When the news filtered out that he would be contesting the Nigerian presidential elections in 2007, it sent a happy feelings to so many people across the land. Some sighed that at last, Nigerian politics is now attracting the right people who know what government should be. Still some felt he would be wasting his time because the voters, larger illiterate and impoverished, are not really set for people like him. Be that as it may, who is Pat Utomi? Read about him in this first part of a revealing interview conducted by Bola Adewara.

As a businessman and a teacher of business, do you see the church as a viable industry for which the Lagos Business School can fashion out some curriculum to develop its operators?
Well, I will pray that the church does not become a business because if it becomes one, a lot of things will be lost. Though business is not a demonic, but it is completely different from the logic of the church. The church is about salvation, sacrifice and service with the hope that that effort will give one the chance to eternally see God. The pursuit of salvation is not the same as taking knowledge and opportunity to create an enterprise. I think the bases are different.

However, the church like any business is all about organisation. The church is organised on human basis it can learn a thing or two on how business are organised and business can learn also from the church in terms of knowledge and how it was created. We should not forget that the modern university came out of Christendom, the desire to find the knowledge behind the things God created. Over the periods, schools became avenue to spread what was found and that is why missionaries used the schools as tools.

The fundamentals of business are material while that of the church is spiritual. The scripture says the ways of God is not our ways and it's as far as the heaven is from earth. Let me close this by the story of the businessman in the Bible who went to Jesus on how he can be saved. Jesus told him about keeping the commandment, to which he said he has kept all. Then Jesus said he should go and sell all his possessions and follow Him. The scripture says he went away sad because he was a man of great riches. Now, he had the logic of business not of salvation and that is why the two are different.

The true state of the Nigerian church, prosperity and miracles replacing discipleship?
This is a problem that has bothered me for along time such that we had to do a recording on this for Patito's Gang, a television programme that I anchor. It was as a result of an article in New York Times about the church in Nigeria . The reporter writes on the pervasive presence of churches and the astronomical rate of crime in the country. He illustrated this prosperity with the picture of Pastor Chris Okotie of Household of God, touching his posh Benz car. We had Father Osu of the Catholic Church and Pastor Anselm Madubuko of Revival Assembly on the talk-show and they all spoke passionately about it.

The continuing emphasis on prosperity bothers me. People don't relate the course of their inappropriate action in private or public life to their Sunday-Sunday behaviour. I've heard of people giving testimonies thanking God that they've just been posted to a lucrative post, meaning offices where they can steal money. I begin to wonder what kind of Christians we are when we see avenues to steal as blessings from God. I relate this mentality to the pressure being brought about by this prosperity preaching.

My understanding of Christianity is the way of the cross, the way of sacrifice, of service, of sharing for the good of all. The Christian message does not take away from prosperity but it is not about prosperity. Jesus said I've come so that you have life and have it in abundance. It is not about Cadillac, V-booth, etc.

There are many people with Cadillac, V-booths who are truly miserable. The message of Christ is of peace, not of material benefits. A church that focuses mostly on prosperity misses the focus of Christianity. If Jesus' focus were on prosperity, then he would not have chosen those kind of poor people as disciples. And there was no evidence that they died in wealth. Many of them got killed.

" I begin to wonder what kind of Christians we are when we see avenues to steal as blessings from God. I relate this mentality to the pressure being brought about by this prosperity preaching."

Can a good Christian be an astute businessman?
Absolutely. In fact you can be a more successful man if you are a good Christian than if you are not. While I was reflecting on life recently, I thought that if by whatever revelation, it is said that all these things about God are lies and Christianity is not true, I said to myself that I would still adhere to Christian principles.

If Christian ethics is today declared to be untrue or fantasies of clever prophets, it still rhymes with what a good conscience should seek for. One thing I have found out, as a teacher of business ethics is that the more biblical you are, the more successful you are in life.

If you lose patience and focus because some people who cut corners seem to overtake you, so you join them, you'll find out that those whose success last are those who do not lose focus of truth and patience. I have found out that when everybody is cheating and cutting corners and you stay focused, truthful and hardworking, when those who cheat want something done properly, they will not go to their lying fellows, but you whom they know as principled.

Reputation is a tangible commodity. If you have a manifest character, which people can trace to you, it becomes a market value. One of the things that confuse many people is how rich Pat Utomi is, considering my involvement in all these businesses. What really happens which I found difficult to explain now is that over a long period of time of focusing on giving service to people, being focus driven, building character and relegating to the back seat considerations for materialism, somehow, it has become a reputation such that sitting here as a lecturer in a business school, someone in South Africa was looking for a partner to help bring a business to Nigeria and suddenly my name pops up as chairman. Tomorrow, another American company shows up and my name pops up again.

Slowly and steadily I'm on board of about 30 companies and I didn't know how to, literally speaking, manage it anymore. And I have had nothing to offer other than the reputation that this person is a man of character. Nothing more. So, knowing God has value. You do better in business when you are ethical or driven by the Christian ethics. Human resources and motivational speeches sermon.

As I said, I don't really like to be judgmental in my views but I think that for some of the pastors, it is a marketing gimmick for membership. However, there is nothing basically wrong in church opening the eyes of their congregants to issues of life but my fear is if this goes on it could become the message and Christ will recede. Tactics, techniques for success in life will take the fore and one day, we will begin to look for Christ in some churches.

Observations to make if invited to pastors conference.
Well, it will be difficult for me to speak on their shortcomings because I always hate to judge anybody because my own shortcomings are many too. But I will like to remind them that the very essence of Christian mission is sacrifice and that being a pastor is to sacrifice for the well-being of the flock: being a good shepherd and not to, as it were be a parasite on the flocks.

The kinds of things some pastors accept as proper conducts of the flocks make the society less Christian. Nigeria is not a Christian society. The conduct of our society does not reflect the nature of Christ. If we all listen to sermons every Sunday and we are still what we are, then something is wrong with the sermons or we the hearers. One of our problems in this country is that our institutional memory is so short and most of the pastors limit themselves to the scripture and forget about the original focus and tradition of the church.

There were some documents of the church, which I stumbled upon in the course of doing a presentation. The document, which was on the second century of Christianity, is called Didache (pronounced Didahe). There is a statement I found there which would shock many pastors and priests. The statement says ‘let the Bishop stands anathema that accepts oblation from the man who treats his workers unfairly. Such strict injunction means a church pastor should not accept gifts from users of men, how much more criminals. But today, pastors accept cheques with relish from people whose wealth you cannot explain. This is one of the things I'll tell pastors in that kind of forum.

Place of prayer in business success
Oh, a very strong place. But when you say prayer, it has to be defined. The work that we do should be prayerful. If we see the work we do as participating with God to bring creation to a fuller end, then we should see business activity as something that must give glory to God; something that must be done in a way that is divinely perceived as co-operation with God and in that sense, every activity of our business day is a conversation with God.

We should be able to remind ourselves that God is great, God is love and to seize this opportunity of the work I'm doing to show love to those I interact with. If we approach work this way, the work becomes prayer.

But when the organization stops, and everybody goes for fellowship, it has its value and that has its distraction. It takes away peoples freedom at times because people who are not Christians in that organization may feel pressurized to pretend to go along or else they could be seen as saboteurs. So I think people's freedom should be allowed by not closing down all activity because of prayer. But individuals should know that prayer is compulsory and giving thanks at every moment of work. Is there anything like luck in business calculations?

Yes, there is such a thing like luck but as my business books say luck comes to the prepared. That means the man who has done his home work, worked very hard suddenly come face to face with an opportunity which may not come to somebody who has not prepared. Luck does not come to the unprepared because he wouldn't recognize it. I will illustrate this by what the British call Irish joke.

"We should be able to remind ourselves that God is great, God is love and to seize this opportunity of the work I'm doing to show love to those I interact with. If we approach work this way, the work becomes prayer..."

You know, Britons always attribute anything stupid to the Irish. It is a joke of an Irish gentleman who went to confession and he was so angry with God. A priest receiving the confession asked him why was he angry with God and he said he was told that God answers prayer and he has been praying for years now so that he can win the Irish lottery.

He said he prayed hard and each time he looks out for the result, his name was missing. The priest asked him how many tickets did he buy to increase his chances of winning. The man said, “Buy ticket? I've never bought one before?” The priest said how then could you win? It is the same as saying I attend vigil, fast and pray and expect fortune or good luck to come. Luck comes and can be seized only by the prepared.

Faith in God and his success.
I should say in every way. I like to say it here and with all sincerity and I am truly convinced deep down in me that I am just a piece of rag. I really don't count. I ask myself a lot of times that why would I be here and not some other persons? It is God's grace.

Whenever I read what is being written about me on the pages of newspaper that I am a pathological workaholic, brilliant, etc., I laugh because I know it is pure God's grace. Some people would say I work so hard and they have not seen me tired or stressed, why am I always smiling? I smile again because I know I have a mission, the right perception of what to do and the confidence that I am a child of God and He would take care of me. I am just convinced about this.

My ambition in life is not to compare my bank account with anybody. All that matter to me is that whatever I do, I enjoy doing it and it should be of service to other people. I just do it and thank God for the opportunity to do it. I can pay my bills. I'm not struggling with anybody and I think I've gotten from God more than I deserve.

If I looked back at my life, I was not the smartest in my class nor the hardest working. I was pretty lousy as an undergraduate. I ask myself what happened to the more brilliant ones than me in my primary, secondary and undergraduate days because to the best of my knowledge, none of my mates got a PhD before me. I was not smarter than them, why me?

To the best of my knowledge, even though I don't consider myself a rich man but I've not seen any of my mates who have better material comfort than I have. To the best of my knowledge, I do not know too many of my classmates who have a better reputation than I have, so what is responsible? I found out that whatever has happened to me is pure grace of God. On my own, I can do nothing. God has taken me out of nothing to somebody.

Basic principles that guide you till date?
It would be presumptuous of me to say I set out early in life with some worked out principles, which guide me. I can only say I profited from my upbringing, my parentage. Early in my life, I was taught some basic values and very strong religious background.

Like every kid growing up, in my teenage years, I was a clever young man, went on to do whatever I thought cleverness could bring me but in my teenage years especially early in universities I began to question what is these church business all about. At Nsukka, I became disenchanted and stopped going to church.

"Whenever I read what is being written about me on the pages of newspaper that I am a pathological workaholic, brilliant, etc., I laugh because I know it is pure God's grace... I know I have a mission, the right perception of what to do and the confidence that I am a child of God and He would take care of me. I am just convinced about this..."

But I think God's grace intervened one night at about 9pm, going to my hostel in Akintola Hall, coming from the house of one Prof. Oyorlu. As I was passing by a church, I was overcome by fear for it occurred to me that suppose God called me now “Where will I go?” The following Sunday I returned to church. That was my first turning point.

When I got to graduate school, the next major event that jarred me was the death of my father in 1980. I was 24 years old, the eldest of seven children. I was raised a Catholic, my mother eventually became a Pentecostal, still a member of Deeper Life Ministries. The experience was a sad one. I began to wonder why were we even created?

I was schooling abroad and I had to make a decision to either return home or take care of my six siblings or what. I returned to God in prayer on what to do. I heard a clear message that I should finish up my programme.

So I vowed that day that if God gives me the grace to do my programme successfully and in record time, I shall dedicate my life to the service of mankind for the rest of my life. And that took root. God's grace came abundantly. I finished my programme with distinction at age 26 and I came back home. But man is weak because I found out that my commitment to the vow has not been in strict conformity with the passionate manner in which I saw it in America.

God gave me another chance to reflect in a couple of years later when in 1991, I was involved in an automobile accident where I lost my driver, and I nearly lost my life. I was clinically dead when I was brought into the hospital. I had stopped breathing, the pulse was gone but through God's grace and attentive doctor, I was revived. I was flown to Germany where I was for several months. That period in the hospital afforded me another opportunity to reassess my values vis-à-vis my Christian faith. I then re-affirmed the vow I made in the US in 1980. Since then, God has been marvelous with me.

Who are your role models and mentors?
So many that I can't begin to count them. Every stage in your life, you find influential people. For instance, my father was a major influence and inspiration, a very hardworking man. When people say I work hard, I laugh because I know I cannot match my father's attitude to work. Also my mother, a remarkable strong woman who held her own even in the most difficult days. She worked and prayed so hard and still prays for her children. She has such spiritual and moral tenacity, which saw to great things happening to us all.

There was also some teachers of great influence, one at undergraduate level at university of Nigeria, Nsukka, Dr. Chidi Okonkwo, then in post-graduate school in USA, a South African lecturer, Patrick Omera now Dean of International Programme of Indiana University in US who is instrumental to my wide base in academic disciplines.

Today, I have diplomas and degrees in about five academic disciplines. Part of this was because of a white South African professor who left South Africa in protest against apartheid and settled in the US . He encouraged me to developed different kind of skills because he thought Nigeria would need people with such skills. So, as a result of his prodding, I went into public finances, political science, management, mass communication, and policy economics.

Back home here, many people have influenced my career, one of which was Dr. Alex Ekwueme, who was the Vice President of Nigeria when I came back home in 1982. Without meeting me, he was impressed by what I have been writing on the pages of the newspapers from the US. He got his aides to track me down and gave me one or two assignment to do for him.

At our second meeting, he announced very casually to me “by the way, this morning, President Shehu Shagari approved your appointment as special assistant to the President.” I turned to the person who brought me to him to complain and he almost chided me that you've been writing all sorts of things since now we ask you to come and perform what you've been writing and you are now complaining.

God gave me another chance to reflect in a couple of years later when in 1991, I was involved in an automobile accident where I lost my driver, and I nearly lost my life. I was clinically dead when I was brought into the hospital. I had stopped breathing, the pulse was gone.."

That was unusual in Nigeria because people would think the young man I was got the job because of my family name. No. The vice president read my articles and simply invited me. There was a heated competition for the job because Prof. Odenigwe was the incumbent Special Adviser to the president and I was to replace him. So many people like NPN top notchers, people who have slaved for the party were gunning for the job, but a young man from US, and a non-member of the party was picked. I was just impressed by the person of Ekwueme. He was an influence.

Your mother is in The Deeper Life Church. It is common for parent to pull their children along their lines especially now that it is fashionable to leave the Orthodox Church for the new generation churches. Hasn't she tried to take you along?

Well, she knows I strongly hold my faith and my conviction in the Catholic denomination. Even before she became a Deeper Lifer, she had attended one church in Surulere and I went there with her shortly after I came back from the US . But I thought it did not meet with what I thought was the fullness of the day.

I think it is very unfortunate that many young people in the orthodox churches drift to the Pentecostal because of the glamour around them. I've always tried to convince myself that individuals need to have his personal conviction in God. Secondly, we will make a terrible mistake when we replace the glamour and excitement of worship with the true relationship with God.

I think that is too common in Nigeria . The glamour, form, beauty, scenes, etc easily carry us away. People say some orthodox churches are dead. No. No church can be dead. What can be dead is your faith. And if song and dance awakes it for you, glory be to God but I think what matters is relationship with Jesus.

I think it is wrong for Pentecostals to look at the Orthodox Church as dead and I believe it is wrong for the orthodox to look at the Pentecostal as worldly and with disdain. Anybody who wants to have a personal relationship with Christ in the orthodox churches can have it. There are so many people in the Pentecostal world who mouth Christ and dont 't know Him. But I will not go out to condemn Pentecostals because I am a Catholic. I believe that the Catholic Church has a full deposit of the faith coming from almost 2000 years.