{"id":65556,"date":"2025-05-10T20:42:26","date_gmt":"2025-05-10T20:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=65556"},"modified":"2025-05-10T20:42:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T20:42:26","slug":"utomi-shuns-power-says-nation-needs-clean-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/05\/10\/utomi-shuns-power-says-nation-needs-clean-hands\/","title":{"rendered":"Utomi Shuns Power, Says Nation Needs Clean Hands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>By Ade Iyamoye<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Renowned political economist and founder of the African Democratic Congress, Professor Pat Utomi, has reaffirmed his decision to stay out of Nigeria\u2019s murky political waters, declaring he will neither seek public office nor accept any government appointment.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during an interview on Channels Television\u2019s Politics Today on Friday, Utomi said his choice stems from a desire to remain untainted by what he described as the corruption that riddles public service in Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will not run for office, and I will not take up any government contract or appointment,\u201d Utomi declared. \u201cMy concern is for the next generation. I want to show young people that it is possible to serve the country without being consumed by greed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He dismissed the common belief that critics of government only do so to gain appointments or contracts, insisting his decades-long public commentary have been rooted in principle, not personal ambition.<\/p>\n<p>Utomi also defended his advocacy for a shadow government, urging Nigerians to demand accountability and transparency.<\/p>\n<p>He called on citizens to engage with platforms like the Afrobarometer, a continent-wide survey that tracks democratic trends and public perception of governance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have never taken a dime from government,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to make it clear that some of us speak because we care, not because we are desperate to be offered something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ade Iyamoye Renowned political economist and founder of the African Democratic Congress, Professor Pat Utomi, has reaffirmed his decision to stay out of Nigeria\u2019s murky political waters, declaring he will neither seek public office nor accept any government appointment. Speaking during an interview on Channels Television\u2019s Politics Today on Friday, Utomi said his choice [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":65557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65558,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65556\/revisions\/65558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}