Confab: Govt Has Treated Youths Like Idiots – Utomi Says

Political economist, Prof Pat Utomi has called out successive governments in Nigeria.

He accused them of treating young people like idiots.

“Governments have been not trustworthy in Nigeria, let’s be very frank,” Utomi said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Thursday.

“It has treated young people like they are idiots, repeatedly, and this is sad because most governments in Nigeria were first run by young people.

“If you think about military rule, they were in their 20s and 30s, most of them, but something in the nature of the command hierarchy of the military, compounded by oil coming in, led to a beginning crystallisation of a new class system in Nigeria.”

Utomi, the founder of the Centre For Value and Leadership,  said for the national youth conference planned by the President Bola Tinubu administration for the first quarter of 2025 to be effective, those in leadership positions must first sincerely admit that they have brutalised young people over the years, apologise to them and give them a commitment to building trust.

The thought leader said, “Any government that does not begin with recognising that it is not trusted is wasting time. So, the first thing that it needs to do is start building trust and that begins with honest commitment.”

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“There are models of how you build trust but the first thing begins by your doing the right thing and building what they call an emotional bank account.

“Every time you say you are going to do something and you do exactly what you say you are going to do, you make a deposit in the emotional bank account. Every time you say you are going to do something and you don’t do it, you make a withdrawal.

“Ultimately, whether you are believable is a function of the balance in that emotional bank account,” Utomi added.