The ever-outspoken Prof. Pat Utomi reiterated his call for patriotic Nigerians to continue to fight for the emancipation of their country from the grip of greedy politicians, who are only interested in their pockets, in a recent interview. See a brief excerpt below:
“People who are in power tend to regenerate themselves, have their types around them. They tend to fear people who are committed to service to the people because they think those people will betray them.
"I mean, as you and I are speaking, James Ibori has just pleaded guilty to a court in England. He's going to spend the next I-don't-know-how-many-years-of-his-life in jail in England.
"But the Nigerian judiciary shamelessly kep finding him not guilty of anything. That's the kind of country we are in. Thankfully, the President of Nigerian Bar Association himself last week was able to speak very stoutly about the fact that the Nigerian judiciary is very corrupt. The last bastion of the common man, the judiciary is very corrupt.
"So, what do you expect? The fundamental thing that went wrong in Nigeria, I think with our politics, happened in 1998/99 when people like us put ourselves on the line to force the military out. I was on Abacha's assassination list. For a variety of interesting reasons, the hand of God, I managed to get away. The same people who shot Ibru (The Publisher of The Guardian) were supposed to shoot me and all of that.
"And after fighting all that fight, we felt now, okay, now that the military has been forced out… but the truth of the matter was that many of the people who should have gone into public office, should have run for office, who are the natural leaders of the people, were not sure the military was really going to stay out for long and they didn't want to risk their reputation, disrupt their careers and lives. So, they were reluctant to go in, in 1998/99.
"In the main, I mean, there were few good people, no question; but in the main, the kinds of characters that rushed into the political space were criminals, were charlatans, were people who had nothing else to do and once they entered power, because the system is very weak, they used the state to begin to accumulate money and redefine politics as money.
"In that kind of environment, it's going to be very hard for decent, honest people to break in. But that fight must continue otherwise the country is lost completely”.
“People who are in power tend to regenerate themselves, have their types around them. They tend to fear people who are committed to service to the people because they think those people will betray them.
"I mean, as you and I are speaking, James Ibori has just pleaded guilty to a court in England. He's going to spend the next I-don't-know-how-many-years-of-his-life in jail in England.
"But the Nigerian judiciary shamelessly kep finding him not guilty of anything. That's the kind of country we are in. Thankfully, the President of Nigerian Bar Association himself last week was able to speak very stoutly about the fact that the Nigerian judiciary is very corrupt. The last bastion of the common man, the judiciary is very corrupt.
"So, what do you expect? The fundamental thing that went wrong in Nigeria, I think with our politics, happened in 1998/99 when people like us put ourselves on the line to force the military out. I was on Abacha's assassination list. For a variety of interesting reasons, the hand of God, I managed to get away. The same people who shot Ibru (The Publisher of The Guardian) were supposed to shoot me and all of that.
"And after fighting all that fight, we felt now, okay, now that the military has been forced out… but the truth of the matter was that many of the people who should have gone into public office, should have run for office, who are the natural leaders of the people, were not sure the military was really going to stay out for long and they didn't want to risk their reputation, disrupt their careers and lives. So, they were reluctant to go in, in 1998/99.
"In the main, I mean, there were few good people, no question; but in the main, the kinds of characters that rushed into the political space were criminals, were charlatans, were people who had nothing else to do and once they entered power, because the system is very weak, they used the state to begin to accumulate money and redefine politics as money.
"In that kind of environment, it's going to be very hard for decent, honest people to break in. But that fight must continue otherwise the country is lost completely”.
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