Pat Utomi has opened up on why he supported the ambition of Peter Obi to emerge as the Labour Party presidential candidate.
In an interview with VANGUARD, Utomi highlighted different reasons he supported Obi. He noted that Obi dumped the Peoples Democratic Party because he was not ready to induce delegates with dollars.
He said he aimed to stop Nigeria from the “the dollarisation of their politics. In stopping this, you have to accept the idea of a man who said, ‘sorry I am not going to use Dollars to go to party primaries.’ So, my recognising of Peter Obi was because of the statement he made. And that is a worthy statement to make”.
He also added that Obi is a younger candidate and would “have more energy to do more of these things than me.”
In his words, “Peter is younger than I and he would have more energy to do more of these things than me. Secondly, Peter respects my opinion. He comes to me and calls on me even when he was the governor of Anambra State. I thank God I can pay my bills, have a roof over my head, which is the most important thing about life.”
Commenting on Nigerian politicians, Utomi said they “are yet to discover the beauty of a simple life. Politicians are not supposed to be rich men. They are supposed to be people who humbly give up themselves to advance the common good. Ghanaian highlife musician Ben Brako made this immortal statement: “If you see a country where their politicians are richer than their businessmen, you see a country which is about to collapse.
“Nigeria is a classic example of a country where their politicians are richer than their businessmen. Businessmen have to go cap-in-hand with the politicians so that their businesses can continue to exist. That is a country that wants to collapse and we want to pull out our country from that brink.
“For me, if Nigeria is to have any hope of progress the starting point is to stop the APC and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from being relevant in Nigerians’ lives.
“So, I felt we should pull energy to achieve the same goal rather than forcing it. I have invested over three years of my life trying to proclaim the Labour Party and make it a platform for workers on how Nigeria is governed. Peter Obi has been able to catch the attention of young people. So I choose to take on the position of the leader of the party. Like I said in Asaba, I chose to become the Group Managing Director and Peter is the Managing Director, MD, because he is younger than me, he has more energy and in my role as GMD, my job is to build the big tent to get the other parties to join us so we can redeem our country through that.
“Some still believe the forthcoming election is a two-horse race between APC and PDP because they have structures. Do you think LP has the structure to match them at the polls?
“For me, I don’t call them two parties. I refer to them as one party. They are two wings of one party. We have a single party state structure in Nigeria. Some of their members can be in APC in the morning, PDP in the afternoon, and back to the APC in the evening. The movement is very fluid.
“The single party structure has managed Nigeria to the grave. Look at power. In 22 years, we are worse now than we were in 1999. In Cote d’Ivoire, Alassane Qattara has fixed the problem, why were these people unable to do something for 22years? It is because there is a fundamental character flop in the DNA of the PDP and APC.”
