Professor of political economy, Pat Utomi, has revealed that the late former President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua once persuaded him to join his cabinet as a minister.

Speaking on the Csuite Café programme, Utomi said he declined the offer, telling Yar’Adua that he would rather offer advice when consulted than serve as a minister.

Utomi said Yar’Adua, however, insisted that he could make a greater impact from within government than from outside.

According to him, the late president was a “committed patriot” who genuinely wanted to move Nigeria forward, adding that the country would have been “a different place” if Yar’Adua had lived.

“One Friday, he invited me over to the Villa to try to persuade me to join his cabinet. We met in his office. He was in the meeting with the economic team.

“He made the pitch on why I should join his government. I said to him that the thing is not joining but impact, and I don’t think I can have an impact in this kind of PDP environment.

“The best I can do as a patriot is to give advice anytime of the day. He said that is not good enough; inside, you can make a difference more than what you can say outside,” Utomi recalled.

Yar’Adua died on May 5, 2010, and was succeeded by his then Vice-President, Goodluck Jonathan.

Utomi said Nigeria would have taken a different path had Yar’Adua survived his illness.

“Nigeria would have been a different place had Umaru Musa Yar’Adua lived. He was really and truly a committed patriot as president.

“He may have made a mistake here and there, but he was a committed patriot who wanted Nigeria to move forward,” he said.

Utomi added that after several minutes of persuasion, he told Yar’Adua it would be difficult for him to join the cabinet after having formed a shadow government.

He said Yar’Adua offered to speak with members of the shadow government and persuade them to join his administration.

“He said he was willing to talk to all of them and say to them that they can come and join his government to build the country together. That is a spirit of leadership that this country needs desperately,” Utomi said.

He added that he later offered to provide Yar’Adua with a list of seven people whom he believed had the capacity to help move the country forward.

Utomi said he sent the list to Yar’Adua through Stephen Oronsaye, a former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation.

“I went back and wrote the names of seven people across Nigeria who I thought had capacity and could make a difference,” he said.

“I gave it to Steve Oronsaye to give him. He took ill around that time and went abroad. The rest is history.”

Utomi said he was later informed that Yar’Adua never received the list and might have died believing that he had deliberately ignored his request. (The Guardian)

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