Nigerian Reform Candidate Seeks Economic Changes

With elections set for April in Nigeria, Patrick Utomi, the reform coalition candidate for president, called for sweeping changes in the nation's economy and in its educational and highway systems at a Feb. 16 Newsmaker.

"We have one of the least competitive economies in Africa," he said.

Utomi's self-described passion is tackling the high youth unemployment rate by diversifying Nigeria's oil-dependent economy. His idea, which he calls the "Six Dubai Strategy," envisions agricultural, coal, and other resource production organized around Nigeria's six geo-political zones.

In addition, he wants to attract human capital from the diaspora, initiate a new constitution, and focus on basic and vocational education.

According to Utomi, these changes would improve Nigeria's "inchoate economy" and "enormous security challenges."

He also lamented that despite its promises "the government failed to build a single new highway the last 12 years." Utomi drew a nightmarish portrait of dangerously delapidated roads.

One of four challengers to President Good Luck Jonathan, Utomi is director of the Center of Applied Economics in Lagos as well as a management expert and entrepreneur. He was a scholar in residence at American University in 1996 while also a research associate at Harvard Business School.

"We need to get a leadership willing to make changes," Utomi said. "Nigeria is losing ground to Angola, where there is more oil investment."

Utomi said Tunisia set the region "on fire," and that the winds of change are blowing across Nigeria.

"We cannot sustain having our money spent for political causes and not on the people," he said. He questioned why in Nigeria "democracy has not produced leadership."

The nation's politicians "take whatever they want from the treasury" while ignoring needs of the people, according to Utomi, who said the country needs a new constitution.

"The people of Nigeria want change," he said.

--Robert Webb, [email protected] and Kelly Nuxoll, [email protected]