A return to pamphleteering

Why Not: Citizenship, State Capture, Creeping Fascism, and Criminal Hijack of Politics in Nigeria, Pat Utomi (2019), Lagos: CVL Press Limited

ISBN: 978-1-907925-53-5

Reviewed by Chido B. Nwakanma, School of Media and Communication, Pan Atlantic University

Patrick Okedinachi Utomi has played many roles in the public space in Nigeria. Professor, entrepreneur, youth influencer, one of the poster boys of Lagos at 50, public relations icon and politician. In consequence of his latest role as a politician and gubernatorial candidate, Utomi has now taken on the role of pamphleteer.

Pamphleteers were the foremost opinion leaders who rose up historically in times of crisis to broadcast the writer’s opinion, articulate a political ideology and mobilise citizens. Pamphleteers arose in times of political unrest, such as the French Revolution. Notable pamphleteers include Thomas Paine, John Milton and our Nnamdi Azikiwe, starting with Renascent Africa.

Why Not: Citizenship, State Capture, Creeping Fascism, and Criminal Hijack of Politics in Nigeria, provides the reader with a vivid picture of the crisis of values at the heart of the Nigerian political and leadership experience, its causes and why Nigeria is worse off for it.

The trigger for the book is the recent involvement of Prof Pat Utomi in the effort to clinch the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to contest the seat of Governor of Delta State. It went very badly. We learn in this book that the problem is not losing the ticket but seeing the rot that is the process of political choice in our political parties.

 Utomi was a founding member of the APC and one of its key human resources for delivering its impressive manifesto in 2015.  What happened to that manifesto is one of the indicators of the crisis of trust in our politics.

The central thesis of Why Not is that the pursuit of private gain rather than common good dominates Nigerian politics and makes it incapable of delivering positive returns to citizens across our 36 states.

Utomi asserts, “Across the country, governors are raping their States and then deciding who will continue the rape, often on their behalf, when term limits stop their direct romp. What we must not shy away from admitting is that most Nigerian political parties are in the firm grip of criminal elements who see access to public office either as a business from which to reap big returns, a path to totally dominate others (the new fascism), or as an arena of transactions for fully personal trading objectives. The ‘common good’ features very little in their thinking except as rationalisation of purpose even when goal displacement is so palpable.

“That Nigerian civil society and media are yet to comprehend the depths to which their politics have fallen fully and to fashion a fight back to rescue the Nigerian people is probably the big question for now in Nigeria.”

Why Not runs through nine chapters. Chapter titles speak to the issues the book covers. They include A haunting metaphor, Back to the beginning, Greed and fetish ways versus issues and fixing problems, The Complicit Middle and A few good men. Others are The Gideon Project: Finding grass and its roots, A path from serfdom, Reclaiming a lost but blessed land and Why and Why Not.

In “Back to the beginning”, the author assays to establish his credentials and long interest in public affairs. It includes roles in students’ unionism culminating in bringing a minister to speak to students at the University of Nigeria, years as a prolific thought leader, essayist and newspaper columnist, producer and presenter of Patito’s Gang and President of the military-era Concerned Professionals.

Utomi asserts that there is “a need to wake Nigerians up.” Concerned Professionals and other pro-democracy groups hastened the return of the military to their barracks and the reclamation of democracy for Nigeria. Utomi recounts one recurring lamentation. “The democracy we fought for has set life up to imitate art as it mirrors Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s mockery of the experience as “Dem-all-crazy”.” Unfortunately, the Concerned Professionals and their ilk across the country failed to transmute into political parties, leaving the space for persons who played no role in the struggle and lacked the values to propel the country forward with policies and programmes based on vision.

Chapter 4, The Complicit Middle, is recommended reading. It is provocative.  It laments the apathy and dysfunction of Middle-Class Nigeria. Study after study shows that the middle class is pivotal to growth in most societies. Natalie Chun, Rana Hasan, and Mehmet Ulubasoglu (2011) analysed data from 72 countries in a study for the Asian Development Bank, “The Role of the Middle Class in Economic Development: What Do Cross-Country Data Show?” and the evidence is that the middle class propels economic growth. Other studies show that the middle class does this by promoting better governance and right policy choices.

Utomi says the Nigerian middle class is passive rather than active on the issues that propel societal growth and economic development. He groups under the Nigerian middle class the tropical gangster in politics, intellectuals, students, religious leaders, and the business community.  The business community, the author charges, “take cover in feigned neutrality to collaborate with whoever is in power and quietly fund them against the people’s will”. The AGIP approach of the business community would no longer do, he says.

Utomi calls for a reform in the middle-class attitude which is  “ the attitude which sees politics as the arena for only people pursuing their narrow self-interest. This same attitude believes that politicians should be mocked, poked fun at and generally dismissed as having no redemptive value. The result is that the typical Nigerian youth of today feels hopeless and wants out.”

Why Not paints on a broad canvass. The book is a major contribution to studies in Nigerian and African political science, sociology, political economy and mass communication.

Why Not exemplifies Walter Fischer’s Narrative Paradigm Theory in using storytelling to good effect. Narrative Paradigm states that all meaningful communication is in the form of storytelling. Experiences and other factors from the past influence the process.  Why Not is a coherent account with a high degree of fidelity and deploys the tools of narrative to present an account using split screen rather than linear storytelling.

The book adds to the impressive corpus of works featuring the author’s engagement with the Nigerian condition. Works by this renowned professor of political economy include Managing Uncertainty: Competition and Strategy in Emerging Economies, The Art of Leading- Open Secrets of Leadership Effectiveness, and Values and Leadership for Sustainable Development- A compendium on Leadership. Others are Golden thoughts- A collection of Prof Pat Utomi’s views on the Economy politics and social system and Keeping Faith- The Making of an Icon. There are also Business Angel as a Missionary- Reflections of an Economic Growth Activist, Nigeria’s Political Economy and the Courtship with Poverty and Critical Perspectives on Nigerian Political Economy and Management.

Why Not is a courageous stab at the problems of Nigeria. It names and shames with candour.  Why Not was published on February 6, 2019, the anniversary of the author’s 63rd birthday.

Why Not should provoke “debates and a market place of ideas” the presence of which Utomi says would serve as an antidote to the present decline in Nigeria.  To escape “onrushing anarchy”, the book recommends Nigeria should “leapfrog initiatives in education and healthcare; government focused on the people and the common good; a strategy based on dominating the value chains of factor endowments where Nigeria has an obvious latent comparative advantage and creating citizenship culture that breeds patriots”.

Happy birthday, Prof Utomi.