Pat Utomi plans to mobilise 7.2 million Nigerians for protest against political elite

Pat Utomi, professor of political economy, says he is working to mobilise 7.2 million Nigerians to converge on Abuja in protest against Nigeria’s political elite.

Utomi said the protest, tagged “Freedom Converge”, is aimed at reclaiming the country from “entrenched systems of state capture and self-serving leadership”.

Speaking on ‘Breakfast Central’, a programme on News Central, Utomi said the protest is necessary because the people’s voices have been suppressed.

“The government don’t want people’s voices to be raised and that is why Nigerians have to take back their country,” he said.

“A Catholic bishop in Nsukka, Bishop Onah, is known for a particular homily in which he says ‘a country that the leaders don’t fear their people is as good as dead,’ and that is true.

“The political class now has complete and total contempt for the Nigerian people.”

Utomi said democracy in Nigeria has been eroded by fear and violence, noting that even under military rule, citizens were freer to express themselves.

“Democracy is supposed to be our people raising their voices,” he said.

“Even under military rule, when I was a younger person  50 years ago as an undergraduate, sometimes things will be happening and we’re on the streets demonstrating.

“To find that Nigerians can’t even think — out of fear. Soldiers didn’t shoot Nigerians the way civilians are shooting Nigerians for wanting to express themselves.

“Something has gone fundamentally wrong with that democracy. It cannot be called a democracy anymore and so we need to make it a democracy.

“We need to begin to express ourselves and to make sure the people know that they are the bosses, they own the country. Agents cannot become the people who own the place.”

He said the planned convergence will be a month-long process and not just a one-day protest.

“An expression that is loud that the world can hear of the voice of the Nigerian people that ‘enough is enough’ is a critical one if we want this process to remain democratic,” he said.

“So we have chosen to get together to express ourselves. It is not just one protest, it is a process, I mean the demonstration itself or the converge on Abuja.

“The process will take nearly one month. It started now already. We’re looking at about the 1st of December and between now and then, activity moving towards that will be taking place all across Nigeria.”

He said various programmes such as concerts and colloquia will be held in the weeks leading to the Abuja protest to sensitise Nigerians on their rights.

“A week or two before the actual converging on Abuja, we will be having concerts, colloquia, all kinds of programmes to enlighten people about their rights and freedom,” he said.

“Just the way the Martin Luther King and co march on Washington in 1964 took place.

“We will have activities in Maiduguri, activities in Sokoto, activities in Yenagoa, activities in Asaba, in Ado Ekiti, and then progressively in convoys, in trailers, the people will start moving towards Abuja and converge all in green white green.

“If you look down from a satellite as the crowd moves towards Abuja, you will have a spectacle the world will remember of green, white, and green coming in from every angle into the city of Abuja. This is what we plan to do.

“We have a right as citizens to protest. If they try to stop us, somebody may stop them. Let them be sure of that.”