the Nigerian people. They regret it, and they don’t know how to deal with it because of the nature of politics. To survive, they keep playing those funny games.
“Also, cohorts that deal with actually building a political party framework that delivers on the kinds of parties that are structured around the world—this is a party plan—this is where we’re going.
“Then these cohorts will have harmonisation. Not that, oh, I used to be a leader; this is, I was vice; this is, I was governor; this is, I’m coming in to lead. You have to first accept the values, and then you get a role,” he said.
