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Tag: Moghalu

  • Moghalu promises to restructure economy

    Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor and presidential aspirant, Kingsley Moghalu, has promised to deliver “economic” restructuring of Nigeria along the six geopolitical zones, if elected in 2019.

    Speaking at a town hall meeting, in Awka,  Anambra State, Moghalu said restructuring the country along the geopolitical zones will deliver economy of scale in each zone and prosperity throughout the country.

    He  was appointed by President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2009 as a Deputy Governor of the CBN, said restructuring on the basis of states, instead of regions, was not economically viable.

    Moghalu promised he will demonstrate political will and the competence to solve problems that have bedeviled the country for decades, including the fiscal arrangement that serves as disincentive to economic production.

    Nigeria has a 36-state federal structure, with the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja serving as the seat of the federal government. Major government’s revenues – including oil export proceeds, which account for more than 90 percent of its foreign exchange earnings or 70 percent of its domestic revenues – are shared monthly in Abuja by the three tiers of government: federal, state and local.

    This system has continued to fuel agitation for the regions or states of the federation to “control” revenue generated in their domain and pay taxes to maintain the federal government in Abuja, in accordance with the principle of “fiscal federalism.” This agitation, most vociferous in the oil-producing regions of the Niger Delta, has gained wider political support and favourable analysis of economic experts who believe that fiscal federalism would help unleash the comparative advantage of each of the regions of the country, thereby boosting productivity and economic growth of the country.

    Moghalu has lent support for the restructuring of the country to deliver economic viability and as a key policy ingredient for economic transformation. He said he will deliver, through a constitutional process, the restructuring of Nigeria within the first two years of his administration, if elected in 2019.

  • Anambra: Ngige, Moghalu hail members after peaceful congress

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday in Anambra State recorded a peaceful local government Congress in the state to the surprise of many.

    Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige and National Auditor of the party, Dr. George Muoghalu, have hailed the members for their peaceful conduct.

    The outcome was somewhat a glaring departure from what was witnessed from last week’s Ward congresses in the 326 electoral wards of the state.

    Last weekend’s ward congresses were marred by rancour that led to shootings by security men at the Finotel Hotel in Awka during the stakeholders meeting

    Ngige said the 5-man delegates per ward generated from the ward congress participated in the council congress where another 5-man congress was chosen from each council area.

    The minister charged them to work tirelessly with full commitment to ensure the party garnered more than 70% of all the votes in the coming 2019 general election.

    Moghalu thanked all party members for their cooperation and peaceful disposition during the congress.

     

  • ECOWAS Youth Council honours Moghalu

    The ECOWAS Youth Council (ECY), a representative body for the youth populations of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) yesterday honoured former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and a 2019 Presidential aspirant, Kingsley Moghalu, with its Nelson Mandela Award for Integrity and Meritorious Service to Humanity. The award was presented to him at a ceremony in Abuja.

    A delegation of the EYC led by its President, Emmanuel Williams, said the Council deliberated and decided to confer the unique award on Moghalu in recognition of his vision, service to humanity in the United Nations and the CBN – two critical international and national institutions – and the inspiration he had been to youth in Africa as a role model.

    The youth leaders noted that they were further impressed when, upon investigation they confirmed that Moghalu’s nomination for the award was not self-sponsored.

    Moghalu praised the EYC delegation for finding him worthy of the Nelson Mandela Award and noted that the great world leader in his life time was also his own personal role model. He explained his vision for the youth and future of Nigeria as articulated in his four published books: Rwanda’s Genocide, Global Justice, Emerging Africa: How the Global Economy’s Last Frontier Can Prosper and Matter, and Build, Innovate and Grow (BIG): My Vision for Our Country.

    This vision, Moghalu said, is focused on unifying Nigeria to rise to its true potential as a world leader, and tackling poverty and unemployment through specific policies such as education reform, an innovation-led economy, and the creation of a public-private venture capital fund that will boost youth entrepreneurship and create new jobs.

  • Moghalu seeks policies that promote entrepreneurship

    Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor Kingsley Moghalu has said government policies should promote entrepreneurship and innovation and help small businesses to thrive.

    Emphasising the need to drastically reduce poverty and create employment for  youths in the country to avert dissatisfaction and conflict in Nigeria, Moghalu, a presidential aspirant, called for effective policies that will help small businesses. He promised to address unemployment prevalent among youths if he becomes president.

    The founder, Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation, spoke during a town hall meeting with residents of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. Themed: ‘The role of women and youth in governance’, the event was held at the NUJ Hall, Iwe Iroyin House and attended by traditional rulers, women leaders, student activists, among others.

    “Our population stands at about 200 million with unemployment rising from 8.2 per cent in 2015 to 18.8 per cent. Nigeria stands as the poverty capital of the world, with 152 million Nigerians – about 80 per cent of our citizens – meet the criteria of absolute poverty. When you think about the statistics and apply this to the economy, we cannot continue this way,” he said.

    He said zoning of political posts among leaders has not led to national development. He later explained that 2019 elections have been zoned to competence as it provides an opportunity for citizens to elect technocrats with experience in solving practical economic problems and actively unite the nation.

    The aspirant also shared his mission to revamp the power sector by investing in renewable energy for individual use while focusing the large hydro-power and gas plants on providing consistent power for industries and businesses. According to him, this would drastically cut the costs of operating businesses in Nigeria thereby reducing the price of goods and massively boost the economy.

    During the tour, Moghalu also paid a courtesy visit to the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo III at his palace in Abeokuta, where he promised to embrace words of wisdom from the traditional ruler for a new and bold various approach to Nigeria.

     

  • Moghalu, Durotoye, others seek citizens’ participation in nation-building

    Two presidential aspirants Kinsley Moghalu and Fela Durotoye yesterday urged Nigerians to participate fully in nation-buillding to get the economy out of the woods and guarantee a brighter futire.

    Moghalu, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Durotoye, a motivational speaker, spoke at the 11th edition of “The Platform “in Lagos.

    The Platform is a development-driven prigramme organised by the Covenant Christian Centre. The theme of this year’’s programme is “Get Involved.”

    Vice Presiodent Yemi Osinbajo also attended and spoke on how individuals’ performances in their various areas of endeavour collectively make an economy great with the government providing the enabling environment.

    Moghalu said the current problems facing the country would find quick answers if citizens contributed their quota to the nation’s development.

    He said Nigerians were justified to complain about a number of issues based on disappointments by leaders resulting in dashed hopes.

    Moghalu said “complaining and managing” would not solve any problem until Nigerians got involved in the process to choose the leaders they desired.

    The former CBN chief added that the real power lay with the people and urged Nigerians to use the power to bring about change.

    “There is no power greater than the power of the people. The power to change belongs to the people.We can get the kind of nation we desire if we use our power,” he said.

    Moghalu, however, said it would be difficult for people to get the leadership they deserved if they did not partake in the electoral process.

    He urged Nigerians to obtain their Permanent Voter Cards so that they could vote leaders of their choice.

    Moghalu said Nigeria belonged to everyone, pointing out the passiveness of citizens had unfortunately allowed some few people to claim ownership of the country.

    Durotoye, noted that the country had suffered rot in all sectors consistently for about 50 years.

    He blamed the problems on poor leadership and followership as well as erosion of the country’s values.

    He however said the situation could be changed for the better if Nigerians made the decision to make the change happen.

    Durotoye said rather than continue to blame the past generations for the parlous state of affairs, the current generation of Nigerians could brave the odds and bring solutions.

    “Very soon, the old generations would be no more and the problems might still be here.

    “So this generation of Nigerians should strive to be a great generation.

    “A great generation is a generation that solves problems not the one that transfers burden to the next generation.

    “A great generation is a generation that acts and the one that passes problem solving techniques to the next one,” he said.

    Durotoye, who is nursing a presidential ambition, said the change that everyone desired was possible if everyone got involved in achieving it.

    He therefore urged Nigerians to participate in the electoral process by voting and engaging people in government.

    A lawyer, Dr Charles Omole, said it was wrong for anyone to believe that Nigerian politicians behaved differently from those in other parts of the world.

    He said politicians were the same all over and their preoccupation was always to control power and resources.

    Omole however said the reason why things worked better in other climes was because of strong institutions, respect for rule of law and more effective competition in the democratic space.

    He said the country would be better if all these were entrenched in the polity and people participated in the electoral process.

    “Participation in the process is not about obtaining PVCs alone, it is also about contesting in elections with the objective to make a change,” he said.

  • Moghalu: Nigeria needs a national worldview

    FORMER Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Prof. Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu has declared that Nigeria needs a worldview that can help it realise its potential.

    Moghalu spoke in Lagos at the 2018 edition of The Bullion Lecture, the annual lecture series of Centre for Financial Journalism (CFJ Nigeria), a training and research organisation based in Lagos.

    Speaking on the topic: “The Wealth of Nations and the Imperative of Economic Transformation”, Moghalu said: “As in individuals, so it is for countries. Those that have well developed worldview, with global strategic intent in a competitive world, tend to perform better than those that don’t.”

    He attributed Nigeria’s economic poor performance to lack of this essential worldview, especially lack of economic philosophy.

    “Nigeria has failed to achieve high-quality economic growth because the country’s economy is managed mostly on an ad-hoc, reactive basis. It is a ‘survival’  economy in which most governments that held political power have had no real economic vision or a strategy to execute such a vision successfully.”

    He added that though Nigeria has a national policy on science, technology and innovation, this has practically no impact on Nigeria’s economy, owing to lack of policy support for moving the products of innovation into the marketplace through mass production and marketing distribution since incentives for innovation were not yet strong enough in intellectual property law and regulation.

    He noted that patents and other kinds of intellectual property are the engine drivers of knowledge economy.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Moghalu declares bid for president

    Moghalu declares bid for president

    Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor Prof. Kingsley Moghalu has declared his intention to run for president in 2019 general elections.

    He made his intention known at a news conference at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja.

    The former CBN chief said he would not be intimidated by the popularity of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2019.

    Moghalu noted that Nigeria deserved a youthful leader with clear vision to move the country to an enviable height.

    He said: “With love for our country and a fierce commitment to a vision of rapid progress for our more than 180 million citizens, and following wide-ranging consultations, I offer myself to serve you as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as from May 29, 2019.

    “I, therefore, intend to be a candidate in the 2019 presidential election. I seek the opportunity to offer our country visionary, purposeful, competent leadership to build our future.

    “Nearly 60 years ago, our founding fathers Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Ahmadu Bello and Chief Obafemi Awolowo envisioned a great country that would take its pride of place in the world based on the talents of its citizens and a constitutional federation that would ensure justice, equity, and economic productivity.

    “Their vision and hopes have yet to materialize – military rule, oil booms and busts, and the successive leadership failures of our civilian political class have combined to rob us of what seemed our destiny at independence.

    “I am standing here today saying that it is time we shatter the downward spiral to nowhere.”

  • Nigeria must turn vision to reality, say Anyaoku, Sanusi, Moghalu

    Nigeria must turn vision to reality, say Anyaoku, Sanusi, Moghalu

    Former Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku; Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II and a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, have urged Nigerians to find ways to actualise the country’s potential.

    They identified several factors, including good leadership, effective social policies and proper use of innovation, as ways to create sustainable economic growth.

    They spoke in Lagos yesterday at the launch of Moghalu’s book titled: ”Build Innovate Grow (BIG): A vision for my country”.

    Guests at the event included former Director-General of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke; a former Chief of General Staff, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe and former Cross River Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice Eyo Ekpo among others.

    Anyaoku, who chaired the occasion, hailed Moghalu for identifying and suggesting solutions to the country’s problems in BIG.

    These problems, he noted, had ensured that Nigeria “is still a country and not yet a nation.”

    He said: “We have far too many fissiparous tendencies in our country, and we spend a lot of time in castigations and vituperations about who among us is the greater wrecker of our country than the other, whether in terms of individuals or groups such as ethnic or religious groups.”

    According to Anyaoku, the solution lies in restructuring.

    Anyaoku said: “No country can be reckoned with abroad in a situation in which its domestic situation is as fragile and fundamentally unsettled as Nigeria’s is today. And as I have said on many occasions, the key to stabilising Nigeria and guaranteeing its deserved economic progress lies in restructuring the country’s current governance architecture back to a truly federal structure composed of more viable federating units as was the case in the 1960 and 1963 constitutions.”

    But Sanusi suggested a different approach to tackling the country’s ills, stressing the need for re-examination of the country’s ineffective social policy framework.

    The former Central Bank Governor, who was represented by the Sarkin Kano, Alhaji Shehu Mohammed, hailed Moghalu for the economic and social roadmap presented in BIG.

    Sanusi lamented that Northern Nigeria has been held back by “extremely conservative cultural attitudes to the education of the girl-child and the immunisation of children against deadly diseases such as polio.

    “Many of the problems faced by the North today – extreme poverty, the so-called “Almajiri Syndrome” with millions of children begging on the streets, drug addiction, thuggery, extremism, herdsmen-farmer conflict, etc, take their roots from a failure of social policy.”

    Moghalu, who said he is running for the presidency, identified three things the country needs.

    He said: “We need to heal Nigeria, we need to wage a decisive war against poverty and unemployment and we need to restore Nigeria’s place in the world. And that is what I tried to capture in BIG.”

    According to him,  ”Governments must govern. A government must deliver on its promises.”

    He criticised politicians who give excuses for bad governance.

    Moghalu said: “An ineffective government is a reflection of an effective man or woman, who is placed in an office for which he has no competence.”

    Reading from the book, Moghalu made a case for better funding, training and equipping for the police, noting that police’s failure was “why everywhere is so militarized”.

    According to him, Nigeria needs 1.5 million more law enforcement agents, because many of the existing about 350,000 police personnel “are guarding Very Important Persons (VIP).

  • Ex-CBN chief Moghalu for president

    Ex-CBN chief Moghalu for president

    A former Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof. Kingsley Moghalu announced yesterday that he was consulting widely to run for the presidency in 2019.

    Moghalu told reporters in Lagos that time had come for technocrats, intellectuals and experienced people to take power from Nigeria’s career politicians.

    He said he would not be deterred from joining the race, in spite of speculations that 2023 was the year slated for Igbos to have a shot at the presidency.

    Moghalu argued that politics in Nigeria should be detribalised for Africa’s most populous nation to grow and take its rightful place in the comity of nations.

    “It is the turn of any competent Nigerian to aspire for the post of presidency because career politicians have failed Nigeria,’’ the former CBN chief said.

    He said zoning, which had been used by the major political parties, might have been relevant in the past but that it was no longer necessary because competence should be placed above tribe in present day Nigeria.

    “Zoning was an internal arrangement by political parties that was not constitutional. It should no longer matter where the president comes from.

    “The future of Nigeria rests in technocratic interventions. We need thinking people that will take Nigeria from the politics of stomach infrastructure to politics of mental infrastructure.’’

    The former CBN chief said the first part to progress for Nigeria was for the people to begin to think differently and beyond tribe in choosing those who would lead them.

    On a second term for President Muhammadu Buhari,  Moghalu said the president had constitutional rights to seek re-election.

    “I don’t fathom how anyone can say the President should not run for a second term. It is his choice, the decision on who becomes Nigeria’s president in 2019 rests with Nigerians, “ he said.

    On the nation’s economy, the economist pointed out that “the economy was in a delicate situation before the present administration took over.

    Moghalu, who served as CBN deputy governor from 2009 to 2014, is a political economist, lawyer and a former United Nations (UN) official.

     

     

     

     

     

  • How Nigeria can compete in global economy, by Moghalu

    How Nigeria can compete in global economy, by Moghalu

    Former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Deputy Governor and Founder, Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation (IGET), Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, has called on Nigerians to wake up to their responsibilities and utilise the power of their voices and votes to take control of their future.

    Speaking at the Emerging Political Leaders Summit held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja, Moghalu harped on the need to address the factors making it difficult for the country to compete optimally in the global market.

    Themed “Breaking the Economic and Political Status Quo”, the summit was organised under the co-chairmanship of Frank Nweke and Senator Yusuf Datti Baba –Ahmed. It was meant to explain the needs of a country, which in the words of Baba Ahmed, “has basked in its own potential and enormous economic potential while its citizenry have been subjected to a vicious cycle of misgovernance for several decades”.

    Challenging all emerging political leaders in Nigeria to chart a worldview which will serve as its national philosophy, he said “It is time to give Nigerians a sense of self. It is time to define who we are, to determine our direction and how we intend to get there; a sense that compares us to other societies that we started out with. This is the time to renew our minds and for all Nigerians to understand that development is a state of mind and not a transaction”.

    He concluded by calling on Nigerians to utilise the powers of their office as citizens, saying “it is time for vision, technocratic knowledge and competence in political leadership in this country”.