Unlike Obasanjo's day, no austerity reaction by this administration - Pat Utomi

Former presidential aspirant and policial economist, Professor Patrick Utomi has said this current political administration has not shown any concern or austerity measures to the present economic meltdown.

He said this last week during an exclusive interview with Channel's TV.

According to him, the political class in the country have all done more harm to the country than good.

Revealing how bad the country credit worthiness has waned, Utomi said "even China is reluctant to lend Nigeria......China was lending anyhow to anybody but even China is reluctant to lend money to Nigeria."

He also added that the global hike in prices of petrol products should not be an excuse why Nigeria is facing similar crises as the country is a primary producer of crude oil and still subsidises the product.

When asked to describe the management of the economy, he said it is "abysmal!" repeating it three times: "abysmal! Abysmal!! Abysmal!!!".

Lamenting the lack of austerity measures by the current administration, the former presidential aspirant said, "when President Obasanjo was the president of this country or head of state of this country, and I was a young troublesome youth corper reporter attacking everybody, he  (Obasanjo) said look crude oil prices have just dropped, we must go to a low profile.

"And as an head of state, he reduced himself to Peugeot 504 as official cars. And if a head of state is running Peugeot 594 as official car, nobody could run on a car bigger."

He then bemoaned the lack of such concern and austerity effort by this current administration.

"Show me one signal that those who run Nigeria today have got aby kind of austerity measures to cut down cost that Nigeria is in any economic trouble," he added.

Patrick Okedinachi Utomi, commonly known as Pat Utomi, is a Nigerian professor of political economy and management expert. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of Nigeria and a former presidential candidate. He is the founder of Centre for Value in Leadership and the African Democratic Congress.