Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin

A political economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, at the weekend, declared that the youths will determine 2019 general election and urged the younger generation to resist the temptation of  allowing their political decisions to be determined by unscrupulous politicians.

Utomi, who made the statement while reacting to the disagreement between the Federal Government and the Peoples Democratic Party over alleged looted public funds, said corruption has become a major problem hindering the progress of the country.

He, therefore, called on Nigerians, irrespective of party affiliations, to join hands with government to end corruption in the country.

Speaking at an event tagged: “Discover Me,” organised by the Simply Worship International Ministry in Benin, Edo State, Utomi urged youths in Nigeria to take urgent steps to prevent the persistent plundering of the nation’s wealth.

Related News

“First of all, I think it is important to understand that corruption is frightening; it is destroying our country and people find all kinds of things that distract us from the main understanding of how terrible corruption is against the progress of our country.

“We must collectively work to reduce, if not eliminate, corruption from our body polity. The second thing is that I am one of those repulsed a little bit by the excessive partisanship of the Nigerian situation.

“We must, as a people, collectively recognise some problems we have as a country and work together to solve them and not reducing them (because) that is what makes it easy for the bad people to get away with it. 

“As a person that many entities turn to for opinions on what to do in Nigeria, I know how many times major corporations around the world have turned away from investing in Nigeria after seeing the opportunity because of the fact that in Nigeria, there is so much corruption.

“In Nigeria, one of the biggest risks is regulatory risk; government institutions are a major risk for business because of the ineptitude, sometimes, because of the partisanship and personal nature of their decisions. So, it is important that we work across party lines to stop these things,” he said.