Professor of Political Economy, Pat Utomi, has decided that he is going to contest for any political office nor accept any political appointment again in Nigeria.
Utomi who stated this as a guest of Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, also said he will not accept any appointment or government contract henceforth.
He had last week set up an outfit known as Shadow Government whose mandate is to highlight failures in government policies.
He said the outfit will also suggest policies and development programmes for government.
But the Federal Government rejected the move saying in a democracy such as Nigeria, such a move was an aberration.
On Friday, Utomi said “let me state clearly: I will not run for public office, I will not accept an appointment, contract by any government in Nigeria. My only concern is the well-being of the next generation.
“I have lived my life decently without government money or stealing anybody’s thing. I want to take that away from people who talk nonsense like, ‘Oh, he is looking for a contract’,” Utomi said.
He described the shadow government as a democratic way for citizens to come together and demand that the government be more accountable.
“Nothing can be more democratic than a group of citizens coming together to find a structured way of asking the government to be more accountable. What could be more democratic than that?” he asked.
He asked Nigerians to read the Afrobarometer, a yearly survey that has collected opinions across African countries since 1999, saying it gives deep insights into how citizens feel about democracy.
“I usually pre-phase this conversation with what we’ve done to the African. There are Afrobarometer readings, an annual survey that has been going on since 1999, of how Nigerians, Africans generally, in every country, with all kinds of details. I mean all kinds of details.
“I want all Nigerians and who really want to understand what has happened to our country to go and study the Afrobarometer readings,” he said.
He said the data shows that Africans still believe in democracy but are tired and disappointed because it is not working well.
“It states that Africans still love democracy, cling to it but they are tired because their democracies are not working.
“Any serious democrat has to read this data, longitudinal data showing that people are fed up with what we call democracy,” he said.
