By Jilams Odigwe
WARRI/Nigeria: The Nigerian business environment has been described as unfavourable to the national and entrepreneurship growth.
This was the view of Professor Pat Utomi who was a guest speaker at the Word of Life Bible Church’s 23rd Professionals Expatriate Business Men and Women (PEB) Fellowship meeting which held on Thursday 14TH, September, 2017, in a lecture titled “Realsing the values of our founding Fathers”.
He said that Nigeria’s problem started when a group of young idealists thought they could salvage Nigeria from the troubles it had at that time and since then, we have been trying to rectify the situation.
He also buttressed the fact that Institutions does not necessarily mean structure, but policies and values adding that corruption has destroyed the values we hold dear and it influences the policies we make which is not favorable to National growth and development in the country especially creativity among the youths.
He however advised that it is not an excuse for idleness, Laziness and joblessness that the youths should harness their creativity even with limited resources by being an entrepreneur.
“Our national institutions do not support Entrepreneur………what is entrepreneurship? It is the process of getting things done without the needed availability of resources” he also said that “Entrepreneurial venture does not mean the invention of something new, but an idea which brings out a new value out of an already existing good”.
He also said that we need “strong institutions, not strong men” adding that the former President of the United States, Barrack Obama reiterated this call when he made his first visit to Africa in Accra, Ghana. The former American president said that what Africa needs is strong institutions and not strong men.
Professor Pat Utomi explained it further “strong men are dangerous because when their tenure is over, another strong man will come and want to pull down what the previous strong man has built, but strong institutions will endure after any strong man has left and will keep the nation going”. He cited examples that investors are unwilling to invest in Nigeria because when a new government emerges, their policies usually make them lose their assets because we operate a strong man system. He also cited America as an example of strong institution saying that the institutions of America is always able to check their Presidents’ excesses.
In his closing remarks, the General Overseer of the world of Life Bible Church, Papa Ayo Oritsejafor, admonished the audience not to be carried away by the words, but to go home and put it into actions.
“Some Christians just pray without doing anything, prayer is good, but the bible says watch and pray…..” he also explained that Christians have used prayers to avoid doing anything useful and it does not help.
