Pat Utomi coordinated the establishment of several civil society groups on good governance and accountability in Nigeria
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Hope is on the way, says Professor of Economics, Pat Utomi. But not the imaginary hope that politicians wish Nigerians during occasions as Christmas or New Year, he tells the suffering masses on the occasion of Christmas. But the hope formed from the resolve of the majority to change their fortunes.
Pat Utomi’s message tagged; Christmas and New Year Message to a hurting country, is coming at a time Nigerians are experiencing grinding poverty, acute insecurity and an uncertain future.
“Despondency and Death governed our consciousness in 2021. Whether it came from Terrorist Killings, Disease, or Poverty, the darkness of fading hope, lost opportunities and the painful sounds of mourning that challenged us this year, brought despair, and caused many to emigrate, and others to suffer mental health challenges,” he says.
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According to Pat Utomi, the year 2021 depressed many visions of a greater tomorrow. However, there is the need to offer thanksgiving for the Nigerian Spirit, he says.
Pat Utomi assures on behalf of coalitions of political actors and civil society organizations determined to save Nigeria and ensure that Nigeria will rise up again, that happy days are about to return.
He says hope is on the horizon and that better times would be here not just because of the promise of Christmas that assures of God’s commitment to the wellbeing of humanity, but because the abuses of the powerful in 2021 have woken up the moral majority to say enough is enough, and prepare all people of goodwill to fight back.
“On a personal note, I am optimistic because 2022 is the 40th anniversary of my return to Nigeria after studying abroad. If the years since my return can be seen as wilderness years for the ordinary people of Nigeria, then we have served our 40 years in the wilderness, and the promised land should be close by,” he says.
Pat Utomi urged Nigerians across the country, never to relent as the hope of a future was within grasp.
“From the city of my birth, Kaduna, where plenty of tears was shed in 2021, to Jos, where I was baptized weeks after I was born in 1956, and much anger of 2021 spoke violence and macabre murders even near St Theresa’s where I was baptized, and family lived on Church Street, to Maiduguri of my childhood where a brave Governor fought for truth in 2021 with Boko Haram maiming and killing around the corner.
“Even the environs of my primary education, Kano and Gusau, and the metropolises of my secondary education, Onitsha and Ibadan, had their share of this ugly season, I urge all to stand up for the dignity of their neighbours even though tribe or tongue may differ, for in brotherhood we live,” Pat Utomi said.
The Professor pleaded that everything must be resolved in 2022 to begin to take Nigeria back from the traditional and professional politicians.
“Nigeria deserves a government of the people for the people and by the people and not a government of politicians by politicians and for politicians. We in an alternative way are devoting this Christmas to a depolarization of a Nigeria deeply divided by bad politics, declining patriotism and a collapse of culture. We have it in us to rebuild and reclaim the promise of Nigeria,” Pat Utomi says.