I wrote APC manifesto it ‘shamelessly jettisoned’ and should lose power, he argues
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Pat Utomi says the Labour Party (LP) has tarried to publish its manifesto to prevent the All Progressives Congress (APC) from plagiarising it, as it was he who wrote the old APC manifesto which its stalwarts “shamelessly” failed to implement.
He asked the APC to apologise to Nigerians at this point, instead of campaigning for re-election, saying everyone knows of the abysmal performance of Muhammadu Buhari in the past seven years.
Utomi, a Professor of political economy, is the leader of a political consortium called the Big Tent pushing for the election of LP presidential candidate Peter Obi.
The APC should be organising rallies to apologise to Nigerians, rather than grandstanding and positioning itself for another electoral contest, he argued in a statement issued in Abuja.
APC degradation of governance, PDP transactional politics
Utomi recounted the APC manifesto was drafted in his Lagos home but the party’s stalwarts later “shamelessly jettisoned it without any form of remorse”.
He said because of the degradation of governance by the APC and the nature of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for transactional politics, handing over power to either of them will be a disaster for Nigeria, according to reporting by Vanguard.
“The Nigerian people have spoken. They have said they are tired of this old order. They [the APC] will wait for us to release our manifesto then they will copy it, add some things and come out and shout this is our manifesto.
“But in their heads, they have no plans to implement the [manifesto]. They have all the monies they have taken from our treasury; they will use it to make flash of all of these things.
“I wrote the last one (manifesto) and I am saying to you that they didn’t implement the things we wrote. In fact, at a point they said ‘who said we promised that? We didn’t promise it, it is some people who wrote it and called it our manifesto’.
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APC is a ‘broken record’
“All those who failed us yesterday, I say to you that if we have a sense of shame in this country, there should be many rallies about APC, but they should be rallies of apologies [saying] ‘sorry we failed you,’” Utomi added, per Vanguard.
“Now they are saying to example, ‘we will get rid of insecurity in six months.’ They’ve said it before.
“What kind of broken record is this? Is this an insult to the Nigerian people? You and I know better.”
If we don’t [act], our children die
Utomi said the intention of the Big Tent in supporting Obi and the LP is to rescue Nigeria from the transactional politics of the APC and PDP.
“The fact that they are standing in the gap for a people either to die or to live, that bond, that passion knowing that this is about the future of our children, is what holds it together.
“Not transactions of what position will you get. Because that is the traditional way, that is the way they do it in the APC and PDP – ‘what will you give me, what will you not give me?’.
“This is different, this is driven by the fact that if we don’t [act], our children die.”
Obi’s manifesto
Utomi explained Obi’s manifesto is going through a painstaking process for tactical reasons.
“We are not in a rush to put out for them to go and take, and sell it and that is part of why Mr Obi made that statement.
“So after their own is out, you will formally see ours out; not giving them the opportunity to still respond against it.”