TRIBUNE
In this interview with WALE AKINSELURE, Professor Pat Utomi, a renowned economist and chieftain of the Labour Party (LP), speaks on the performance of his party in the 2023 elections, the leadership crisis rocking the LP, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and expectation of the Bola Tinubu administration.
How would you describe the performance of the Labour Party (LP) in the last election? While there is a good cheer about the performance of the party, some question the essence of the good showing without winning the presidency?
First and foremost, there was a movement for a new order in Nigeria. The Labour Party was adopted as part of that movement. What was on showcase in 2023 was not Labour Party, it was the movement. That movement came from a very clear understanding that the All Progressives Congress (APC), which I was part of founding, cannot bring Nigeria to any progress. I will give a little history about why I am certain they cannot bring Nigeria to any progress.
The reason some of us canvassed that the APC was encouraged by some of us was that there was a certain recognition by some of us that transaction politics in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had created a certain self-love among politicians that it was all about transactions and what people get and in the middle of it, there were some elements that you just need to massage to get result of elections and you go and share booty as you like. So, there was the need for a political party that will respond to Nigerian people that were falling back and back. Some of us canvassed this and in 2012, I gave this lecture at the Leadership Newspapers Annual Lecture on political parties, at Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton Hotel, Abuja. Every member of what is now APC was there: Bola Tinubu, Muhammadu Buhari, Bisi Akande were all on the high table.
I remember when I finished giving the lecture, the late Dr Paul Unongo, standing next to uncle Sam Amuka, ran up to me on the podium. As Unongo was reaching to me, Amuka was saying, you are really deep o and I was joking and saying, do you think I was shallow? Unongo said, I want to lock the doors of this hall, you people should not leave here until you do what you are calling for and save Nigeria from this PDP. The APC went through all kinds of processes; there was that of Tinubu and Akande going to meet Buhari but I deliberately chose not to go to those meetings for other reasons that I have written about. I used to be a for-Buhari kind of guy; Chief OluFalae led an effort to engage with Buhari under the Progressives Movement and something happened after 2011 that made me give up on Buhari and I have written about this elsewhere.
