Professor Pat Utomi, a Nigerian economist and political commentator, has warned that Nigeria’s democracy is sliding toward collapse. In a Facebook post on Monday, he said the decline did not happen overnight.
He blamed civil society for failing to speak out as warning signs appeared. He also said Nigerians have accepted a system that lets people die so others can hold on to power.
The post is the latest in a long line of public interventions by Utomi, who has spent years warning about the capture of Nigerian politics by a small elite.
His 2018 book, Why Not: Citizenship, State Capture, Creeping Fascism and the Criminal Hijack of Politics in Nigeria, outlined these concerns in detail.
Monday’s post comes barely three months to the 2027 general elections.
It also follows a series of controversies over INEC’s handling of candidate lists and allegations of political intimidation across several states.
Utomi’s warning touches on a wider debate about the health of Nigeria’s democratic institutions, particularly under the current government of President Bola Tinubu who came into office in 2023.
Utomi Says Nigerians Have Accepted Slavery
Utomi wrote that the country has submitted to a yoke of slavery as a culture. He said he warned about this eight years ago in his book. He added that what he predicted has come to pass.
“The obsessive lust for power, unearned wealth, and domination of others has turned a group of narcissists masquerading as politicians into slaves, oblivious to the consequences of their conduct for the future of their own children.”
He accused those who watch the decline without acting of becoming what he called children of Hagar. He described them as “slaves of a more despicable breed.”
The reference to Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, the late Afrobeat musician and activist, is instructive.
Fela used his music in the 1970s through the 1990s to attack military rule, corruption, and the abuse of power. Utomi used Fela’s legacy to compare the country’s current condition with that era.
Context: Who Pat Utomi Is and Why He Matters
Utomi who founded the Lagos Business School and has advised governments and institutions on economic policy in 2023 supported Peter Obi, then the candidate of the Labour Party.
He is one of the leading voices advocating for an opposition coalition to oust the current regime.
He was also a former presidential aspirant and a member of the National Consultative Front (NCFront), a political movement pushing for electoral change.
Utomi's main point is that democracy dies when citizens stay silent. He said civil society failed to speak out when the warning signs first appeared. That failure, he argued, allowed the slide to continue.
Several parties have alleged restrictions on campaigning, attacks on supporters, and pressure on INEC. The ruling APC has denied these allegations and challenged rivals to provide proof.
Utomi’s warning therefore fits a growing pattern of alarm about Nigeria’s democratic direction. Tinubu’s supporters say it is nothing but the hysteria of a failing opposition whose message of change are not resonating with the Nigerian masses.
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