Political economist, management expert and public intellectual, Prof. Pat Utomi, has said that there is no messiah coming to save Nigerians, but only the will of the people.
Speaking on Arise News on Tuesday, Utomi said that if the opposition collaborates and cooperates on certain issues, it would be more effective in achieving the goal of unseating the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, in 2027.
He noted that it is incorrect to say that the opposition can only defeat the incumbent if they merge, insisting that any of the opposition parties can beat the incumbent on a level playing field.
He added that the opposition would have to cooperate and collaborate on certain issues to be more effective in achieving that goal.
He said: “And so, whoever comes from amongst them and is the one that has the headwind to make that happen can do it a little more easily, but there have to be conditions.
“Conditions that advance the common good. For too long, I’ve watched our country deal with the challenge of power versus purpose.
“People are obsessed with power, and purpose is not clear. And then you have power come to them, and they’re just the same as the lot before them, or sometimes much worse, as we have seen repeatedly.
“It’s been a downward slide. So there are a number of things that must happen. We have to aggregate certain things. We have to come to a collegial understanding that whoever has passed the post has to function within a certain context in which the common good is kind of agreed. And this messiah complex, ‘Oh, it’s this man who will save us’, nonsense.
“There’s no messiah out there. The will of the people, properly articulated in the group that says the current order does not work, let’s replace it with something better for all of us. And so, collegially, they find a new way forward for their country.”
