Professor Pat Utomi, has called on Nigerians living in diaspora to do what they can to ensure that they champion a massive intervention to rescue Nigeria.
Speaking to a hybrid meeting of Nigerians in Dallas, Texas, in the United States yesterday, the Political Economist, emphasized the need for the Nigerians based abroad to keep their eyes on their mother land.
Professor Utomi explained the clarion call had become imperative, following a look at the apocalyptic image of where Nigeria may be headed under the current political stewardship which has left insecurity, poverty, unemployment, and anger as the main landmarks on the streets of the nation.
While noting that the diaspora remit more money home than Nigeria earns from crude oil sales, the former presidential adviser and public intellectual, who is leading a shadow government of a coalition of national redemption movements, said the diaspora were high stakeholders with a moral obligation to help halt the drift in Nigeria.
Read Also: 2023: Jega, Agbakoba, Utomi Set To Launch New Party
Utomi referenced India where a huge coalition of the diaspora and change agents swept off the old order, brought PM Narendra Modi to power, and fundamentally altered the structure of India’s politics.
According to him, the diaspora, which has higher competencies and a global network but is being blocked from their natural role in national rejuvenation by professional politicians in Nigeria who thrive on exclusion to achieve state capture, deserves a place at the table.
This is as he lamented that this political class, which continues to exclude women, youth and intellectuals, while incorporating drug barons and fraudsters, works hard to deny diaspora voting rights which many African countries allow and encourage.
He assured his audience that within three weeks the NCFront Movement, several of the political parties and civil society organizations will announce a political party platform that will enable Nigeria to begin again and claim the promise of the founding fathers that peace and prosperity will define the future, in brotherhood, though tribe and tongue may differ.
Utomi told them that the shadow government, which he leads, has offered an economic revival blueprint that has a critical role assigned to the diaspora.
He further indicated that the national economic strategy, which is built on clusters of manufacturing hubs and technology parks in the six zones of Nigeria driving global value chains anchored on the latent comparative advantage of each zone’s factor endowments, will produce a dramatic turnaround in Nigeria’s fortunes.
The economist promised that as soon as the current government is replaced, there would be a diaspora global roadshow to showcase opportunities for diaspora joint ventures on the select endowments around which the value chains will be rolled out, assuring that this would quickly bring us to a full-employment economy and make Nigeria the true powerhouse of AfCFTA.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
