Prof. Pat Utomi @ 60

A Quintessential Scholar and Entrepreneur!

*Utomi

By Jossy Nkwocha

Since the middle 80s when I covered the Industrial Sector for Vanguard Newspapers as a rookie reporter, I have always seen Prof. Pat Utomi as a man to emulate. He was then the Chief Operating Officer and Acting Managing Director of Volkswagen Nigeria Limited. He was only 30 when he assumed that responsibility in 1986. That was after spending few months as the company’s Assistant General Manager, Corporate Affairs.

These past 30 years, therefore, I have tried to study this phenomenon called Patrick Okedinachi Utomi, who was born on 6th February, 1956 to Ibussa parents of Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State.

He is a mentor and role model for many Nigerian youths, many of whom have benefited from his youth programmes at the Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL), Victoria Island, Lagos, which he founded. The Centre also celebrates people who have achieved high successes in various areas of life, and uses them as a case study for younger ones to learn and grow.

Pat Utomi is also a quintessential scholar – right from his undergraduate days at the Jackson School of Journalism, Mass communications department, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he graduated in 1977; to his graduate school at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA, where he obtained his Ph.D, and later co-founded the Lagos Business School and Pan Atlantic University; and appointed professor of political economy.