Remarks by Prof Pat Utomi at Press briefing on the new tribe and its state of the motherland report on 26/1/24 at the CVL center

Gentlemen of the Press

THE STATE OF THE MOTHERLAND

Thank you all sincerely for joining us for this briefing from The New Tribe.
These are unusual times. As the good book says when sin abides Grace abides even more. We count on Grace to advance the frontiers of service land citizenship in these times.
The state of our Motherland is troubling.
You just witnessed the reading of excerpts from two of my most recent books. One of them opens with a tragic paradox that is apt for the current state of our motherland.
In Why Not I opened with a then trending story of a young man who had raped his own mother to death and then sodomized her body as rigor morris set in. I had assumed immidiately that it was a case of mental health troubles until I went beyond the headlines and read that some religious or fetish people had assured him the reward for so sordid a deed was wealth beyond measure.
I thought it appropriate metaphor for Nigeria where many of us should be in perpetual Thanksgiving to a country that privileged us to come from nothing to a place of recognition and a decent life but choose to rape that mother so much with the opportunity of public life that we have got to where we are as poverty capital of the world, home of the most out of school children in the world where unemployment statistics feed violence and insecurity.
It is for the correction of this unfortunate outcome of our current experience that The New Tribe has been birthed. The new tribe (the newtribe.com.ng) is a coming together of citizens committed to personal integrity, a culture of merit and social justice, sacrificial service to advance the common good, the work ethic and making production an anchor of economic engagement and favour reason and rational disposition over emotions of ethnicity and faith often weaponized by political actors. The structure of thenewtribe which is a nonpartisan but not an apolitical social movement is built on 14 cohorts of social action and seven cohorts of organization.
The new tribe due to be formally unveiled on October 1 has been much active since its portal thenewtribe.co.ng went live on May 1. The most active cohorts as of now are the Health care cohort, the Ubuntu community cohort, the public accountability cohort, the Infrastructure and economic growth cohort and elections cohort.
An essential duty of the new tribe is to offer a review of the state of the motherland to stimulate sober reflection, rational public conversation, the proposal of alternatives and inspiring of self help to enrich the well being of society and make up for shortcomings in governing. We are pleased therefore to offer advance insights into the soon coming first motherland report.

The State of the Motherland Report

Two weeks from today the leadership of the new tribe will issue the first state of the motherland report. Four months after, the new tribe will issue the second, and will do so every fourth month thereafter.
The state of the motherland is certainly worrisome, so worrisome that notice by some not known people about impending protests have set off panic, threats, bullying and scapegoating resulting in prefabricated falsehoods by agents of the state; MAN and the chambers of Commerce are up in arms with the direction of interest rates as monetary authorities struggle to contain inflation with high interest rates and insecurity continues; and incidence of communicable diseases like cholera increase.
In this season of the unmasking of yesterday’s pretenders and the shrinking of the club of truthsayers and those who truly believe in a just society it is not difficult to tell that the state of the motherland is of grave ill health. But the Soul surely laments extant reality when character is said to not matter and the lack of it is actually celebrated . It is sad to find in our extant reality clear evidence of the point Jared Diamond makes in Collapse, his study of how societies have failed through human history. Surely values shape human progress and values seem to have taken flight from our current landscape. Citizens have an obligation to seek restoration and the new tribe comes in that role.
The details will come in two weeks but I plan to set the stage today.

Challenged Economic Growth

Central to the purpose of modern government is the security of the citizen. Security of Life and property as duty of the Leviathan can be extended to the domain of his economic well being. Food security is therefore part of the primary expectation from the state today. No one disputes that it is tough going out there but it is the obligation of citizen to expect that of the state.
When that state expends public resources to the tune of billions to subvert religious pilgrimages and makes Presidential Yachts, Executive Jets and VP Mansions the central focus of budgeting it invites a more aggressive citizen response.
These choices matter as we approach how to find solutions for a people crushed by hard times.
But the debate has been about who brought about the hard times and the shifting of blame rather than how best to tackle it.
Insecurity has dealt a huge blow on Farming and food price inflation is serving notice of famine if no spectacular initiatives are rolled out.
In response the Monetary Policy Committee(MPC) has made input that has caused CBN to try to tighten money supply by raising the rediscount rate. That in turn has set the Business community yelling blue murder.
Surely there are no easy choices but there is a sense that the decision makers are playing in the softball little league when the problem is in the major League. To jump for massive food importation which will obliterate agriculture, as we know it g by so as to offer another palliative, is to suggest the lack of a plan. Missing is a clear national strategy which should have a place and plan for food security and agriculture to feed value chains in manufacturing.
Our prescription is to introduce limited industrial policy to drive competitiveness in select value chains rooted in the factor endowments of the geopolitical zones of the country. A champion, or champions of sacrificial disposition, competence and compassion, whose main goal is a place in history would then be named to these assignments with measurable goals made available in the public domain for monitory and accountability. Agriculture cities andy industrial parks through PPPs and private initiatives such as one I have been developing in Edo state , should emerge in a map of clusters brought alive as heart of the urgency of now. Master plans of Agric/Industrial towns developed by Israeli consultants who I met last year in Jerusalem, remain to be implemented and can be brought forward now. In addition detailed infrastructure plans developed by the Big Tent team led by Dr Peter Agada, a passionate Architect and Patriot are available and can be deployed begining this minute.

Troubling Health care Situation

The return of the ultimate health care crisis disease of poverty, Cholera, tells the story. The state of the motherland is troubled and we have a citizens duty to rally to save the day.
While at at we have to note that while communicable diseases like Cholera take the front row in discussions more of our people are now dying of none communicable diseases which are health care system is inadequately equipped to respond to.
Just a few days ago I participated in a panel of the African healthcare federation at the AU summit and listened to the less than flattering statistics. Prof Khalled Dabeesk showed the equipment for nuclear medicine and scanning machines are mainly available in North Africa and South Africa. Even some less sophisticated ones of which one u Mo I’ll k two are available in Nigeria in-spite of being so inadequate are often out of service.
I shared on the panel the experience so far of the effort of the Health Care cohort of the new tribe in Nigeria. The cohorts typically have four co-chairs to encourage a culture of collegial decision making. The college of leaders report to a 14 person Council that is responsible to the congress of cohort community citizens.
Interestingly the Health care cohort has evolved into a six persons team with an Atlanta based Cardiologist Dr Abiodun Olatidoye as arrow head. The others are California based Physician Acho Emeruwa, Abuja based Doctor Zainab Bagudu and UK based Dr Loretta Oduware Ogboru- Okor, Kano based Nurse practitioner Zahrau Ibrahim and Florida based Pharmacist Dr Tonia Ogbanufe.
They have developed a multi-pronged strategy that includes 1. Physicians who volunteer several hours a week to intervene in diagnosis and prescriptions to the poorest of the poor using telemedicine virtual platform that allow remote access 2. medical missions with traction, follow up and sustainability, 3. Structured treatment of paying patients with world class care on ground saving the cost of travel for medical tourism through teams coming in rotation to use designated quality facilities to deliver world class treatment
4. Organizing Diaspira driven and community Health insurance in collaboration with the Ubuntu cohort.

The Accountability Cohort

This cohort is currently a club of investigative journalist, Accountants , policy wonks and retired State Security agents. They will target bastions of corruption like NNPC, The Nigeria Customs service, FIRS and and the police.
The analysis of reports such as the Transparency International annual corruption index will be part of the remit of the cohort

Let me close with quick reference to the Infrastructure and Ubuntu cohorts.
The failure of the NNPC to deliver on any of their promises with fixing the refineries tell the story of the desperate need to oil the work of Accountability cohort but the absence of reliable infra structure makes it more difficult to get private investment into tthe secto stalls progress.
We are fortunate in the tribe to have a leadership group for infrastructure with abroad and varied sets of competences and networks. Dr Adiele Nwankwo a former executive of one of the biggest infrastructure firms in the US, Dr Halibat Adediran anAbuja based female engineering entrepreneur, Philip Njowusi a Washington DC based Architect and Ajiri Aluta in Port Harcourt and Dr Peter Agada, an Architect who led the Big Tent team to develop the infrastructure plan for the country.
Things are proceeding fast and you will soon get reports.
With the Ubuntu cohort we are agreed that communities be adopted and surveyed for their most urgent needs.. I have often spoken of my favorite community problem – public toilets in markets. Epidemics thrive on this just as dignity is assaulted by this. Diaspora groups are therefore encouraged to tax themselves and execute.
I hope all these will lead to impact that will restore the dignity of man in Nigeria.

Patrick Okedinachi Utomi
Servant of the servants of the chiefs of the new tribe
26/ 7/24