In a stinging critique of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Pat Utomi says leadership is absent in Nigeria.
He added that the so-called leadership in Nigeria was not “connected to the solution” the country urgently needed.
Utomi spoke on Sunday on Channels Television‘s popular programme Politics Today.
The Professor of Political Economy and Management Expert noted that beyond Buhari’s administration, there was a failure of leadership at every stage of national life.
Utomi, who is Co-chairman of newly-launched political group, National Consultative Forum (NCF), explained that this failure has resulted in the nation facing an existential threat.
He stated, “I think that the government is crippled; it is not connected to the solution. 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.
“The nation’s political class has failed to align itself to the new reality. Nigeria lacks the type of politics that would enable the government to be responsive to the needs of the people.
“We have an existential crisis. The political class has failed Nigeria including all of us. I am part of them but I have always fought to make it different but you don’t always win.”
Read Also: JUST IN: Lagos Health Commissioner Tests Negative For COVID-19
Utomi flayed the National Assembly for dabbling into executive affairs, noting that the budgeting process in the country has become “a joke”.
According to him, “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.
“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.”