I had the opportunity to be minister but he refused it – Pat Utomi

The famous political economist and activist, Professor Pat Utomi, revealed that the deceased president Umaru Musa Yar’adua offered him a ministerial appointment, but he rejected him.

Yar’adua has been president of Nigeria from 2007 until his death in May 2010

Speaking during an interview with Sunday Sun, Utomi said he had refused the offer because he didn’t want his voice to be suppressed.

Sponsor announcement

According to him, instead of accepting the offer, he suggested seven people to work in the cabinet of the deceased president.

The highest politician transformed into an economist, who recently launched a “shadow government” to serve as criticism of the administration of President Bola Tinubu, said: “I was asked to be a minister before having refused him. The last person who did president Yar’adua and did the mile more. Political science and everything else.

“I know that one of the major challenges we have in Africa is what is called the corporate state in post-colonial Africa. And what does this mean? It means that in African politics, there is a tendency to seek a loud opposition voice and drag the voice into the government. Therefore, as regards the garbage or weaken it.

“President Yar’adua told me that he respects my point of view, but that he believes that I will still have a greater impact from the inside.

“It was a Friday, he closed the job that day and we went home, his residence in the villa. Now I told him, look, I am a patriot. You can wake up at any time, at 2:00 in the morning, ask my opinions and I will give it to you honestly. I told him that I told him that the places have left you. Good people who manage some critical ministries.

“That all these hustler who are looking for jobs can have contract prizes. I stressed that the seven people will make the government work.”

He continued: “And Yar’adua said: Okay, because you don’t find me those seven good people, come with them and I will support you. At that point, I was ready to retire from my position. And I said, but I can’t give you seven names only sitting here. Yar’adua fell ill shortly after. And the rest is history.

“But I was told by someone very elderly who probably never got that envelope because he thought he snubbed it at that moment when he was dying, which is not correct. I didn’t snubbed it.”