Former Presidential candidate, Pat Utomi, on Friday noted that Nigerian leaders should be ashamed of the standard of living they are giving the younger generation.
The popular Nigerian Professor of Political Economy said it is shameful that they enjoyed life in the past than the present generation.
Utomi stated this at a symposium to commemorate the installation of Hon. Ladi Adebutu as the Lisa Aje of Egbaland.
The symposium, which was held at Park Inn hotel, Kuto, had the theme: “Public-Private Partnership For The Development of Ogun State.”
Utomi who also blamed himself said, “We should feel a deep sense of personal shame that we had a better life than our children.”
He further stated that such must not be allowed to continue if the future of Nigeria is to be guaranteed.
“In most societies, the question people ask is that, ‘is your life better today than it was yesterday?”
“Every generation is expected to have a life better than the generation before. We, as teenagers, as young professional men and women have had better lives than our children and we must not let this to continue.”
Utomi also lamented that Nigeria has refused to develop despite taking all steps towards development, he compared the nation to Singapore, which he said was once in the same condition as Nigeria.
According to him, there is nothing Singapore did that Nigeria has not done, yet the country remains in the same position.
“Where is the place of discipline in development? Where is the place of commitment? Singapore’s progress was significantly a result of forced-saving, that is saving money by force, ditto pension funds, ditto housing funds. Today, our money is disappearing from pension funds,” he said.
While saying there is the need to look at why Nigeria has not succeeded in many things, Utomi said the nation is not budgeting enough money for infrastructure, which he said is fundamental to the ability to create wealth.
He stated that the larger part of the nation’s budget is being spent on recurrent expenditure.
With this, he advocated Public Private Partnership (PPP), opining that infrastructure must not be left in the hands of the government alone.
