Professor Pat Utomi, a renowned political economist and public intellectual, says he is spearheading efforts to mobilise 7.2 million Nigerians to march on Abuja in a large-scale protest aimed at challenging the country’s political establishment.
The protest, titled Freedom Converge, is part of a broader movement to reclaim Nigeria from what Utomi described as “entrenched systems of state capture and self-serving leadership.”
Speaking on Breakfast Central, a programme on News Central, Utomi said the demonstration is intended to amplify the suppressed voices of ordinary Nigerians.
“The government doesn’t want people’s voices to be raised, and that is why Nigerians have to take back their country,” he declared.
He cited a well-known homily by Bishop Onah of Nsukka to emphasise the gravity of the situation:
“A country where the leaders don’t fear the people is as good as dead,” Utomi quoted. “The political class now has complete and total contempt for the Nigerian people.”
Utomi expressed dismay over what he sees as the erosion of democracy in Nigeria, arguing that citizens were freer to express themselves even during military regimes.
“Democracy is supposed to be our people raising their voices,” he said. “Even under military rule, we took to the streets. Today, civilians shoot citizens for expressing themselves. Something has gone fundamentally wrong.”
He stressed that the protest is not a one-day event but a month-long national campaign involving civic engagement, cultural events, and grassroots mobilisation.
“It’s not just one protest—it is a process,” he explained. “We’re looking at around the 1st of December. Activities are already underway across the country.”
The lead-up to the protest will include concerts, public lectures, and colloquia to educate Nigerians about their rights and democratic responsibilities.
“Just like the 1964 march on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jr., we will have events in Maiduguri, Sokoto, Yenagoa, Asaba, and Ado Ekiti. From all directions, people will begin moving toward Abuja,” he said.
“If you look from a satellite, you’ll see a wave of green-white-green converging on the capital. It will be a spectacle the world will remember.”
Utomi was emphatic about the constitutional right to peaceful protest and warned against any attempt to suppress the movement.
“We have a right as citizens to protest,” he said. “If they try to stop us, someone may stop them. Let them be sure of that.”
The Freedom Converge protest is shaping up to be one of the most ambitious civic demonstrations in Nigeria’s recent history.
