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Tag: Kingsley Moghalu

  • 2019: A note to Kingsley Moghalu

    Asked to explain the seeming contradiction between the concepts of predestination and prayer – two important tenets in Islam, Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) had made use of an analogy: Every man’s destiny is like grain of corn. Every healthy grain of corn is predestined to grow if planted; however, there would be a difference in the growth and yield of a corn planted in the middle of a marketplace and one planted in a rich humus soil. Predestination in human beings can be likened to the potential for successful growth that all corn seed carry, while prayer is what determines whether that potential succeeds or fails.

    While this story is primarily of a religious dimension, the implication of the wisdom in it is unquantifiable for every area of human endeavour. It has a particularly important consequence on the challenges young people face in getting elected into public offices in Nigeria, especially in the light of the forthcoming 2019 General Elections. Since the signing of the Not Too Young to Run Act, a good number of young, extraordinarily successful individuals with quality pedigrees have come up in the political scene to signal their interests to run for one or other political office in the country – the foremost among which is the presidency.

    Of this lot, the evidently most qualified in terms of cerebral quality, character, proven capacity, and conduct has been the former deputy governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Professor Kingsley Moghalu. Unlike other “young” contestants like Omoyele Sowore, Fela Durotoye, his plan, and the manner he has advocated them has disclosed a man with his head firmly on his shoulders – a level-headed, serious, and capable individual who has a good grasp of the responsibility he is asking for and the intellectual-cum-behavioural assets to discharge them. Following the analogy above, Moghalu could be said to be a good grain of corn that has the potentials to grow if planted on a good soil.

    However at the risk of sounding like a “critic”, Moghalu’s approach to becoming elected for the position – while it has been commendable for a man like him with little to no serious institutional financial backing, has been wrong-headed. Moghalu believes that politics is a game of rationalism; that if he shows the electorates the “best” credentials for the job, the electorates would simply choose him over others of lesser qualities. This thinking mirrors the hope of Gani Fawehinmi when he contested for the presidency during the 2003 General Elections. Like Moghalu, Fawehinmi – who is an eternal hero of mine by the way, had believed in the power of a stainless reputation, his unquestionable love for the people, and his immense intellectual head-start over other contestants to sell him to Nigerian voters and get him elected. He did not win. As this did not work in 2003, it is not going to work come 2019.

    No matter how sound one is personally, morally, intellectually – all these commendable and important traits are just one of the many other requirements one would need to get elected into any national office. Besides these, one needs something called a popular platform – a platform that is robust, ubiquitous, and resilient. And by platform, I refer to no other thing than a political party that can get the job done.

    At the current level of political activities in Nigeria, hoping to win the presidency of Nigeria on any party platform other than the Big Two – the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) is being naïve. The reasons for this are two: First, Nigeria has moved past the phase of party experimentations of 1999 – 2007 where there was no truly national political party. Pre-2007, it was easy to form a new party and get followings for it by simply appealing to the ethno-tribal or group sentiments (the young, the workers, etc.) of its key patrons. By February 2013 when the coalition of parties that united into the APC got their acts together, their merger put an effective end to sectional party politicking in Nigeria, and ushered in the reign of national party politics.

    Since 2015, Nigeria has become a domain of two major parties. Not only this, every other region in the country has since chosen sides. Other than in the Southeast where All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) has managed to hold down a state and few unnoticeable wins in the states and federal houses of assembly by some minor parties, the Big Two, combined, control over 90% of the elective political machinery of Nigeria. As evidence of the truly national nature of these two parties, the PDP that used to be seen as a northern party is now being controlled from Port Harcourt, with Uche Secondus as the chairman and Governor Nyesom Wike as its unofficial chief financier. The APC, long-held to be dominated by the Southwest currently occupies the seat of power with a northern candidate in the person of President Muhammadu Buhari, and is returning him to contest for the seat in the 2019 General Elections. As you can see, the times have changed.

    Another reason for making this “Big Two assertion” is that elections are won not just on rhetoric but also on brick and mortar structures of campaigning and reaching out to far-flung electorates. A candidate that seriously wants to become the president through a democratic process needs a party with physical branches, motivated staff, and delegates in wards and constituencies that would do the job of knocking on people’s doors and mobilizing them to vote.

    While Moghalu has written some really good books and organized rallies in states and visited university campuses, there are people in Nigeria who cannot read or write; people who have no smartphone or internet; people who have no Facebook account – and these are going to vote. These set of people outnumber the intellectuals that abound on social media. They live in scattered and far-flung hamlets and homesteads from Ilesa to Ogoja to Kafanchan, and most of these do not speak English or understand the GDP. They vote for people who knock on their doors. Parties with material and resources, mainly the Big Two in this case, are those who usually make a killing off this voting bloc.

    The way Nigeria’s public offices can be more easily won by the young people is for us – the young people – to join one of these Big Twos – the PDP or the APC, and form a group of like-minded individuals or factions within them to drive the causes we care about. Political parties all over the world have their progressives and their reactionaries; the vanguards of new ideas and the old-guards of the status-quo. This is why parties have factions. The faction with the strongest control – in terms of resources and number is the one that determines the ideas and manifestos a state is run by when such a party gets to power. What the APC and PDP are currently perceived to represent in Nigeria is the function of the values of the currently dominant factions within the two parties. If new people with large enough numbers infuse these parties with a different set of ideas and energy, these parties would change with them. That political parties are always changing is why a party like the Republican Party which produced a president like Abraham Lincoln in 1861 – more than 150 years ago, could turn around to produce someone like Donald Trump who is unlike Lincoln in anything.

    Starting new parties is a racket. Nigeria, in fact because of her unique geopolitical peculiarities, cannot succeed on anything other than the two-party system. That the 1999 constitution makes multiparty system possible is one of the gravest errors currently retarding our political progress as a nation, and this must be corrected swiftly for success to be in sight. The troubles afflicting Nigeria would never be displaced as long as visionaries like the late Fawehinmi, Moghalu, and millions of other high-souled Nigerian thirsting for political progress busy themselves with erecting new political structures instead of embracing and revolutionizing the existing ones.

    To all Nigerians that feel something in the heart for this country, let us quit frittering our energies around and take the fight to the real field. Let every person – young and old alike interested in rendering a service of honour to Nigeria get up and join one of the Big Twos – the APC or the PDP. Let us infuse these parties with our ideas and ideals. Let us form interest groups in their body politic and push them. Like the good grain of corn in Prophet Mohammed’s (PBUH) analogy, let us sow our potentials for electoral success in the good soil of a robust political party fertile enough to bear our dreams fruition, or like healthy grains of corn planted in a marketplace, we may all just under-accomplish and wither and die in spite of all of our great potentials.

     

    • Oyeleye is a PhD student at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.

  • My Presidency quest Nigerian, not Igbo, says Moghalu

    Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, the Presidential Candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) on Friday said that he was contesting for the office of the President as a Nigerian and not as an Igbo man.

    Moghalu, who was a former deputy governor of the CBN, said that Nigeria’s problem was not about tribes, but socio-economic problems that touched every part of the country.

    The candidate, in a statement he made available to the News Agency of Nigeria  in Lagos, said that any creative limiting his presidential ambition to any tribe was the handwork of mischief makers.

    “Almost a year since I started to engage Nigerians on my candidacy and vision for the country; I have held town hall meetings in nearly all the states in the country, with more still to be done.

    “Anyone who has listened or paid attention to our interactive session with various groups will realise what our single message has always been that Nigeria’s problems are not about tribes.

    Read Also: Buhari: Accounts must be given for all financial transactions

    “We all, as Nigerians, have the power to choose something new, something different that will redirect the country into an upward trend.

    “Our politics has always been plagued by the scourges of tribalism, nepotism, and corruption, a colonial tool that the political class has exploited in order to divide and control us,” Moghalu said.

    According to him, Nigerians cannot afford to keep thinking about whether a candidate is Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Efik, Ijaw or Ibibio.

    He said that Nigeria needed competent and trustworthy leaders which had been the focus of his talks about his aspiration.

    “It is time to put aside these differences and aim for something that unites us all, to deliver a country that works for every citizen,” he added.

  • 2019: Moghalu assures of technological innovation

    Presidential candidate of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), Kingsley Moghalu has assured Nigerians that the country will be driven by innovation and technology if he is elected president in 2019.

    He made this known in a monitored interview on Television Continental (TVC) on Monday evening.

    According to Moghalu, the approach of growing non-oil revenue, which President Muhammadu Buhari proposed in his independence address, is not the only way out, adding that; “The approach to growing non-oil revenue for me is not the right approach. The way to grow non-oil revenue is by growing the nation with innovation and technology, which I intend to do if I become president of Nigeria in 2019.”

    Read Also: Moghalu is YPP presidential candidate

    “We need to have an innovative economy driven by scientific inventions. That is what drives the economies of the western world. It is not by moving away from oil, and going to exploit solid minerals, which we export without processing at home. It will yield the same result as our dependence on oil.”

    Moghalu said that it is important for Nigerians to come out to vote during the 2019 elections so that votes will not be stolen.

     “If a minimum of sixty millions of us come out and vote in 2019, it will be impossible for anyone to steal your votes. We must believe that we have the power to change our destiny,” Moghalu said.

    He advised Nigerians not to “allow politicians to intimidate them in casting their votes.”

    The 2019 Presidential election will take place on February 16th 2019 all over the country.

  • Nigeria’s self-styled Macron wants to win power by ending corruption

    First there were the Brics. After coining that acronym in 2001, Jim O’Neill, then chief economist at Goldman Sachs, came up with the “Next Eleven” two years later, identifying 11 economies capable of joining the Brics as the world’s fastest-growing. Fidelity Investments developed this further when, in 2011, it identified the Mint economies, which it said could prove as rewarding for investors over the next decade as the Brics had been in the previous decade.

    The Mints — Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey — have not kept that promise. Indonesia probably has been the most reliable, its economy growing at just under 5 per cent or more in every year since 2011. Turkey and Mexico have delivered variable growth. The worst of the four and the biggest disappointment by far has been Nigeria, which slid into recession in 2016, going on to achieve GDP growth of only 0.8 per cent last year.

    Yet Nigeria boasts vast resources and huge potential. It is the world’s seventh most populous nation and by the middle of the century the United Nations expects it to be the third largest, with its population doubling from the present 200 million. Moreover, that population is urbanising rapidly, with Lagos projected to become the world’s biggest city by population by 2100.

    As well as one of the world’s youngest and fastest-growing populations, Nigeria enjoys vast natural resources, most obviously oil and gas. It owns 2.2 per cent of proven global oil reserves, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, while accounting for 1.3 per cent of global natural gas production. It also boasts generous gold, lead, zinc, coal and uranium reserves.

    Why, then, does Nigeria’s economy underperform so dramatically? The most obvious answer is corruption. Nigeria is ranked 148th out of 180 in the latest corruption perceptions index published by Transparency International. Corruption and poverty go hand-in-hand, poverty is still rising and so is the jobless rate, because GDP growth is not keeping pace with population growth.

    All this will be keenly debated in Nigeria’s presidential election, due in February next year, in which the incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari, will be standing. So, too, will be Atiku Abubakar, one of the candidates of the People’s Democratic Party, the party of former presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Olusegun Obasanjo, under whom Mr Abubakar served as vice president.

    The most intriguing candidate is Kingsley Moghalu, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and candidate of the Young Progressive Party. A lawyer who worked for the United Nations for 17 years and who was educated in Nigeria, the United States and Britain (he has a PhD in international relations from the London School of Economics), Mr Moghalu presents himself as a thoroughly modern presidential candidate in the mould of Emmanuel Macron.

    Last week, while on a visit to the UK, he said: “One of the major things I am going to do is move away from dependence on oil and move the economy towards innovation. We will have to look very seriously at the philosophical foundations that drive successful capitalist economies, make sure that there’s property rights, make sure that there’s innovation, make sure that there is capital. I shall be introducing a major venture capital fund that is going to fund small businesses and stimulate the economy.”

    Mr Moghalu’s policy prescription also includes more infrastructure investment. He accepts that while Nigeria has benefited from the process of “leapfrogging”, where a lack of landlines has encouraged rapid take-up of mobile technology and a lack of established electricity grids has enabled the rapid adoption of off-grid solar power, that can go only so far: “Nigeria, in particular, has a very high level of mobile phone technology and that’s a good thing, but I don’t think you can apply leapfrogging to every aspect of development. I still think Nigeria needs an industrial base. You can’t go into a post-industrial society, as some people recommend, without having been an industrial society.”

    The would-be president also has controversial views on Chinese investment in Africa. He says that many African nations have not benefited as they should have done, arguing that a lot of the continent’s leaders have lacked the “intellectual soundness” to drive a harder bargain with the Chinese. He argues it has exacerbated debt traps around Africa and increased dependency on foreign loans. Two thirds of taxes raised in Nigeria go on servicing its debts.

    Another key policy of Mr Moghalu is greater equality for women. He argues that Nigeria’s education and legal systems prevent too many women from reaching their potential and is promising a 50-50 gender balance in his ministerial appointments.

    But is Nigeria ready for a technocratic president? Mr Moghalu, who points to his work nation-building in Rwanda, Angola and the former Yugoslavia during his time at the UN, insists that it is. Pointing out that the country has become poorer since it became a democracy in 1999, he argued: “The people of Nigeria are tired of the old, recycled and corrupt political class, which President Buhari’s government represents.”

    Many will wish him luck. If this is to be the African century, the continent’s biggest country must fulfil its economic potential. If it does not and poverty continues to grow, the chances are that an increasing proportion of Nigeria’s growing population will head elsewhere, adding to the global migration crisis.

    .Ian King is the business presenter for Sky News.

  • Ezekwesili: Nigeria needs leadership with vision

    Former World Bank Vice President, Oby Ezekwesili, and former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor, Kingsley Moghalu, were among dignitaries at the Summit of The Alternatives (SOTA) in Abuja.

    The summit held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre.

    It focused on how to develop a national vision and strategy to ensure effective democracy for the country.

    In her welcome address, Ezekwesili, who is also the convener of the Red Card Movement, commented on the idea behind the Summit of The Alternatives.

    She stressed the need for citizens to fashion out “a new Nigeria of our dream” and consider the economic implication of having visionary leadership with character, competence and capacity.

    Moghalu called for accelerated economic development in all sectors.

    The summit comprised of influencers and thought leaders who have demonstrated good character, competence and capacity in their various fields.

    They expressed a strong desire to build and remodel the nation through active engagement in Nigeria’s political space.

    Read Also: Ezekwesili: Presidency has a lot to tell Nigerians

    The first day kicked-started with a keynote address, titled: A Rallying Cry for an Alternative.

    Speakers and partners made presentations which centered on the need for Nigeria to get it right.

    They insisted on creating leadership criteria of character, competence and capacity.

    The keynote speaker, Prof. Lumumba, lauded the efforts of the organisers for uniting to rescue Nigeria from political nightmare and creating hope for Africa and Africans.

    He said: “Nigeria is blessed with everything you can think of but leadership. Nigeria has shown its leadership position in the African continent through various peace-keeping operations in Liberia, Sierra Leone and other places. Nigeria is the only link to Africa’s success.”

    The summit will also include panel discussions to further drive the new agenda for a new Nigeria.

    Campaign/party finance; cultivating grassroots movements; media approaches to elections; nuances and metrics of youth and women inclusion in today’s democracy; INEC: an overview of electoral preparations in the areas of hardware, software and process; youth inclusion and building a political brand.

    The second day had alternative political parties and presidential aspirants, like Omoyele Sowore, Fela Durotoye, Elishama Ideh, Kingsley Moghalu, Emmanuel Etim, Thomas-Wilson Ikubese, Martins Onovo, and Tope Fasua addressing the participants on topical issues which centred on “a new Nigerian of our dream”. The aspirants and political parties examined the need for a coalition of the 89 alternative parties to strengthen the objectives of the summit.

    The summit was collaboration among various groups, like Red Card Movement; Centre for Democracy and Development, Yiaga Africa, Nigeria First Project, BudgIT, EiE Nigeria and Passionate Citizens Framing the New Nigeria of Our Dream.

  • I’m a leader not a politician – Moghalu

    Professor Kingsley Moghalu, the presidential aspirant under the Young Progressive Party (YPP), has claimed that he has no interest in being a politician but a leader, stating that there should be no retreat nor surrender in the quest to take back the nation from the “old and recycled politicians who have no soul.”

    Moghalu made the statement during the ‘To Build a Nation’ town hall meeting at the National Centre for Women Development in Garki, Abuja on Tuesday.

    Speaking at the event, the former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria also said that 2019 will be a defining moment in the nation’s history, as Nigerians will have to “make a choice between poverty and prosperity; between stability and lack of cohesion; between security and insecurity”.

    Read Also: Moghalu vows to fight poverty, drug abuse

    He emphasized that Nigerians are ready to send old politicians into retirement during the 2019 elections by voting the right way, the leadership way, stating that the instrument to make that choice is the Permanent Voters Card.

    Decrying the lack of leaders with a worldview, Professor Moghalu said, “We will rebuild this country into a nation. We will set out a national ambition, a world view for this county and we will no longer continue to worship the God of small things such as oil and tribalism.”

    He further stated his intention to run an innovation-led and development-driven country, while also growing the economy by launching a 1 trillion Naira venture capital fund to invest in new businesses for young entrepreneurs.

    Upon being elected as President, Professor Moghalu explained that the federal government would also set up a skills acquisition Centre in all the 774 local governments in the country so that citizens can gain the skills to become great.

    He also promised to increase the budgetary allocation for education from the current 7 per cent to 20 per cent and healthcare allocation from 3 per cent to 15 per cent.

  • Ex-CBN chief seeks establishment of bank for women

    A former Deputy Governor of the CBN, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, has called for the establishment of a “Bank for Women” to boost women enterprise in the country.

    Moghalu made the call at the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) 2018 Annual Lecture on Friday in Lagos.

    The theme of the lecture is: “Of Banks and Bankers: Finance and the Challenge of Economic Development in Nigeria”.

    He said that 46.6 per cent of Nigerian women lacked access to financial services, despite the fact that they were highly productive.

    Moghalu urged the banking sector to do whatever it could to establish the bank, to facilitate wealth creation by women.

    The ex-CBN chief described Nigerian women as enterprising, better borrowers and loan payers than men.

    He also argued that that over exposure to the oil and gas sector had aided non-performing loans when the value of the oil and gas sector dropped.

    Moghalu said that reforms by the CBN to buy non-performing loans and aid financial stability had proved unsuccessful.

    “So out of the little credit left, over 77 per cent was concentrated in Lagos, sidelining, women in rural communities.

    Read Also:  2019 Elections: Don’t sit back, Lagos lawmaker charges women

    “No economy can sustain inclusive growth under such circumstance and this would lead to infrastructural epilepsy,” he said.

    The President of the CIBN, Mr Uche Oluwu, noted that Nigeria currently faced serious economic challenges.

    According to him, there are still notable gaps in the country’s development, despite exiting economic recession in 2017 after five consecutive contractions.

    “These gaps, according to the National Bureau of Statistics’ report on macro-economic indicator, revealed that unemployment rose steadily to 18.8 per cent in third the quarter of 2017 from 13.9 per cent in the third quarter of 2016.

    “Infrastructural deficits and alarming low literacy rates, are pointers to deep deficient human capacity development among others, plaguing the great nation.”

    He charged the banks, through their wealth creation, to play significant roles in allocating resources for infrastructural development.

    Olowu applauded banks for their support for Micro, Small & Medium Sized Enterprises (MSMEs).

    “However, I plead with our banks to be resolute in supporting MSMEs across various productive sectors of the economy and the adjoining value chains.”

    NAN

  • June 12 represents hope, says Moghalu

    Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor, and Young Progressive Party (YPP) presidential candidate, Kingsley Moghalu has said that June 12 embodies the hope of Nigerians for a future that is better and more prosperous than the past and present.

    In a speech titled: ‘The Promise of Hope’, Moghalu said: “Twenty five years ago, Nigerians came out in large numbers to send the military back to their barracks. They came together across tribe and tongue to make a clear statement in the freest and fairest election in Nigeria’s history. Briefly, the heavens opened, and we got a glimpse of what Nigeria could be. Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola’s campaign was about hope—hope that Nigeria could live up to its promise. Hope that at last, the most populous black nation on earth could take its rightful place in the world,” he said.

    For Moghalu, June 12, 1993 was the high point of that hope. It was the day when Nigerians arrived at the ballot box sick and tired of the status quo. They were so tired that in that election, Northerners voted massively for Abiola, a Southern candidate, with Bashir Tofa his challenger, losing his home state of Kano.

    “That hope was snatched from us by our military overlords and remains so till this day. We go into the 2019 elections faced with the exact same problems we had in 1993. Nigeria does not have new problems, but old problems that have deepened. Even when the military clothes are replaced with an agbada, the problems are the same. With a candidacy that offered hope, Abiola sought to solve those problems, but those who think themselves lords and masters over us denied the will of the people. Many of them are still alive today, still deciding who gets what,” he said.

    He believes that the hope of June 12, 1993 still resides in Nigeria. I believe so because in my travels across the country and interaction with Nigerians, I see the same distaste for the status quo that existed in 1993. I see the same desire for something bold, new and different. I see the same thirst for a government that is truly on the side of the people. I saw that desire for something different in a brief conversation with Ahmed, a farmer in Nasarawa. He had lost most of his farmland to herdsmen, and repeated calls to the police to act have gone unanswered. While speaking to me through a translator, he said: “It has never been this bad. I have lost all I own.”

    Chinedu, whom I met during a town hall in Ebonyi, lost his job and has been unemployed for months, and does odd jobs just to make it through the day. I got a letter recently from someone in Port Harcourt, who lost her child due to a lack of oxygen at the hospital. She wrote: “Please help stop more children from dying.”

    The spirit of June 12 is not just about the past, but the future. It is about whether we can, as a people, reach out and reclaim the promise of that day.

    The significance of this day goes beyond recent attempts to use it for partisan political advantage. To honour a man is to keep his legacy and carry on the vision he wished for the people he hoped to lead.

    As an entrepreneur himself, Abiola understood the power of enterprise and industries. He didn’t pay lip service to it, he got involved in alleviating poverty to the highest level that he could as a citizen.

    June 12 stands for something much bigger than public holidays. It embodies the hope of Nigerians for a future that is better and more prosperous than the past and present.

    To make this future our reality, we must come together and recognise that we need a clean break from the status quo to forge a new path to prosperity. We must realise collectively that our current political class are incapable of delivering on the promise of Nigeria.

    Nigerians who flocked to the ballot box 25 years ago understood this and voted unequivocally for an end to what was then 14 years of military rule.

    They chose to ignore empty promises and intimidation to participate in an election that will stand for all time.

    To honour their sacrifice of those who fought and died for the restoration of that mandate, and stay true to the spirit of June 12, we must restore that hope that our country can be better. We must refuse to give in to the cynical people who say nothing can be done, who say it has all been decided already.

    It is time to get off the wheel of misfortune and pave a new road to the Nigeria we desire. It is time to replace our songs of woe with a new song. It is time for fresh leadership and a decisive approach to nation building.

    One of the lessons of June 12 is that we have our future in our hands. If we heed this lesson, new possibilities will open up for us.

  • Aribisala endorses Moghalu for President

    Faith Columnist, Femi Aribisala has described former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor and presidential aspirant, Kingsley Moghalu as Nigeria’s  very own Emmanuel Macron. He sees Moghalu as ‘a man destined to change the course of Nigeria’s political landscape’.

    In just a few months, Nigerians go once again to the polls to choose our next president.  This is the opportunity we have to determine our destiny.  It is a civic duty that comes only once every four years.  Therefore, it must be entered into like a marriage; soberly and with full presence of mind.

    Of those who have expressed interest in seeking our vote, one man stands head and shoulders above the rest.  That man is Professor Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu.

    Moghalu has what it takes to be Nigeria’s next president.  He is experienced, but not antediluvian.  He is young but not naïve.  He is not a lackey of the old guard but not abhorrent to them.  He has both a national and an international pedigree.  Moreover, he is a visionary, very intelligent and highly driven.  He is our very own Emmanuel Macron, a man destined to change the course of Nigeria’s political landscape.

    With Moghalu’s election as president, certain problems that have bedeviled us of recent will be things of the past.  With President Moghalu, there will be no more apologetics for the murderous onslaughts of Fulani herdsmen.  As a matter of fact, one of his cardinal policies is to increase the Nigeria Police from its measly 350,000 strength to 1.5 million.

    With President Moghalu, there will be no more agitation for the dismemberment of Nigeria.  Instead, his very election will heal our wounds and calm frayed nerves.  What he proposes is a return to “true federalism.”  Says Moghalu: “The political and constitutional structure of Nigeria affects its economic management, in our case in a very negative manner because the potential productivity of the country’s component regions and states is suppressed by the rent-seeking politics to control absolute power at the center and dispense patronage. This is part of why constitutional restructuring for a true federalism is essential.”

    With President Moghalu, politics will not overshadow policy.  Quoting John F. Kennedy, Moghalu insists: “Politics is too important to be left to the politicians.”  He says: “It is time to act on the reality that Nigeria will not achieve economic development and transformation on the current trajectory of its politics. The present political leadership class simply does not have the skills and the background that are fit for purpose. Technocratically competent and visionary political leaders are what it will take to reposition the Nigerian economy for sustainable growth and transformation.”

    Moghalu first came on my radar when Financial Nigeria flew him to London in 2012 to deliver the keynote address at the Nigeria Development and Finance Forum (NDFF).  Then, he presented a lucid paper entitled: “Prospects of Financial Stability in Nigeria and the Links to Economic Transformation.”  A year later, I had the distinct privilege of being asked to review his book: “Emerging Africa: How the Global Economy’s Last Frontier Can Prosper and Matter;” a book that Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala describes as “a tour de force on Africa’s transformation.”

    As I observed at the time, Moghalu’s Africa is quintessentially African.  It is not borrowed.  It is not a copycat.  It is not stolen.  It is not reliant on European blueprints or leftovers.  It is endogenously African.

    His siren is an African version of Obama’s “yes we can.”  Yes, we can transform our economies within a generation.  Yes, we can do it without undue reliance on foreign aid.  Yes, we can create our own endogenous technology without relying on the pipe-dream of technology transfers.  Yes, we can renovate, innovate, and modernize by forming a nexus between politics and economics.

    But now, Moghalu’s focus is firmly trained on Nigeria.  In a new book, launched just this February 2018, entitled: “Build, Innovate and Grow (BIG): My Vision for Nigeria;” Moghalu presents a blueprint for his bid for the presidency.  This new book is quite simply a masterpiece of innovative ideas and policy prescriptions designed to renovate, re-build and grow our economy and polity.

    What you get from Moghalu is not politics but policy.  That is why he needs to stay well away from the PDP and the APC; odd-jobbers mired in politics without policy.  Listen very carefully to the cacophonies emerging from these two major national parties at this crunch moment in our history, and you will discover that there is no policy debate whatsoever; just a bitter and vicious struggle for power and patronage that, in the APC especially, even results in killings and assassinations.

    We have had enough of this.  The time is long overdue for the likes of Kingsley Moghalu to engineer a hostile takeover of Nigerian politics at the ballot box.  We need to forge a new departure.  What we need are men and women like Kingsley Mogahalu up and down the ballot in order to build a new Nigerian political class, a new Nigerian political culture and a new Nigerian political future.

    The Nigerian electorate must come of age.  We cannot continue in the failed tradition of electing leaders who don’t have a clue what government entails in 21st century Nigeria.  We need to admit that the failure of government in democratic Nigeria is a failure of the electorate.  We have failed to put the right people into power.  We have failed to apply wisdom in the voting booth.  Instead, we have opted for the stolen-monied, the charlatan, the snake-oil salesmen, the smooth-talking babalawos, and the wise-cracking ethnic jingoists.

    It is past time for something different; something avant-garde; something forward-looking; something innovative and imaginative.  We need something not mired in the age-old ethnic diatribes, something with a new vision and perspective, something that harnesses the latent potentials of Nigeria into our very own Unbound Prometheus.  Says Moghalu: “We must create a rising tide that lifts all boats, not just those of relatives and tribesmen and women.”

    Our motto today should be out with the old: in with the young.  Out with the politicians: in with the technocrats.  Out with the primordial: in with the cutting-edge.  Out with the ethnocentric and tribalistic: in with the inclusive and nationalistic.

    Look around the world we are in today, the old is making way for the new.  Look at the success-stories of the African continent and you will find men and women like Paul Kagame of Rwanda, and Ameena Gurib-Fakim of Mauritius.  These are the beautiful ones the likes of whom are not yet born on the Nigerian political landscape.  Look farther afield and you find dynamic men like Justin Trudeau of Canada, and Emmanuel Macron of France.  That is the way of the world today that still remains anathema in Nigeria to our detriment.

    Not anymore!  Says Moghalu: “An economy cannot be managed to progress that is beyond the vision, capacity and competence of the political leadership, regardless of how many brilliant technical economists abound in a country. If the political leadership lacks vision, is venal and focused on other priorities, sound technocrats can’t achieve very much. Their full potential contribution will be suppressed by political decisions above them, usually taken in caucuses at night in places that are not offices.”

    What this means is that Nigeria needs to leap-frog into the 21st century.  Our persistence in recycling old cargoes must come to an end.  We cannot afford to continue to elect abject failures in the hope that somehow, they will one day succeed.  We can no longer afford to elect as president politicians who are sick and ailing.  We don’t need famous men who specialize in doing nothing.  This is the jet age and Nigeria is lagging too far behind.  We must run much faster if we are ever to stand the chance of catching up.  We have no business with “go-slow.”

    Since our gerontocratic oligarchs have refused to go into voluntary retirement, let us throw them all a send-off party in the 2019 election.  Let us elect a completely new slate of leadership more in tune with the yearnings of our 200 million population.  With the Asian tigers already on the move, let us release the Nigerian cheetahs and the lions from the reservation.  It is time to renovate, innovate and be motivated.  This giant called Nigeria must be woken up from its 60-year slumber.

    With Moghalu, Nigeria will have a president bursting with ideas.  Hear him: “The fundamental solutions to our crisis of economic growth and development lie in leadership. Not the politics-as-usual of the past, but a new kind of politics of ideas. It will take this kind of politics to produce the vision and political will to undertake the necessary economic and institutional reforms.”

    “It will take this kind of politics to educate and mobilize ordinary Nigerians to new ways of economic transformation and their enlightened, collective self-interest in supporting the creation of a new economic paradigm that dramatically cuts down joblessness and poverty. It takes knowledge, which is the true wealth of nations, to even know where to begin, how to proceed, and the direction in which we should be headed.”

    When was the last time you heard a speech by a Nigerian leader that was inspirational?  My wife heard Moghalu speaking about his vision for Nigeria for the very first time and was mesmerized.  “The man is impressive,” she concluded.  This should come as no surprise.  Moghalu has the pedigree and experience to bring a new dynamism to Nigerian leadership.

    Over the years, he has been involved in academia, economic policy, banking and finance, entrepreneurship, and law and diplomacy.  Among other things, he was a Professor of International Business and Public Policy at the prestigious Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts, USA.

    He was also Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 2009-2014, where he led in the execution of extensive reforms in the Nigerian banking system.  Before these, he worked at the United Nations for 17 years, rising to the position of Director.

    They thought George Weah could not win, but he is now the President of Liberia.  They thought Emmanuel Macron did not have a chance, but he wiped the slate clean and became president of France with a brand-new slate of legislators.

    If you are one of those doubting Thomases who thinks competent, honest and industrious men like Moghalu don’t stand a chance in Nigerian politics, just wait and see.  As he continues to crisscross the country, holding town hall meetings, engaging the man-in-the-street and laying the foundation for a veritable political revolution, don’t be surprised when in February 2019, after the first run-off election in Nigeria’s political history, Kingsley Moghalu emerges as the new president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Moghalu promises modern leadership for Nigeria

    Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor and presidential aspirant, Kingsley Moghalu has promised to provide modern leadership to the country if elected President next year.

    Speaking at a townhall meeting of the Kingsley Moghalu Support Organisation (KIMSO) held in Minna, Niger State, which saw a huge crowd in the overflow, he unveiled a three point-agenda for Nigerian youth.

    He promised to mentor and train the youth to take over effective leadership of the country; wage a decisive war on unemployment – particularly youth unemployment which reached 33 percent in Q3 2017; and dramatically improve the quality of education, to raise the knowledge and skills of Nigerian graduates, which will improve their employability and ability to successfully start their own businesses.

    Read Also: We need people who believe in leadership change, says Moghalu

    Professor Moghalu also promised that his government, if he is elected President in 2019, will prioritise the welfare of Nigerian women, by strengthening access to quality primary health care, supporting women in business with access to capital to grow their businesses, as well as providing political support for improvement in the participation of women in appointive and elective positions.

    With regard to access to finance for youth and women entrepreneurs, Moghalu promised to setup a venture capital (VC) fund, which, as a public private partnership (PPP), will have government’s contribution of N500 billion matched by private sector contribution, raising the fund’s capital to N1 trillion. The fund will provide equity financing, with the advantages that the businesses will not be saddled with the burden of repaying loans with double-digit interest rate, and the VC fund will provide needed expertise to help grow the investee businesses.

    This, according to the Presidential aspirant, will substantially reduce unemployment and poverty in the country, through the direct and multiplier effects of the venture capital fund.