Like Ezekwesili, Utomi says Buhari has a medieval mindset

The number of supporters of President Muhammadu Buhari seems to be reducing by the day, especially as concerns his leadership thrust and economic direction.

A one-time presidential aspirant, and prominent member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Prof. Pat Utomi has lamented that the president is leading Nigeria with a medieval mindset, which he said prevents the administration from getting the best ideas.

According to The Sun, Utomi spoke at a Breakfast Meeting organised by the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Victory Chapel, Province 21, Magodo, Lagos State.

It would be recalled, that a former Minister for Education, Oby Ezekwesili had expressed similar sentiments that the economic policies put forward by the President Buhari administration are similar to the ones he also adopted in 1984, when he was a Military head of State.

Utomi, the founder of Centre for Value in Leadership (CVL), who was a guest speaker at the event, said “The problem with Buhari’s administration is his medieval mindset. He excludes rather than includes. So, he does not get the best idea. He is insular. I don’t push him in this conversation but I am sure that if I put my friend, the vice president under pressure, he will admit what I am saying. Because of their medieval mindset, they have created a country that is more divided than they met it. And that is a problem for leadership that is marching towards progress.”

According to him, the country is faced with the present economic crisis, because President Buhari was ruling the country as if he was still in the medieval period.

The management expert and professor of political economy noted that he was among those who wrote the ruling party’s roadmap and manifesto, but what is in place is not what was planned.

Read also: Archaic 1984 economic policies can’t work today, Ezekwesili tells Buhari

He continued: “Everything is based on context. Take a look at the mismanagement of this fuel thing; the whole idea is nonsensical. It doesn’t have to go on like this; you are punishing Nigerian people unnecessarily. The sufferings that Nigerians have endured in the last couple of weeks over this petrol crisis have reduced productivity. If you throw it open to people across the world to bring petrol to Nigeria and sell at any price, you will discover that within a year, the price of petrol will be lower than the government’s fixed price today.

“You (Buhari) set up a committee called Transition Committee. It suggested that you deregulate the whole thing about crude oil, but no, you won’t. Your ideas go back 30 years and they are irrelevant to this world. Open up your mind
and listen to people and you can make progress. To lead is to serve”, he said.

He urged the government to invest in its human resources –education and overall well-being in order to yield demographic dividends, adding, that he was of the belief that quality leadership would make the seemingly impossible to be possible.

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