The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned prominent economist, Pat Utomi for comparing President Bola Tinubu to Adolf Hitler.
Speaking via a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the ruling party stated that it was reckless and insensitive for Utomi to liken Nigerians experience under the administration of Tinubu to the fascist conditions in Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Morka argued that the freedom granted to Utomi to announce a shadow government without any consequences shows that the government is tolerant of the opposition.
He asserted that Utomi’s submission on Tinubu’s government is reckless, insensitive and beneath a man of his standing.
Morka said, “Utomi is, and has always been, a poster child of freedom of thought, speech, conscience, association, and even freedom of intellectual aggression. Utomi has enjoyed and continues to enjoy his fullest constitutional right to think, say and act as he chooses. He continues to enjoy democratic choice freely, unconstrained and unrestrained
“He has gained global recognition as a serial promoter of mega parties, mega coalitions and mega tents, hindered only by the unrealism of his contraptions.
“The suggestion that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is suppressing opposing views is simply preposterous. Utomi’s unilateral declaration of a shadow government, in a presidential democracy, is, in and of itself, an exercise of democratic freedom and free speech, in the extreme.
“It is deeply disturbing and desperately dramatic for Utomi to liken Nigeria’s democratic experience to fascist conditions in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany. That approximation is reckless, irresponsible and insensitive and should be beneath a man of Utomi’s standing but has clearly cast reason and rationality aside for sensational and virulent discourse.”
The APC mocked Utomi, saying his serial failed attempt to win an election has disillusioned him, hence, his comparison of Tinubu’s government with Hitler’s.
“Utomi’s partisan disorientation, his failed bid for the Delta State APC gubernatorial ticket in 2019, an unfulfilled stalwart of Labour Party in Peter Obi’s 2023 presidential campaign, and his several dead on arrival third force mega opposition gamble, has clearly taken a huge toll on the erudite Professor’s political judgment.”
The APC also faulted Utomi’s stance on fuel subsidy removal, saying: “That Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Peter Obi of LP both campaigned, like President Tinubu, to end the system of fuel subsidy is not propaganda as Utomi alleges in his revisionist quibbles. Rather, it is a statement of fact that both Atiku and Obi campaigned on that policy approach.
“Even as a political economist, Utomi continues to fumble through conversations on the question of an alternative approach to both policies. Simply exploiting and dramatising what are inevitable initial difficulties associated with the policies Nigerians have had to endure for sustainable growth and prosperity is not genius; it smacks of crass political opportunism and desperation.”
Furthermore, the APC said that contrary to Utomi’s claim, it was not the responsibility of the ruling party to help the opposition parties manage their internal crisis.