Nigeria needs leaders who understand economics to double output – Utomi

Prof. Patrick Utomi, Nigerian professor of political economy and management expert, on Tuesday, said that Nigeria needs leaders who understand economics and how economies work so as to double output in production.

Utomi made said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.

He said that the tragedy of the current circumstance of huge unemployment, poverty, among others, needs people who have an understanding of what is “beyond to share” to tackle these challenges.

“We live in the age of knowledge capital and knowledge is more valuable than any mineral resources.

“The struggle over these resources is distracting Nigeria from focusing on what matters with production.

“No country has become wealthy from revenues, countries become wealthy from production,” the professor said.

He said that Nigeria needs leaders with a clear strategy on how to get the country to begin to produce, suggesting that this could be done by focusing development on the endowment available.

“Some parts of Nigeria have sesame seeds, some have cocoa, and some have crude among many other natural endowments.

“What to do is to take a certain number of this, each to every region and create clusters of industrial parks around those places,” the professor said.

Utomi, who recently met with the Presidential aspirant of the Peoples Republic Party (PRP), Ms Patience Key, said he was not averse to a woman being the next president of Nigeria.

“Gender is just prejudice; we are all equally talented so anybody can make a difference.

“In Scandinavian countries such as Denmark and Finland, the cabinets are more than 50 per cent women under 40, including the prime minister, are doing well.

“So, I have all the confidence in the world that women can make a difference if allowed to rule,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ms Patience Key said that Nigeria needs to be peaceful and free of insecurities if the country is to witness development and growth.

The former chairperson, Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation (NIDO), said her three-point agenda is interwoven and and would work together towards creating the desired stability, peace and wealth in the country.

“One of them focuses on building peace in Nigeria, the second focuses on building equitable relationship in the communities and the third is on wealth creation for Nigerians,” Key said.