Even Osinbajo knows Buhari is ruling with a medieval mindset, says Pat Utomi
Pat Utomi, renowned management expert, says Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, whom he described as his friend, knows that President Muhammadu Buhari is ruling the country with “a medieval mindset”.
Utomi said the president was not getting the best because of his idea of “exclusion rather than inclusion”.
According to The SUN, Utomi said this at a breakfast meeting organised by the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Victory Chapel, Province 21, in the Magodo area of Lagos.
“The problem with Buhari’s administration is his medieval mindset. He excludes rather than includes. So, he does not get the best idea,” Utomi was quoted as saying.
“He is insular. I don’t push him in this conversation but I am sure that if I put my friend, the vice president under pressure, he will admit what I am saying. Because of their medieval mindset, they have created a country that is more divided than they met it. And that is a problem for leadership that is marching towards progress.”
When asked how long Nigerians might wait for the change they voted for, he said: “Everything is based on context. Take a look at the mismanagement of this fuel thing; the whole idea is nonsensical.
“It doesn’t have to go on like this; you are punishing Nigerian people unnecessarily. The sufferings that Nigerians have endured in the last couple of weeks over this petrol crisis have reduced productivity. If you throw it open to people across the world to bring petrol to Nigeria and sell at any price, you will discover that within a year, the price of petrol will be lower than the government’s fixed price today.
“You (Buhari) set up a committee called transition committee. It suggested that you deregulate the whole thing about crude oil, but no, you won’t. Your ideas go back 30 years and they are irrelevant to this world. Open up your mind and listen to people and you can make progress. To lead is to serve.
“To lead, you must be knowledgeable. People don’t follow somebody who doesn’t know where he is going. Otherwise, you fall into a ditch.”
True talk
It’s a good thing, Pat Utomi is speaking
President Buhari as ruler of a multi-ethnic country, should open his mind to accept other good people from other parts of the country. That’s the only way to success, any other thing is waste of time and resources. We hope he is not acting from a preconceived and predetermined script. Nigerian people would be the worse for it, no matter the noise of praise singers and sycophants. Today is early to make real change. Its been one year of return to mediaeval period.
The kind of words coming from Dr Pat Utomi is rather unfortunate. He is a chieftain of APC, and the best friend of the VP, so for him to say things like this is in public domain shows how bitter he is with the government because he was not appointed a minister after widely celebrated. He was initial penciled down but only God knows why he was dropped.
Buhari does not listen to Osibanjo neither does he listen to Emefiele. As for Adeosun, she is part of the problem. She is not qualified.
If true, speeches like Utomi’s are things that create doubts & division. I believe his administration is sincere & mean well for the country, even if they fall a couple of times It’s easy to sit & theorize & fire shots. Prof,think you should pick the ballot in 2019; make Oby ur VP …u never know
Some of the obstacles in President Buhari administration are that all critics are anti change agents,disgruntled and allies of GEJ school of thought.We must all think and see the same way all the time.PMB seems impressed about it all without the hindsight of history.Time will tell.
Buhari’s problem is thinking that he is there to help only the Hausa-Fulani. His core advisers are of his Fulani stock who have no idea what it means to survive without being spoon-fed by the goverment. Why is it difficult to liberalise the downstream sector you may ask? He is worried his about his brothers? Yet these his brothers will send trucks from Katsina to Lagos to fetch 33kl of petrol once in 3 weeks. It is foolhardy.
Let’s move away from premordial sentiments and face reality. The Professor was right. Beyond the perceives uprightness of Buhari which crept into our consciousness and made us to vote for him,tactical approach to governance and solutions to the nation’s lingering problems are also required. Criticism appears to be one impetus dat make any government strong, and the moment we keep shielding him from it, the more our woes becomes. Tank God I read from reasonable people dat commented earlier and not eggsheads dat hurls insults and abusive words. Nigeria shall be better for us.
You are the most reasonable observer of this write up. Kudos
For several years, we had all manner of economists advising Babangida, Obasanjo, Yaradua and Jonathan, there is nothing to show as far as industrialization, diversification of the economy, etc. are concerned. It has been all talk talk. Please can we give Buhari time to do what he has in Mind. He has 3 more years. Some of the theories we study and pontificate about today came out of bold effort made by leaders like Buhari. We have been doing the same things all these years and expecting different results to no avail. Lets give the people’s General a chance. l
True talk.He means well,let good and well intended people follow suit
IBB, Obasango and Jonathan had internationally recognized economic experts managing Nigeria’s economy. The result is where we are.
If Mr Utomi thinks we should go the same way then that is ubsurd. Doing the same thing over and expecting a different result?
On the VP, that was a cheap shot. He is a part of all the decisions of this administration or are you suggesting the President is making and taking unilateral decisions? Or are you offering your services as an economic adviser?
Prof. Utomi you are right but nigerian politicians and bussiness cabals will use that avenue to punisj the govt and even bring down this administeation, if care is not taken, the cabal in oil bussiness will continue to exploit the masses with that arrangement. If the saboteus can stop all this pipe line vandals and let goct put all the refinery in good working conditions, and givt can build more refinery if the capacity needs to be increase, many thanks to Dangote who has dim it fit to build a large refinery other investors in oil industry can follow suit.. the opposition does not want this administration to succeed!!!
Prof. Utomi you are right but nigerian politicians and bussiness cabals will use that avenue to punish the govt and the poor masses will suffer it, even they can bring down the government. If anybody is interested in oil bussiness let them build their own refinery as Dangote did. The saboteurs in niger delta should stop and allow Peace to reign. Let govt Put all refinery into good working condition and if need arise let more private investors build more refinery, it truely they ve the loce of this nation at heart.. nigeria belong to.all of us…
Prof. Pat Utomi also has join the waillers… Hahaha
The Prof is right, we have a president that believes he is the only sinless Nigerian how can he then trust people that work with him. Mr. President is bitting more that he can chew, like the first civilian governor of the old Imo State of blessed memory paraphrased”First fool is not a fool but the second fool is a proper foolish person”. Posterity will judge this mantra call CHANGE.
Prof’s position evidenced Economic and Political correctness. Increase in price of market goods, short supply of fuel and the long queues, coupled with the herdsmen menace, provide solid proofs to back up his position. However, the President is not performing too badly either. Being a leader in a Third World country(or in an emerging economy) can be a huge challenge, especially in this peculiar country called Nigeria. Short-term growth Vs Long-term development(or both) is a debate on the one side, Absolute control Vs Democratic ideals (or both) is another debate on the other side. In 2012,during the ‘subsidy removal’crisis, and the debate that followed , a slogan made the rounds :Desperate Situation Requires Desperate Attention. Are we facing a desperate situation? Do we need genuine meeting of minds in policy formulation? Should the country adopt informed, logical, sound and liberal economic policies? If the answer is yes, we might as well give a double thumbs-up to Prof. Pat Utomi.
Pat utomi is making sense, Buhari is using the same method that Jonathan used and fail as far as petroleum matter is concerned. Allow the world to supply oil so far there is no refinery. There will be fuel everywhere at very cheap rate. Instead Buhari is using strong head.
Pat Utomi is right. Stop this blind support for Buhari’s archaic ideas. The world has moved on from 1984. The way NNPC is going with this Petrol importation that is breeding scarcity and black market, we shall soon be queuing for black market. Are there no genuine importers of Petrol in Nigeria?
Your comment..I consider the erudite prof’s postulations as devoid of sound logic,because it will eventually lead to capital flight and complete depletion of our external reserve.Prof.Utomi and other delta state leaders of thought should prevail on the Niger delta miliants to embrace peace and desist from further acts of economic sabotage to enable Buhari’s planned revival of our refineries a reality.