Erudite political economist, Professor Pat Utomi, has reverberated the serious concerns raised by the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, to the obvious fact that Nigerians are poorer today than they were in 1960.
This was as he said that the current political landscape prioritizes power retention and ethnic bargaining over national unity, economic planning, and the welfare of citizens.
Prof Utomi also noted that the current state of the nation is clearly deepening in misery, poor governance, and elite irresponsibility.
Utomi, who took to his official X handle, bemoaned the steep economic deterioration under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration, stressing that the current sufferings of Nigerians are facing are far more than before the last general elections, stressing that present day Nigerian children know more misery than our parents.
Commenting on Adesina’s statement, which noted that Nigeria’s GDP per capita in 2024 is lower than in 1960, Utomi said that the question of whether life has improved since the last election should be central to any functioning democracy.
In the words of Utomi; “We thank AfDB President, Dr Adesina for reminding us that our people lived better in 1960, given today’s GDP per capita.
“The key question in a democracy is: are you better off than at the last election? All live for their children to be better off, but our children know more misery than our parents.”
While commenting on what he described as “lavish political spending amid widespread poverty”, Utomi lambasted Nigerian politicians for what wasteful public spending and arrogant governance, even as the majority of the population sinks deeper into poverty.
In the words of Utomi; “Our politicians walk with a swag and spend public money like drunken sailors while poverty degrades the land”.
Taking a critical look at Nigeria’s long-standing resource wealth, especially the oil boom era, Prof Utomi noted that it was squandered through mismanagement and corruption.
He also castigated the government’s tendency to label criticisms and data-driven insights as ‘demarketing’, saying; “And they call truth demarketing.”
Utomi also said that ethnic politics has taken over development thinking and warned that the failure of Nigeria’s political elite to pursue meaningful development strategies has led to the entrenchment of identity-based politics.
According to him; “The failure to think development and have a plan to move people out of misery has driven the politics of the unthinking politicians to centralize identity politics and elite bargains that place progress in the back burner and spread hate as a motif force of their survival”.
