Presidential Jet Seizure: Utomi tackles Amosun over ‘Blacklist’ allegation

Economist, Pat Utomi has lashed out at Ibikunle Amosun over the allegation that he was blacklisted by the Ogun State House of Assembly before he took over office as the governor of the state.

Utomi while featuring as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, denied having any business transactions with the Ogun State government that could have warranted him to be blacklisted.

He said, “Why would I have been blacklisted? I have never had any business with Ogun that would have led them to whitelist not to talk of blacklisting me.

“As a matter of policy, I don’t do business at all with state governments. The only time it would become necessary is when it comes to land matters because the government is the sole authority over land matters in Nigeria.

“Why would the House of Assembly blacklist me? For what? I have never had any business transactions with Ogun State until that time. That is what frightens me why public officials can make such preposterous accusations against me I heard that statement for the first time in my life. If I was blacklisted, for what?”

While responding to Utomi over his statement that he had violated the contract agreement regarding the cancelled deal with Chinese firm Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Limited, Amosun had described the professor as “entitled”.

Amosun was responding to Utomi’s allegation on a cancelled agriculture-related project in Ogun before he assumed office.

However, responding on Monday, Utomi said he never transacted any business with the Ogun State government.

Utomi then spoke on the seizure of the presidential jets, saying Nigeria should not have acquired such a jet fleet, as it was “Unnecessary”.

“To be quite frank, when I first heard of the seizure, I had no clue of what led to it.

“I just felt “we have done it again”. I was not happy and I thought of the idea of a presidential fleet, and why Nigeria maintains such a huge fleet, which I consider unnecessary.

“Many countries much better off than Nigeria do not have presidential fleets. The British who we learnt the art of statecraft from in the modern era, typically don’t have a prime ministerial jet. The prime minister leases jets to go for assignments.

“So that was my first reaction to why we would bring ourselves to this state of embarrassment.

I have been warning about this for a long time. There are many sub-nationals in which the governors act so much irresponsibly in the way they get in and out of contracts with foreign organisations bringing great embarrassment to Nigeria.

“A lot of businesses will not come to Nigeria because they think Nigeria’s institutions are not reliable. They think because Nigeria can’t give them justice, and boundaries are not clear.

“Many state governments- a governor leaves, a new one comes, and they riff off everything the governor before him has done without thoughts for the consequences for his state and the country in terms of how seriously the world takes them.

“So when I realised that was what is prevalent, I decided to highlight my personal experience that happened as exactly as the one that led to the seizure of the presidential jets.

“This has happened to a lot of businessmen but because they don’t have the resources to approach the international court for arbitration, they just lick their wounds and let it go.

“It is not just Ogun State. I pointed out that I have a book that was published a few months ago. I published several case studies in the book. One of the cases was exactly what was done in another state in Nigeria that led to a foreign company in South Africa, leaving the country which led to so much loss because the governor decided to play games after he left office.

After I made the remarks, I was told that the former Ogun State governor came out with thoughts against me.

“And I then thought that this is another big problem with Nigeria, where people who have held public office do not have the discipline to speak basic simple truths in conversations.

“The only time I have ever been in business with Ogun State was when we were trying to develop an agricultural value chain project.