Politics
PROF. Pat Utomi, Convener of the Big Tent Coalition of Political Parties, Civil Society Organisations and Social Movements, says the movement plans to mobilise humanitarian aid for flood victims nationwide.
Utomi, a professor of prolitical economy and leader of the Third Force political coalition supporting the Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr Peter Obi and his running mate, Sen. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, made this known in a statement on Monday in Lagos.
The statement was signed by Mr Charles Odibo, the Head, Big Tent For Obi/Baba Ahmed Campaign Communiccation Directorate.
Utomi made the remark while addressing a global network of ‘Obidents’ (supporters of Mr Peter Obi) across the world in a zoom meeting.
According to him, the movement has moral obligation to mobilise and channel energies, material and medical resources to alleviate the sorry plight of victims of the current flooding across the country.
He lamented that up to 700 people had been established to have died so far in 2022 as a result of flooding in Nigeria.
Urging governments not to ignore the rampaging disaster, Utomi said that the governments should have implemented recommendations made over the years against flooding.
Utomi urged the government to treat the flood disaster as a national emergency.
I want to empathise with all who have lost dear ones and the many more whose property, including life long investments have been lost to the floods.
“With pain I recall haven served on a committee set up by the Delta Government on the effect of flooding a decade ago. I not only served on that committee but canvassed civil society and corporate CSR involvement.”
According to him, at a personal level, he has also organised a Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL) emergency response initiative, sending truckloads of mattresses, food items and in additition to consumables largely from my corporate friends.
“I followed up with personal visits to communities along the Gongola River in Adamawa , my Native Delta and Anambra where I collaborated with the Catholic Archdiocese of Onisha, visiting IDP camps in the company of the Archbishop of Onisha Dr. Valerian Maduka Okeke,” he added.
Utomi said that Obi rose in his evaluation when in 2012 he ran into him in Florida when the then incumbent Governor of Anambra, was on his way to Haiti as a humanitarian volunteer worker following a natural disaster there.
He urged all Nigerians to show care to their challenged neighbours “because in solidarity our humanity is elevated.”
Utomi, the leader of the National Consultative Front (NCFront) said he had made series of suggestions on how the nation could avert the outcome of climate change, which he feared then could be a seasonal issue for the future.
He, however, said that not much was done to plan to avert future flooding through a network of Dams that would capture floodwaters for all season farming and irrigation.
“We have an imperative of seriousness in the new world that involves anticipating problem and preventing problems we can foresee from deepening our misery to rise as citizens to heal the wound of the floods.
“Nigeria must set about constructing a network of Dams down the Niger and Benue Rivers.
“Such can help us capture these flood waters that currently devastate lives and convert them into services of all season irrigation for farming all year round.”
He commended doctors and medics for Peter Obi, for the mission they had in Delta, offering medical assistance to flood plains in the state.
Utomi also applauded the input of the Health Deep dive team in the Big Tent Policy and future view shadow group, led by Dr Lorretta Ogboro-Okor, on how to prevent the floods from becoming a health care epidemic and disaster.(NAN)
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Tags: Charles Odibo Labour Party Peter Obi Prof. Pat Utomi Valerian Maduka Okeke Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed
