The convener of the Big Tent, a coalition of several political parties, Civil Society Organizations and Social movements, Prof. Pat Utomi has charged Labour Party, LP, aspirants not to wait till they are in government to begin the people-centered policies they have been deliberating on.
He said that the impact must begin to be felt now, stating that a better and highly reverred Nigeria with global strategic relevance was possible.
According to a press statement from the the Big Tent Secretariat, signed by Austin Kemie, Prof. Utomi who is also the chairman of the National Consultative Front (NCF) and the National leader in the Labour Party made this known on Friday, 29 July, 2022 at the Centre for Values in Leadership in Lagos where he had unveiled the coalition’s programme for August.
The programme, according to the statement, included mobilizing the youth for a fight to reverse climate change; entrepreneurship training for youth across the country with capital support strategies, and Business Angels networks, to give muscle to and help strengthen the new ventures in their approach to capital, for rapid economic reversal and private sector led growth.
He also announced that a broader level strategy session would take place next week.
He said: “Quick solution to the power sector problem is imperative for the shift away from focus on revenues and conspicuous consumption to production. Dr Jerome Okolo’s role in the Policy response team to be announced next week is aimed at making this goal swift, just as that of Professor Murtala Sagagi’s role in the team for Agriculture, will fashion the base of Agriculture factor endowments for value chains to return Nigeria to high employment manufacturing, and that of Dr Muiz Banire on Legal reform, in the Policy team to ensure the rule of law facilitates the goals of the new Nigeria.
“A new Policy Rapid Response team had been constituted and will be formally unveiled next week.”
These efforts, he assured, would bring dignity back to Labour.
In addition, the longstanding civil society advocate and Third Force politician announced that a series of policies guiding the interaction between an awakened new generation of voters would be put before the Nigerian people during the month of August in a collaboration between the Third Force, the CVL and the 22-year-old television series Patito’s Gang which airs on Channels Television.
He also opined that the big ideas in the package would take young Nigerians out of desperate poverty that has assaulted their dignity to a prosperous and educated generation from Biu, Malumfashi and Ihuoma to Okitipupa.
He said such set of activities would pave the way for an empowered youth that would bring Nigeria a demographic dividend including National Development and Growth strategy; Tech for Growth; Winning Value chains; Agriculture for Food security; Outperforming SDG targets; Creating seamless collaboration and interface in sectors such as Maritime and Aviation; Public service reforms; Values for Leadership Effectiveness and Finance sector reforms designed to ensure massive capital inflows pegged on a national asset register and ensuring that markets work.
Prof. Utomi, who is also the founder of the CVL, noted that achieving the desired goals would depend on mindset shift and value re-orientation and so the National Orientation Agency needed revamping.
“If values shape human progress,” he insisted, “and the PDP/APC era has led us to this sorry pass of a collapse of culture in Nigeria, that agency has to be the anchor for where we are going.”
He further noted that poverty must be anathema everywhere in Nigeria from Sokoto and Maiduguri to Yenegoa and Oshogbo and Abakaliki.
The Professor of Political Economy who said “poverty and misery speak all languages from Hausa to Efik, Igbo, Kanuri and Yoruba”, lamented that most politicians had tried to divide Nigerians with ethnicity and religion forgetting that non was the child of a lesser God but trusted that God’s hands were not shortened that he could not save.
He assured Nigerians that the policy errors of yesterday by leaders wrongly motivated could be corrected by a new generation of self-sacrificing leaders “as we can see in the experience of countries like Malaysia, Brazil, India and China.”
He said August was Africa climate change month and it provided an opportunity to mobilize the youth to clean up urban areas and reduce disease spread in cities.
He said the event would flag off in Aba where Labour Party candidates will “tee off” the initiative.
He also indicated that the Sultan of Sokoto had expressed willingness to collaborate with the stop Sahara initiative of Tree planting to be flagged off in Sokoto.
He that a serious minded team could reach an accord with Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in one week
Utomi vowed that the University system in Nigeria must be returned to the glory years of the 1950s and 1970s when he was a Student Union Leader at UNN.
He praised the leadership of the Labour Unions for the two-day mobilization in support for ASUU, lamenting the attitude of the current government towards education and asserting that victory will come to the people. (PBA)
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