By Seyi Babalola
Professor Pat Utomi, the previous presidential candidate, has stated that the prospective mega party will be a values-based movement rather than a typical political party.
Utomi made the comment during an interview with Arise Television on Tuesday.
“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.
According to the Professor of Political Economy, “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, “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 have got to stop our country.”
