Professor Pat Utomi
Renowned Political economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, has urged Igbos and Nigerians at large to vote for the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), whom he said would restore hope to Nigeria.
Utomi, who is a founding member of the Ndigbo Lagos group, said Igbos have been branded as people who sell their votes to the highest bidder. He, therefore, urged the people of the South-East to vote wisely in order to shed this reputation.
Utomi said this during the unveiling of a Pan-Igbo group, Igboekulie, in Lagos on Wednesday.
While fielding questions from journalists at the event, he said Buhari’s ascendancy can be likened to what happened in the United States in 1981 when the Americans were disenchanted with the Jimmy Carter administration with inflation as high as 29 per cent.
He added that it took the oldest man to run for Presidency in the United States, Ronald Reagan, to turn things around and revive the American spirit.
He said, “I think Nigerians don’t have any alternative in the person of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. I refer to him from my writings as the Buhari ascendancy. That reminds me of what happened in the US when I lived there with President Ronald Reagan.”
“We had one wonderful, nice guy called Jimmy Carter as President. Things went so awfully wrong. Inflation was 29 per cent.”
ENIOLA AKINKUOTU
