By CHINWEOKE AKOMA

A major industrial crisis that would have crippled economic activities in the country was averted last week as leaders of the nation’s labour movement called off a three-day warning strike declared to compel the federal, states and local governments to ensure the implementation of the N18, 000 minimum wage.

Sunday Vanguard Business spoke with the presidential candidate of the Mega Party of Nigeria (MPN) in the April polls, entrepreneur and political economist, Professor Patrick Utomi, who warned that it is time government stops treating critical issues in the country with kid gloves. Excerpts:

The reluctance of the Federal Government and organised labour to reach an agreement on the implementation of the new N18,000 minimum wage generated a lot of controversy. How do you react to this burning issue?

Prof. Pat Utomi

My views are very well known on minimum wage. I am one of those who say that the cost of running government is very high but to say that a person earning N18 ,000 a month, even the amount itself assaults the dignity of the human person .

For anybody with human conscience to say that we can’t pay this, it is too much, I think the person should have mental health check . However, there is more to it.

We have to address the whole regime of how we view government. So I want the governors to first cut their motorcades, I want them to behave like governors elsewhere who get into their cars and drive to the market. If they do so, they will save Nigeria a lot of money.

I want them to cut the protocols costing the country so much money while the poor people suffer. When we deal with those people, then we have the moral right to say we are going to raise productivity.

Also, criticism has continued to trail the move by the Central Bank to introduce Islamic banking in the country.

Well, this is part of the problem we have in managing information in our country.

The business of non-interest banking is not a problem of any kind but if we go about it in a way that it then creates misunderstanding, then we have problem. If we had a law promoting non-interest banking , then within the ambit of non-interest banking, any group of people, whatever their beliefs are, can come together and do non-interest banking.

There should be ordinarily no problem but I think the process of how we are going about it and the information management is what is causing us a problem.

The security situation in the country, especially the incessant attacks by suspected members of Boko-Haram, is portraying the country as unsafe for meaningful economic activity. Are you satisfied with the steps taken so far by government to tackle the ugly trend?

I am assuming that they have more information than myself and that they would act based on the information that they have. Clearly, there is a deep concern and, if we don’t manage this very well, it will bring us down the dangerous path.

Around the country, Nigerians are very restive for many different reasons. The prevailing patterns gained ground because of the models that could lead us down the path to anarchy.

The way out is a combination of factors: carrot, stick, firmness. No government surrenders sovereignty anywhere in the world.

If you do, then you are not a real government. At the same time, we must look at the underpinnings and deal with the root of the problems rather than just the symptoms.

The president has assembled his economic team to tackle the country’s economy. What is your impression of the entire structure?

I think it is an obligation of anybody who seriously cares about the country to allow whoever that is in charge at any point in time to pick people who he or she is comfortable with.

You give them sometime before you evaluate, you can’t from day one come to conclusion about anybody.