A professor of Political Economy and public analyst, Prof. Pat Utomi Tuesday in Ibadan said there was strong possibility that the forthcoming general elections in 2019 may not hold.
He said leaders in Nigeria have obsession to themselves, forgetting about services to the masses.
The Don who stated this at the 70th anniversary of Students Christian Movement (SCM) of University of Ibadan maintained that primaries across parties are the pointers that the general election might not hold.
Utomi said “Can you take seriously any of the primaries that have taken place? We are going to have all kinds of troubles. People within parties will try to sabotage one another. This will spill over. The development might lead to postponement of the elections. The signs are not the best for our democracy.”, he pointed out.
The professor who spoke on the theme: “Treating the Ailing Nation,” said Nigeria is ailing for lack of love and compassion, decrying that people cannot find their voice.
The former presidential adviser said the nation’s public sphere is captured by criminals and real armed robbers and ‘entrepreneurs’ of power.
He maintained that those who enter the arena of leadership are not people who have capacity to lead, adding that Nigeria would soon be considered as a dangerous state in the international community.
He lamented that public sphere is paralysed and the public culture is deeply anti-intellectual.
In her remark, the president of the Movement, Miss Jesufifunmi Emiola, said there are lots the youth can do to change the situation of the country.
She charged the youths to change the way they think and make impacts in order to make the nation greater.
On her part, the Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria PLC, Mrs. Ibukun Awosika who spoke on the theme:” Repositioning Nigerian Youths to Advance the National Economy “,urged the youth to walk into the economy not to fit in, but to stand out.