Nigeria Lacks Leadership, Buhari Govt Is Crippled – Pat Utomi

Pat Utomi, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has said Nigeria lacks quality leaders at every level of the society.

Speaking during a programme on Channels TV on Sunday, he stated that the political class has crippled the Nigeria government.

Utomi, a professor of political economy, said the Muhammadu Buhari-led government has failed to proffer solutions to the country’s challenges thereby making it difficult for citizens to be committed to the system.

“If there is anything absent in Nigeria, it is leadership. At every level of our society, there is a failure of leadership.

“Leadership is about connecting to the soul of the people and giving everything sacrificially to lift it up,” he said.

On the formation of the National Consultative, Utomi said the political group he co-chairs was established because of the failure of the political class.

“We have an existential crisis. The political class has failed Nigeria, including all of us,” he said.

“I am part of them but I have fought always to make it different but you don’t always win.”

He accused the National Assembly of hijacking executive functions and rendering the budgetary process a political game.

“There is a total collapse of separation of powers and the legislature has taken over running the executive and the executive is complicit in allowing that to happen,” he said.

“Anytime I have been asked to analyse the budget in this country for the last 20 years, I don’t analyse the budget because the budget process in this county is a joke.

“Today, the house committee chair on appropriation is more important to a national budget than the minister of finance because this game that is played in the national assembly means that what comes out is really the budget of the national assembly, not of the executive branch and the executive branch has refused to engage the matter.

“What is going on today is a hijack of the executive functions by the legislature and for most of them, it is just a game.”