In this exclusive interview, Professor Utomi shares with us all the gives and takes that gave birth to the All Progressives Congress; the key players and several economic thoughts that will put Nigeria on the trajectory of greatness.
-Professor, you were born in Kaduna in 1956 and you started your primary education at St. Thomas, Kano and moved to Our Lady of Fatima. What was growing up like for you?
Childhood was fun; those were truly the years of innocence, not just innocence for me as a child but innocence for a generation-for our country. Those were the years of trust, where a village raised a child, where somebody saw you doing wrong in the streets who you’ve never seen spanks you and says “when you get home, tell your father that so and so person spanked you for doing something wrong”. And so I grew up with a sense of being secure-of a safe world.
As a 9 year old, I traveled from Zamfara state to Onitsha all alone. I took a train from Gusau, got to Kaduna and changed trains, got to Enugu got off the train and entered a bus as a 9 year old boy. Today, a 24 year old man is going for NYSC, his mother follows him, calls for police on the other side and all kinds of things. This is a death of innocence we are dealing with here. As a child there was freedom to explore; very rascally and at the same time very dutiful and obedient. An altar boy who got to our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church 5:30am every morning to serve Mass.
Those were the days when United States of America had a young vibrant President called John F. Kennedy and the priests at our Lady of Fatima in Igbuzor were Americans. They encouraged us with the excitement of a Kennedy. Believe it or not at age 7, I read books about American Presidents. I had a rich, colorful childhood.
-You graduated from high school at 15 and the entry for University then was 17. What were you doing before you gained admission to study Mass Communication at Nsuka?
Well it wasn’t as smooth a direct entry track from I graduated high school, I went to the University. There was 2 years in between because of how early I graduated but I actually never intended to go to the university at all, it was not in my game plan. The time I was growing up, there was a great excitement about a new area that was opening up and that area was aviation, everybody wanted to be an airline pilot. To make matters even more complicated, one of my school mates as soon as he finished school Cert in January by February he was in America in a flying school, by November he was back in Nigeria a commercial pilot.
Every evening after flying to Benin or wherever it was he took the F27 to, he would come and pick me up in his sports car and we will drive around Surulere. So, I started dreaming of becoming an airline pilot, I stopped thinking about going to the University but my father obviously had other ideas.
So, he said he will encourage me to be a pilot, “however, you know the best friends you make in life are friends you make on campus, so why don’t you go to the University for a year or two and make friends”. He said. It seemed very reasonable since I was so young, so I said to myself “I’ll go to the University for a year or two and by the time I’m 19 I’ll be an airline pilot.” So, I took the concessional entrance examination to Universities and lo and behold here comes admission to the University of Nigeria.
My plan was to go in for two years and have fun. I got the form, closed my eyes put down the pencil and what it touched turned out to be Mass Communication. So, I filled the form, put down Mass Communication take the entrance and somehow I passed.
Immediately after the civil war, many people around the world had written books, journals to the University of Nigeria to help them build their library. The University could not afford librarians and in the case of my department, the HOD suggested something, “Look if you students can organize yourselves, I can give you the keys to the library and you take care of it.” Nobody wanted to take up the responsibility, so I went to the HOD and I collected the keys and now am accountable to the place. What do I do next? That was the question I asked myself. So, the sense of responsibility takes over, if I’m not there nobody gets the chance to use the library.
Just to be sure people get the chance to use the library I was not sleeping or eating or in the class-I would be in the library, and since I was there, there was nothing else to do, I began to read all the books in the library and my life changed completely. Instead of going to a flying school, I went to a graduate school.
-You professional life has been very fulfilling, in fact you were appointed by President Shehu Shagari as a Special Adviser when you came back from the US in the 80s. What was it like; I mean you were young then?
Yes. I was young, I was 27 then. Actually I didn’t expect to be appointed to anything, very amazing story about the position which I was appointed. Because of my views expressed through the media and other platforms, people were curious to know my position on some policy issues. I had made some commentaries around taxation, a gentle man who happens to be a good friend of the Vice President at the time, Alex Ekwueme and the Chairman of his committee of friends, Chief Bayo Kuku was saying somewhere that he wish he could get hold of me and someone told him he knows me and they fetched me and they asked me if I could prepare a paper on tax policy and I said “why not am a consultant, you pay, I work”.
So Chief Kuku asked me how much is the money and I mentioned an amount and he walks to the back of his car, he comes out and gives me the cash for the full consultancy. So, I did it very quickly and I did it well. When I finished I asked him if there was any more consultancy, he laughed and said “whenever you are broke, come”.
One Friday, I got a call from the SA to the Vice President and he said the Vice President will like to see me tomorrow. I went to his house and when I got there, he was making conversation on a number of policy issues and just in the middle of it he says “by the way yesterday, President Shagari approved for you to replace a Professor who was a special adviser to him on Political Affairs.”
So, I told him I will think about it and I went off. As I was driving home in Surulere, on getting home I met a classmate of mine and I told him I just had a very strange conversation this afternoon and he said what is that? I said President Shagari had just approved for me to be an adviser. And he said what did you say to him? I said I will think about it and he said let me park my car and go with you and tell him that you’ve finished thinking about it. Of course I didn’t do that but I eventually communicated to the SA that it sounded like an interesting proposition. That was how I became an adviser.
-You managed Volkswagen Nigeria for ten years, you were vice-chairman Platinum-Habib Bank, and you have pioneered a lot of successful organizations. In what ways have these responsibilities shaped the eye with which you see the world?
In very interesting ways. My position in Shagari’ administration was truncated by a military coup some months after. Just before the coup came, I was becoming very frustrated already with policy ideas that I was churning out, desperate to find things that will move the country forward. I hardly slept at a point. Funny enough almost the same kind of issues you are talking about today, corruption. So, every morning I will tell the Permanent Secretary in charge this is what and what we should do and he would say “if we do this, that ministry will complain, if we do this, we are stepping on that person’s toe”. One day, I went and I asked him, “Mr. Perm. Sec. is there anything we can possibly do?”
I was reluctant after that experience arguing everyday with the Perm. Sec. what can be done. I literality said to myself, I will not return to public life, until I am certain that the environment will enable me to make a difference, so that I don’t end up in office without the power to do anything.
Interestingly, in recent times, one of the things that have happened is that I have been asked, first example is late President Yar’Adua. He invited me to Abuja and he said to me, what is wrong with Nigeria? And I told him Mr. President if you ask me that question what you’ll get is a six hour response. So, I began to analyze Nigeria, he listened without interrupting, he didn’t fall asleep, he was listening intently and when I finished he said, “Prof that’s what everybody says, that a few people understand Nigeria and its problems as you do. Why don’t you come and let us solve these problems together”.
I said ok Mr. President, you know there is nothing you’ll ask of me that I won’t give you my opinion, I’m a patriot, you can call me 2am and say you have this issue what do you think about it. But I am reluctant to accept public office, but if you really want me to serve in your government what you must do is appoint seven first class people and am willing to be number eight. And he said “why don’t you give me the names of those seven first class people?”
I found seven remarkable people from different parts of Nigeria that I put on that list: Fola Adeola, Oby Ezekwesili, Nasir El-Rufai and four others and I sent it to the President through Steve Oronsaye. I didn’t hear from the President and shortly after that he announced his cabinet members and we never got to see again till he passed away. There are schools of thoughts; some people believe that President Yar’Adua never saw the list. I think that if President Yar’Adua had lived he would have been a good President.
- Professor Utomi, if you are given the opportunity to serve under President Buhari, will you take it?
You know how many delegations I have received on this subject, of people who say to me, you know you always refuse to serve, if you don’t do it this time, just shut up. Again, my conditions haven’t changed, there must be enough serious people, but I think there’s seriousness generally speaking. The question is how do we strategically position the business of selecting people? If it is a matter of shuffling and playing games-my person, your person, that will be sad, but if we rigorously pursue good people and they think I am a good person, I will be more inclined to come forward this time. Even though ideally I would have wanted two more years to finish some legacy things that I’m doing, but if I have to forego them as sacrifice to serve on this occasion, I probably will be inclined to do that.
-You ran for President in 2011 under African Democratic Congress, a party which you founded. Why didn’t you run this time?
Some corrections, first of all I ran in 2007 under the ADC and it was not so much that I founded the party. What happened was that the Concerned Professionals, a group that I was part of that fought for democracy decided that I should run in 2007. The idea was to set an agenda, how our country should be run. So, we were working on registering our own political party the Restoration Group. Again, there we encountered the first challenge of the system- we were not willing to bribe anybody, we can’t preach one thing and act differently.
We were approached by those who founded the ADC, and they literally gave us the platform to run, that was the first run in 2007. After that run, I saw what a big mess it was, how little Nigerian politicians are willing to actually engage on political issues. I traveled round this country; I went to every state in this federation by road campaigning.
One day, I got a call from Chief Anthony Enahoro and he says to me “we need to build a big movement of progressives” and I said yes that is what I have been rooting for. Bring together all the progressives to one party, have a big strong party. So, I became very active again because my primary goal in politics that point in time was to build a two party system in Nigeria, two strong political parties that can engage one another competitively and change governments from time to time.
We began to run round to get things going for the Mega Party Movement, on one occasion I traveled out of the country in one of my occupational hazards-General Buhari always says, “do you live in this country?” I travel quite a bit and I used to say to him I can’t make an income in this country. The truth of the matter is that people like me, who don’t know how to give bribes, find it difficult to do business in Nigeria. I try to earn a good part of my living outside of Nigeria.
I came back one day from those foreign trips and Chief Olu falae said to me “look while you were away, we thought we should have somebody that everybody can relate to and accept not someone who is controversial. And so we have appointed you chairman of the party” I said oh dear, really? Ok. If that is good for all. So, I became the chairman.
One day again I traveled out of the country, am arriving, as soon as am landing my phone is ringing, it’s Wale Okunniyi. He said they have decided that the strategy to use is to get all the presidential candidates into one room and then step down for each other. And he thinks it’s a skill that I have, “so we decided you are going to be the presidential candidate of the party, so that then you’ll bring the other presidential candidates, you will get them to step down one for the other.”
My clear strategy was to get everyone to step down one after the other for General Buhari. Nuhu Ribadu was at the meeting, Fola Adeola was at the meeting, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, Tony Momoh all these people. The final night when Shekarau, the governor of Kano state was running under ANPP, he had come from Kano for the meeting when we all gathered. That was the day the bomb blast in Minna took place, General Buhari had campaigned that day in Minna, so he couldn’t make the meeting that night.
Buhari team then said he will come the next day. Shekarau flew back to Kano, came back the following night because he had to campaign. So when he came, he came early, he and I were sitting and talking and I told him about my plan to pressure everybody to step down for General Buhari, let him become the symbol everybody can rally round.
Shekarau asked “have you had a private conversation with General Buhari” I said no. He said “he’s very stubborn he may not agree” I said no, am sure he will agree, I have had many conversations with him. We waited and General Buhari never showed up and I was very offended.
One of those who wasn’t very cooperative in that process was Bola Tinubu, who I have been very friendly with for many years. And there seemed to be this game with him and Chief Falae. I will say to chief Falae “Tinubu says he has no problem with you, why don’t we just come together and do this thing.” Chief Falae will tell me, “I have no problem with Tinubu, in fact the last time we came to Abuja, he stepped out of his car from the owner’s corner for me to sit” and then I will say that is good.
I will rush down to the other man, after a while I got tired of running between Falae and Tinubu. And I said ok, what is the meaningful strategy? Instead of this business of our continued to pretend that we can do this thing, I will just join the biggest opposition party which was ACN. So I joined the ACN and I kept harassing Tinubu.
One day Tinubu called me and said ok, he’s going to see General Buhari, let’s go. That was around 2012. I told him I have had so many of those meetings, but please go when you succeed I assure you I will be a frontline follower. People don’t understand that these political things cost a lot of money. I told Tinubu you can go; when you succeed I will follow immediately.
One day he came and things went well with General Buhari and I said fantastic and I plugged in along and pushing because that was what my whole engagement was about, build this movement. Thankfully all that resulted to what we have. Had we done it right in 2011, Nigeria would have been much further than where it is today.
Without Tinubu there would be no APC, there’s no question about that. I’m not just a member of the APC, I literally wrote the manifesto of APC-it was written in my house with three principal authors, myself, the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo and and Wale Edun.
-“Today is the day Democracy came to Nigeria” those were your words the moment General Buhari was declared winner. Why did you say that, we’ve been practicing democracy for sixteen uninterrupted years now?
The day that one party can unseat another that is in power, you have a democracy. People now know that they can change their government.
-What should Nigerians expect in the first 100 days?
Well, I’m not the one that’s going to be making the decisions, so I can’t say much, but in terms of what they are going to be expecting; they are going to be expecting outlines of policies that will move people away from the mystery index location that they are in right now and that can be done.
In my opinion, it’s not going to be easy, expectations are high but it will be done by a sincerity of purpose. Just start by plugging the leaks in the system, then deploy the excess of resources that are free by plugging the leakages and provide opportunities for the poorest of the poor. Make everybody send their kids to school by simply giving free food to a child that wants to learn.
-Isn’t that going to cost us a lot of money?
Not at all. The money NNPC waste is more than enough to provide that. Stop these ministers from running around in ten car motorcades and governors from chattering airplanes to come from Asaba to Abuja, that money will feed a lot of kids. A lot of them are hungry and if you provide food, they’ll come to school, you develop their minds, teach them well, you’ve saved a generation.
-You have worked so hard to make all of these things a reality; do you believe President Buhari will deliver on his promises?
You see, it’s not about the person, it’s about the movement; it’s about an idea whose time has come. You need a symbol-Ronald Reagan emerged from this kind of process and just his inspiration of the American Spirit brought out this we can from young Americans and what it birthed is the .com revolution and the 20yr olds saved their country.
That’s what am hoping will happen, when a Buhari says “no, you don’t steal”; says to a young person on the streets who thinks he’s hopeless “you can” and he’s inspired to be patriotic and do something magnanimous and this country is reborn. That is what I’m hoping will happen.
-The outgoing administration was largely about chronic capitalism, where the rich got richer and the poor poorer. As a political economist, how can we drive an inclusive growth?
It’s very important that we do that. Inclusive growth could happen in many ways, first my view is that what you think of as economic growth currently is just rent seeking behavior in which you find people who say they are very successful business men and all they’ve done is extract rent from the system.
In this classic chronic capitalism you erect them as heroes of enterprise and they go around feeling good, buying private jets, how many jobs do they create? The kind of entrepreneurial people’s capitalism that I’m hoping for to come from our system will empower young people to create jobs.
-Lee Kuan Yew transformed Singapore from a third world country to first in a single generation, what lessons can we learn from him, looking at the kind of rot in the system right now?
Honesty and political leadership. I tell people many times, there is nothing Lee did that we did not do in this country. The only reason we did not get a result is that Lee was transparently honest; he was a patriot who cared about his country. Our Nigerian politicians are looking for their own small empires rather than nation building.
Let’s make sacrifice for our country instead of being obsessed with the size of our bank accounts and get people who think to do things. If we can manage to put square pegs in square holes, manage a cabinet that brings the best of the brightest of our country, manage to inspire our youths, the Singapore story will be a joke compare to our own story.
-“To serve is to live.” You said that, Nelson Mandela even though dead proved that to be true, the same with Martin Luther King Jnr, Mahatma Gandhi and Lee Kuan Yew. Are we going to see a service driven Buhari or something else?
I think we are going to see a very honest leader. Lee Kuan Yew was an intellectual genius; he became Prime Minister and led his country at age 35 when all the juices were flowing. It’s going to be a different kind of thing with General Buhari, but he can project confidence and if he has the right people around him, that confidence as projected will translate into nation building, but if he has the wrong people around him, we are back in square one.
-You have a passion for the dignity of the human person and the spirit of enterprise. I presume that’s why you founded the Centre for Values in Leadership; in fact your guiding principle is “Add value wherever you are.” How much value has CVL added to Nigeria since inception in 2004?
Well, it shouldn’t be in my place to talk about the value, I believe that people should do the talking. Typical example, yesterday a gentle man walked in to see me and he said to me “where I am, my career has done remarkably well, you may not know this but it all started with a statement that you made at one of those workshops twelve years ago. You said that we are created to be co-creators with God moving creation towards his perfections, that a young person who becomes an entrepreneur is a co-creator with God.” He says that his whole life changed that day.
This is what we have done with CVL, the number of young people who we have touched; who will never be the same again are uncountable. But even more powerful for me is a statement by Margaret Mead that “you should never underrate what a small committed individuals can do to change the world. Indeed that is the only thing that ever has changed the world” a group of small committed individuals. One of the things that we do at the CVL is to churn out groups of small committed individuals.
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