Professor Patrick Okedinachi Utomi who hails from Igbuzo in Delta State Nigeria was born 65 years ago. He studied Mass Communication at the University of Nigeria Nsukka and attended Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA where he obtained his Ph.D., MPA, MA. Prof. Utomi has been a scholar-in-residence, at Harvard Business School, and the American University in Washington DC. He is a humanitarian, a businessman, a family man, and a patriotic citizen of Nigeria. The teacher is a fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of Nigeria and the founding Senior Faculty of the Lagos Business School, where he was also Director of the Centre for Applied Economics.
He has served as an Adviser to the President of Nigeria; as well as the Chief Operating Officer for Volkswagen Nigeria. Prof. Utomi who is also an accomplished columnist has authored many Management and Public Policy books like “To serve is to Live”; “Critical Perspectives in Political Economy and Management”; “Conscience” and other inspiring books and articles.
His academic background and knowledge extends from Business Administration, Economics, Political Science to Mass Communication. He is a founder and co-founder in many fields like Financial Services; ICT; Media and Agriculture as well as the Centre for Value in Leadership (CVL), The Widow Support Centre, Vice-chairman Platinum-Habib Bank, and many more.
He has also served in private sectors like The National Council of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) as well as the chairman of Poise Nigeria Limited. His interests cut across Politics, Education, Health, Economic Empowerment, Human Rights, etc. This has led the Professor of Political Economy and Management Expert to reiterate that bad leadership is the cause of the nation’s collapse with many citizens’ outcry for restructuring as a means of making Nigeria better. He remarked that inadequate reform of the financial system with the provision of adequate incentives to finance production could result in a prolonged recession.
He has tasked the Federal government with corruption and insecurity and also urged the youth to embrace the spirit of entrepreneurship to save the country from its dwindling economic growth. The humanitarian spoke out loudly among others during the #EndSars protest against the victimization of protesters. He, therefore, advised the authority to trade cautiously with the youths as they can mobilize the country.
He is one of the people who condemned the Federal government’s decision on spending $1.5 billion on moribund Port Harcourt Refinery rehabilitation. He spoke via Channels Television that this agenda does not make economic sense. This he analyzed that fossil fuel will be of little or no use shortly as the world is sourcing for alternate energy. He instead advised the government to sell the refinery as it is and channel the stated funds into productive areas that can create job opportunities for the citizens. These moves will also boost the economy even as over 40% of the Nigerian youth are unemployed and about 50% percent of the graduating youth has little chance of becoming employed in the next five years. He mentioned that $1.5 billion can create SME manufacturing clusters and agricultural out-grower schemes for young people in all the local government areas of the states and narrated that the failing state situation has to be reversed by considering the calculated state’s efforts.
Prof Utomi
Prof. Utomi is a living legend and an international speaker, who has studied and written about the political economy growth in Latin America and Asia among other nations.
