By Juliet Umeh
LAGOS — A political coalition generally known as The Huge Tent, yesterday, warned that the nation is collapsing underneath the burden of poverty, insecurity, institutional decay, and elite failure.
Talking on behalf of the coalition at a media briefing, Convener of The Huge Tent, Prof. Pat Utomi, described the scenario as an “existential disaster requiring pressing civic motion and accountable management.”
Utomi mentioned: “We envision Nigeria as a beacon for African progress, main a flock of countries towards prosperity, very similar to the Asian Tigers. However to realize this, we should confront onerous truths. We should get up to the struggling round us.”
He recognized poverty as probably the most seen signal of management failure, noting, “that 75 per cent of rural Nigerians now dwell in persistent poverty. Starvation is ravaging the land.”
“The agricultural economic system has collapsed. Farmers can’t farm, and but our political elite are obsessive about convoys, jets, and SUVs. It’s morally bankrupt”, he added.
Warning of an unfolding meals disaster, he mentioned: “Over 30 million Nigerians are liable to extreme meals insecurity through the June–August lean season. Our agriculture crew raised this alarm months in the past, however the authorities was too distracted by propaganda.”
To handle this, Utomi proposed structural reforms together with overhauling land tenure legal guidelines, empowering universities for extension companies, and supporting agro-processing clusters.
He mentioned: “Simply as land grant universities revolutionised U.S. farming, we should re-engage our educational establishments in agriculture.”
On insecurity, Utomi, who careworn the hyperlink between poverty and rising violence, mentioned: “Poverty makes individuals simple recruits for terrorists and criminals. We’d like decentralised policing; let native governments and states handle their safety.
“From cocoa within the South-West to lithium within the North-Central, every area has untapped potential. But it surely have to be pushed by the non-public sector, with the federal government performing as a sensible enabler.”
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