Professor of political economy and public affairs analyst, Pat Utomi, has given an insight into his appointment as economic adviser in the administration of the late President Shehu Shagari in the 1980s, explaining that he got the job without lobbying anyone.
Prof. Utomi, who spoke in an exclusive interview on C-Suite Cafe, anchored by Ikem Okuhu, said he got the appointment in his 20s when he came back from his studies in the United States and was given an opportunity to serve by the late Vice President Alex Ekwueme.
Giving a background to the events that led to that appointment, Utomi traced it back to his years as a student at the Loyola College, Ibadan.
Utomi said during that period, Midwestern Igbo boys in Ibadan always visited the former Director-General of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, Engr. Vincent Maduka, who was then the Managing Director of the Western Nigeria Television, WNTV.
“You will recall that Engr. Vincent Maduka, who was the first DG of the NTA, came from WNTV in Ibadan. I was in the Loyola College, Ibadan, during the civil war years.
“So, a group of us Midwest Igbo boys who went to school in Ibadan during the civil war years had him literally as our big uncle, or our Diokpa in Ibadan. We used to go to his home,” Utomi said.
According to Utomi, when he returned from the United States after earning his PhD at 26, he met Engr. Maduka at an event in Lagos and was invited to see him in his office.
On his visit to the NTA, Utomi said Engr. Maduka directed the Managing Director, NTA News, at the time, Mohammed Ibrahim, to interview him on television.
He said he was asked questions on tax policy, an issue he had been writing about for Sunday Times before he returned to Nigeria.
“It was this same thing we are dealing with today in Nigeria in taxation. I had talked about the issues of horizontal and vertical equity in taxation and so on and so forth.
“So, NTA people put me on air and they were asking me about tax policy. And I went around explaining the Dutch disease and the problems of taxation.
“As it turned out, one of those watching the news was the vice president of the country, Dr. Alex Ekwueme and he had in his company a dear friend of his, who was chairman of his political committee and he said to him, I wish we could get hold of this young man. That person was Chief Bayo Kuku,” Utomi said.
Following this, the vice president sent some of his of aides, among who was one of his classmate, Obi Ume-Ezeoke, to look for the young Utomi and invite him to his office for discussion.
After discussing with Dr. Ekwueme, he was asked to write a paper on the issues they discussed about in taxation.
“A week later, the vice president’s special assistant gave me an appointment to see the vice president and just in the middle of casual conversation, the vice president said, ‘by the way, yesterday President Shagari approved for you to replace Prof. Odenigwe.’ That’s how I found myself in government.”
Prof. Utomi said Nigeria was different at the time he was appointed into government, pointing out that no one spoke for him, or lobbied on his behalf to get the job.
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