A former Presidential candidate and Professor of Political Economy, Prof. Pat Utomi has identified failed institutions, lack of continuity in government, lack of trust and violation of contractual agreements by government officials as some of the factors responsible for Nigeria’s woes.
Utomi also opined that it is shameful that life in the past was far better than what the youths are inheriting from their parents this time.
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He spoke in a lecture he delivered at a symposium, organised in honour a former House of Representatives member, Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu’s installation as the Lisa Aje of Egbaland, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Utomi, the founder of Centre for Value in Leadership (CVL) spoke on the topic: “Public Private Partnership for the Development of Ogun State”.
The management expert stressed the need for the government to partner with the private sector to build infrastructure towards socio economic growth, saying “even if the government was to commit its entire budget for a whole year to infrastructure, it would only succeed in building a few projects’ ‘.
Utomi, however warned public office holders, especially governors, to be fully committed to contractual agreements with their private partners.
He blamed past leaders for squandering the commonwealth of the nation instead of saving for the future generation, saying “Our leaders lack the ability to recognise the place of discipline, commitment and integrity in development.
“During the period of the oil boom, our leaders were busy spending lavishly instead of saving for the future.
“We have to be honest about why we have not succeeded in many things.
“Strong institutions are important for Public Private Partnerships (PPP), for all kinds of things. Failure of our institutions has discouraged investors from investing in Nigeria.
“I think one of us here should really feel a deep sense of personal shame that our children are likely to have a quality of life worse than we had,” he said.
Adebutu in his address, called on the government to adopt Public Private Partnership (PPP) instead of borrowing from abroad.
He said, “For us to have wealth we must have cooperation between the private sector and the government. We cannot have confrontation.
“Why should we go and mortgage our children’s future and borrow money. Why do you have to borrow money when somebody will bring his money and do what has to be done”.
