I am not comfortable with such screaming deadlines like: JONATHAN DARES NOT COME TO MY CHURCH. I have never been known to kowtow to politicians. But this kind of comment, coming from a supposed Man of God (MOG) signposts a kind of vendetta that does not depict the church Pastor Tunde presides over, as the body of Christ. Again, one gets the overwhelming message stridently clear; that this church is a private estate of Pastor Bakare’s and President Jonathan is a persona non grata vis-à-vis the aforesaid prized chattels.

It has become trendy to haul sulphonated lavae at the president of the country, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. I do not subscribe to his political ideology nor am I of the view that he has been foolproof in his handling of critical national issues. There have been, in fact, decisive lapses too innumerable for this space. But we have to recognize one incontrovertible fact. Dr. Goodluck Jonathan could never have been president without God’s anointing. And he who respects his leader respects God! It is biblical.

One other issue in that interview that sickened me was of Pastor Bakare criticizing the President for kneeling before Pastor Enoch Adeboye. I was greatly astonished that Pastor Bakare, who is supposed to know better, could say that. I am very certain he was either misquoted or quoted out of context! What is the height of our perfidy? Indeterminable. President Obama genuflected before King Abdullah Al Saud of Saudi Arabia as a sign of humility. Obama is, in all respects, the de facto world’s number one leader.

He could bow before a mere mortal. President GEJ knelt before pastor Adeboye. If GEJ represented an entire nation, as Pastor Bakare was quoted as saying, it should be understood also that Pastor Adeboye was a representative of the most High God, the Supreme Being who decided the destiny of great nations! It is, therefore, in recognition of that fact, I am certain, that GEJ knelt before the Man of God.

It is, in my view, very encouraging to see men of God embrace politics. For one thing, it would lead to the much desired renaissance in our body polity, if they play their cards well. Again, there would be the much cherished development of the country as resources would be channeled responsibly. But the antecedents of our pastors in politics leave me really sad, with the thought that they better remain in the household of God. Pastor Chris Okotie once came with the revelation that he had been anointed by God to lead Nigeria. His woeful performance at the polls gave the lie to that prediction. With Pastor Bakare thundering and rearing to go, there is little hope for the salvation of Nigerian body polity by the religiouses, if they follow this pattern of imprudence.

Clarius Ugwuoha writes from Egbema.

By Clarius Ugwuoha, Rivers State, Nigeria – August 3, 2011 –

If I were to be in your shoes, I would prune the federal executive council.  There are far too many officials at the presidency. Methinks that with a twelve-man ministerial team you are better poised to perform, more so if these are technocrats, than the present contraption of Ministers, Ministers of State, Senior Special Advisers and what have you.  Whatever law that stipulated that you MUST pick a minister in each state is retroactive. I would cause such laws to be repealed and replace ‘State’ with ‘geopolitical zone’. With such an overcrowded presidency as you have, it is not difficult to understand the slow pace of governance.

The next step is the closure of our national borders to importations, with the very slim exceptions of those very essential commodities. You are not encouraging the local manufacturers by opening the borders to all sorts of foreign products making Nigeria a dumping ground for cheap technologies elsewhere.

 You need to think out of the box to be able to make a fresh and vivid impart on our lives. You cannot continue in the same path as your predecessors and expect a different result! If I were you, I will move for a law that creates an internal reserve which will be fed with a given percentage of the oil revenue. There will be a conscionable drive to drastically reduce the overdependence of the states on the federation account, by formulating a policy for regeneration of various moribund industries in the states. These will ensure that the Cocoa plantations, the Groundnut pyramids, Rice fields, Palm oil plantations resurface. The viability of each state would be gauged by its ability to sustainably maintain itself and non-viable states would be merged eventually. Any state financially challenged in the path of reactivating its industries could borrow from the internal reserve; and Oil producing States would continue to be catered for as in the present arrangement.

Crude oil export would be embargoed, or drastically curtailed as such raw materials would feed refineries, chemical and pharmaceutical companies to be established at the federal level with fund from the internal reserve.  Wealthy individuals and corporate bodies would be given operating licenses to build these industries. The safe operating environment would be a challenge to be surmounted by aggressive zero menace policy with swift and responses to and stiff punishment for security breaches. The strategy is to make Nigeria an exporter of finished products and not raw materials, to generate employment sustainably for our teeming unemployed school leavers.

The next step is the aggressive harvest of the eggheads in the country with a view to establishing Research and Development centres in Nigeria. Every year, the brightest of students in leading secondary schools would be sent to world class institutions, with the clear-cut mandate of attaining the greatest intellectual height in their chosen specialties and the objective of imparting on the Nigerian scenario thereafter. The acumen of these quality graduates would be put into the reorientation of Nigeria technologically. They would liaise with Nigeria-born technocrats long abandoned to Western Countries (who would be lured back home with mouth watering incentives) to develop indigenous technologies such as happened in Japan under Emperor Hiro Hito, such as is presently practiced in China under the Sea Turtle scheme.

Minimum wage as presently championed is typically defective. What is needed is a seasoned restructuring of the Economy so that whatever wage one earns really counts. Once a new minimum wage is announced, the food seller next door, the cloth sellers and all others hike their fares, thus cancelling the effect of the increment. In some circumstances, one would feel a lower downward pull on the economy as an aftermath of such exercise. You are in essence carrying more money which has not enhanced your purchasing power in any way. The acceptable minimum wage is one that would improve your ability to purchase, irrespective of whether it is eighteen thousand naira or whatever. If incentives are placed on domestic food production, a glut of food stuffs in the market will draw down prices of goods, making them affordable. A revision and standardization of wages earnable in the country would be more appropriate than a blank minimum wage with some classes of workers earning a hundred times the salary of others. The situation whereby a dunce by virtue of being rigged into power by an equally illiterate godfather is earning ten times the salary of a university don or a medical doctor will continue to generate bickering. A revised and standardized wage bill will apportion salaries to all categories of workers and public office holders, depending on academic exposure, length of service and such other indices. This practice will effectively close out on the minimum wage and wage increment agitation perennially.

(to be continued)

Clarius Ugwuoha, a public affairs analyst, writes from Egbema, Nigeria.