Stay at home to work, Pat Utomi faults how African leaders attend every foreign summit

Professor Pat Utomi has counseled African leaders on the need to be more locally engaged instead of attending every foreign summit they are invited to.

Utomi said this on Friday via his X account, while reacting to the Saudi-Africa summit scheduled to take place in Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian capital city, on November 10.

Ajuri Ngelale, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, while anouncing President Tinubu’s attendance of the Saudi summit, had said that the maiden summit will revolve around supporting joint action, enhancing political coordination, addressing regional security threats, facilitating economic transformation through research and the local development of new energy solutions, all while bolstering cross-sectoral investment cooperation.

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Utomi, while speaking on the summit, said African leaders need to respect themselves, stay back home and do some meaningful work, adding in a tongue-in-cheek manner that at this rate, Oman would soon summon them and they would happily fly over.

Oman is the oldest independent state in the Arab world.

“Why does everyone have a summit with Africa? The US does. Russia does. China does etc., now Saudi Arabia,” Utomi tweeted.

“Can African leaders respect themselves, stay at home and do the work that will liberate this continent from hundreds of years of servitude or soon Oman will summon them.”

 

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