Nigeria needs consensus, national unity team to heal — Utomi

The coalition of concerned citizens said what Nigeria needs is a government of national unity spearheaded by selfless men of values, courage, competence and character to heal wounds.

The coalition includes social movements, civil society, the New Fabian Society of the Concerned Professionals, the NCFRONT and the Third Force Cluster of Political Parties.

The Convener, Prof. Pat. Utomi, a former presidential candidate and political economist, at a news conference on the state of the nation on Friday in Lagos, said there was need to form a consensus and national unity approach to move the nation forward.

In a speech  entitled:”A Time to Begin Again”, Utomi, who noted that Nigeria had been troubled and challenged, urged stakeholders to find an alternative track toward a national unity solution to the nation’s challenges.

“We must now forge a consensus and the national unity team, an approach to governing during this season of a yet-to-be-declared national emergency which poses an existential threat to all the parties notwithstanding.

“Where we are today, what Nigeria needs is a government of national unity. The reason we are all setting aside dominant groups and gladiators is to heal the wounds now in our country.

“We are all calling on statesmen to find an alternative track. It is not the matter of blaming who did right or who did wrong. The time to do that will come. What is uppermost in the minds of all decent men is the need to save Nigeria,” he said.

According to him, Afenifere, Arewa Consultative Forum and Ohaneze Ndigbo, Niger Delta People Congress and the Middle Belt forum can be consulted to nominate people into the unity government forum.

Utomi said that the primary objective of the briefing was to tell the story of how alternative party had been evolving and where things were at this time.

“We have built a clear platform we call ‘Big Tent’ and everybody can come into it, which has been organising town hall meetings and a number of things,” Utomi added.

The convener added that Nigeria needed people who had shown a track record of sacrificial service through their lives for the good of the society.

He said that communities should find such people among them to serve the people, not those who were desperate to rule them.

“We are therefore calling on faith groups, community leaders, illuminant associations to seek out the members of their community and bring them forward with suggested position they should contest,” he said.

Utomi said there was no way the country would make progress if the ‘money bags’ continued to decide who governs the people.

According to him, the nation needs to reconstruct its political parties and that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has a huge role to play in terms of rules to favour emergence of right candidates.

The convener said that many concerned professionals had been frustrated by the way the nation was being run, hence the various moves for regrouping to put the nation back on track through creation of a “third force”.

He explained that the third force was not a political machine to win election but a platform for citizens of values, competence and character to build the Nigeria of the founding fathers’ dreams.

The convener, who decried the unemployment and security situation in the country said: “You do not have to make an effort to realise that these are grim times in Nigeria.

“Our country is troubled and we need all hands on deck for a salvage operation. These times called for people of courage and conviction to bring wisdom to the table.

“We will, therefore, call on all gladiators to sheath their swords and recognise that which is at the very survival of Nigeria and the future of our children and their children after them.

“We want here to invite statesmen to approach the challenge of the moment in building a national unity solution with the same adroitness that retired Gen. Yakubu Gowon approached matters in 1967, the Ibrahim Babangida step aside transition and the Yar’ Adua season doctrine of necessity.”

Describing the ‘Big Tent’ as a college of reformers, Utomi said the group was a new politics and the new Nigeria that put the people of Nigeria first in  its approach while values and ideas would be the focus rather then ‘big men’ without integrity and merit.

The convener said: “We seek to build old generation consensus and collegial leadership as our approach not to proclaim Messiahs.

“The purpose of the alternative track is to return politics to the domain of simple men filled with love like our founding fathers, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Dr. Michael Okpara, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Aminu Kano, and Tafawa Balewa.

“ We are convinced that the labels of the heroes of a struggle past and present like the Bala Usmans, Gani Fawehinmis, Chidi Ubanis, Olisa Agbokobas, Ayo Obes, Femi Falanas, Gambo Sawabas, and Margaret Ekpos will cement the desperate desire of our people for a new beginning to ensure that Nigeria will rise up again.”