Prof. Pat Utomi and Rev. Chris Okotie

Having defeated the most infamous Third Term project of President Olusegun Obasanjo (forget that panjandrum denial that he never wanted it in the first place) we are gradually inching towards another election. Gradually too, politicians are beginning to show faces and colours, and the erected fences of homes, street walls, etc are getting busier and dirtier with their posters.

From the blues, we heard that Professor Pat Utomi, former Special Assistant to the President and currently of Pan African University, will be contesting. And as expected, the man of God, Rev. Chris(topher) Okotie of Household of God, Lagos Nigeria, also returns to the electorate for another round of campaign to convince the electorates that he is damn serious about going to Aso Rock to make the difference. Also, Governor Hamed Sani Yerima, remembered for his Sharia rule in Zamfara State steps out for the presidency. All this attract our focus in this edition.

Of great importance to us here is the news that Professor Pat Utomi will be contesting. We ponder how will this egg-head cope with the high-tension politics we practise here.

Does he know what it takes to be a Nigerian politician? Does he have enough money to burn? What chicaneries and subterfuges has he? Could he engage in doublespeak as they do here? As a man who has spent all his years in the corporate world of suits and ties, can he co-habit with these babanriga-crazy strange bed-fellows he would meet in the terrain? Are the electorates even ready for his grammar and theories? We wonder.

But let the truth be told: Nigeria's politics should by now be attracting reputable stuffs like the prof. We desire to have more of them in the terrain. But in a ghana-must-go politics, where the likes of Lamidi Adedibu hold sway with his amala-politics, Ibrahim Mantu would still remain the deputy senate president, Tony Anenih and Bode George could not be questioned, not even by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFFCC) and the populace could do nothing about this, what will the likes of Pat Utomi do with his theories, and what difference can he make?

We however share in the philosophy that the best condition for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing about it. While it is not our intention to campaign for any candidate on this e-magazine, we cannot close our eyes to the need for good men to step into the terrain to deliver this nation from shenanigans, tomfoolery and theatre of the absurd.

We praise the likes of Prof. Pat Utomi, Rev. Chris Okotie and some few more, who out of great frustrations witnessed daily have decided to dabble into politics. Their means and method, principles, ideas and goals, we believe, are not mundane or corruption-prone.

While we agree that President Obasanjo has done the best he could do in this circumstance we found ourselves as a nation, we express tremendous fear on the character and ability of those touted to take over from him.

It is therefore very cheering to us that the President is said not to be ready to support these famous but dubious characters always perambulating around the power corridor. Whatever the support of President Obasanjo could worth, it should not be given to known thieves who are too smart to be apprehended. We need a clean break 'business as usual'.

We drum up support for the likes of Prof. Pat Utomi and Rev. Chris Okotie. We ask that the Lord we serve and situations will throw them into popular reckoning. How we wish that Nigerians would suddenly wake up to see the need for such men to rule this society?

Pat and Chris should note that freedom for a people does not come on the platter of God. Not with Queens English or plastic American slangs. In a poverty-ridden, illiterate society like ours, where a loaf of bread is worth a ballot paper, a bowl of amala could remove a sitting governor, and a thug could arrest an elected governor, stubborn diseases often requires stubborn treatment.

As a gospel inclined e-magazine, we remind all Christians that Pat and Chris are ours. While we are not promoting religiousity in our politics, it will not be too much to remind ourselves that these two characters are known faces in our environment. We can safely conclude that they have imbibed the relevant ethics expected of us by our Lord Jesus. it is also safe to conclude that they have direct link to the source of wisdom from which good governance takes it source.