- Reveals His Game Plan To City People
Have you ever watched Professor Kingsley Moghalu, the former CBN deputy governor who is now a presidential aspirant on the platform of Young Progressive Party, talk about how he would fix Nigeria, if he gets elected in 2019? If you have not, you need to hear him speak. He has great ideas that are fresh, original and home grown. He is an orator. He always exudes the self-confidence every leader needs to drive home his point.
City People spent quality time with him last Thursday evening in Lagos and we found him to be very, very sound. He has a mastery of the economic problems facing Nigeria and the way to fix it. He is clean, urbane, refined and very decent. He does not cut the picture of your traditional Nigerian politician. He is very deep in his thinking and has a clearly articulated plan for Nigeria. He is very passionate about the urgent need to fix Nigeria.
He has so many things going for him. He has a very good name MOGHALU going for him He also has a good pedigree. His father was a Foreign Service officer, one of a small group of promising young Nigerians inducted into the foreign Ministry after Nigeria’s independence in 1960. That exposed Prof. Kingsley Moghalu to diverse cultures, across the globe.
He also has a rich profile having attended a lot of good schools that enlarged his world view. Armed with interdisciplinary knowledge in International economics, International Law and Diplomacy and a global network of contacts, Prof. Moghalu took to the world stage years ago.
On the basis of individual merit, he got a job with the UN secretariat in 1992.
On account of his expertise in Risk Management, he got made a Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria by Pres Umaru Yar’Adua in November 2009 and he was there till October 2014.
He is also an intellectual with a chain of degree that led to his being appointed a Professor of Practice In International Business and Public Policy at the prestigious Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts.
So, in offering to run for presidency, Moghalu is bringing to bear on the race, his rich and vast experience in public policy, macro economics, financial policy, and corporate governance.
Since the beginning of the year, Mogbalu has been traveling round the country to meet traditional rulers, stakeholders, opinion leaders across the 36 states of the country. Though he has his plan clearly stated out, he felt that his interaction with the various leaders of thoughts will further enrich his worldview.
 For close to an hour that Thursday evening, somewhere in Victoria Island, Lagos, City People Publisher, Seye Kehinde got this handsome new breed politician with a passion for the youths to reveal the feedbacks he got moving round the country and how both APC & ADP can’t run Nigeria.
You have been travelling around Nigeria for months, consulting stakeholders in the various states. What has been the feedbacks?
Yes, I have been across the country. The most important thing that has become apparent to me, as I more around the country, is that the people of Nigeria now want something new, in terms of Leadership. They are disappointed with the diet that they have been fed by the politicians, the traditional political class.
The most important thing I found out is that they want a generational shift in leadership. Nigerians don’t want to be ruled any more by Tired Old Men, and Tired Old Systems and Tried Old Practice. They are disappointed by the 2 main political parties of APC and PDP. They want to led by someone who does not come from that wing of politics.
Beyond that, you learn of the usual concerns from different parts of the country. Some of them are unique to parts of the country. In Nassarawa State, they have issues that are peculiar to them. In Benue, they have their own peculiar issues. In Kano, they have some issues that are peculiar to them like the issues of Industrialisation and Drug Abuse by the youths. In the South East, you have the issues of jobs, employment, trading, infrastructure is a big problem for them. As one goes through the 36 states you get to learn a lot about the country you want to lead and the people.
Was what you discovered different from your vision of what you had in mind to do?
It simply reinforced what I already knew but it expanded my knowledge base. Its very personal because you meet and interact with mothers and children, the young and old in different parts of Nigeria. Wherever I go I also visit the traditional rulers. There is a lot of Cultural richness involved.
Can you take us back to the very first day you took that decision to run for office? What triggered it?
It wasn’t a one day flash-In-the pan decision. It was a process. The decision grew on me, while I was a Professor of Practice in International Business and Public Policy at Tufts University in the United States after my time as Deputy Governor of the Central Bank. So, I was watching Nigeria from a safe distance. My mind was not cluttered by the pressures of daily life in Nigeria. I could see Nigeria very clearly. And Nigeria was going through a horrible economic recession and I began to think that I wanted to serve Nigeria again.
But I had come to a decision that the real problem lies with our political leadership. I decided that I wasn’t going to go back into a technocratic position but what we need is technocrats empowered with political legitimacy and authority through elections to be able to change Nigeria, because Technocrats have the Knowledge then with an election you have the political authority. If you are an appointee, you don’t have that level of authority for your own Vision to be what actually happens on the ground. So, I have a Vision and I decided that the only way, or, the best way to seek to realization of that vision is through the possibility of serving Nigeria as its president, as its leader, so that you could have the stage to operate at the level of your vision.
From your findings, what is the biggest problem with Nigeria?
There are 2 things. The number one thing in the way we think. Nigeria is a society whose thinking patterns have been very severely compromised and adulterated. Therefore we don’t have a common world view. There is no national ambition.
Then, Number 2. These 2 problems are linked, both No 1 and No 2. The Number 2 problem Nigeria has is Lack of Leadership. Nigeria just does not have leaders. It has lots of politicians but it does not have leaders. These are 2 reasons that made me decided to go into politics to bring leadership into governance, so that governance can actually be transformative.
But Prof. didn’t we have great leaders like, Zik, Awo, Tafawa Balewa, Sardawna Okpara and Co. How come you said lack of leadership is the issue?
Yes. Those were in the good old days. Those were better times. We haven’t leaders at that level, since after the 60s. Since the 70s, since the military took over politics in this country and then handed over to the civilian regime in 1999. We just haven’t had superior leadership based on world views. But we must restore that level of leadership so that the dreams of our founding fathers and the labours of our heroes past shall not be in vain. Right now, those labours are in vain because what you have now is political carpet baggers all over the place.
The worst ruling the best instead of the best ruling the rest. That is the kind of society we have in Nigeria to day and I decided as a Citizen, that I am fed up enough with what is going on to get off my own comfort zone and to do something about it as a citizen. Otherwise, even though I am personally successful but my personal success is not enough. What kind of country do I want to bequeath to my kids and the young people of this country.
So, I decided to make the sacrifice, I am in this, in a sacrificial mode, I have brought myself out to work for our masses and to help them, to set them free from those who believe that Nigeria belongs to them and their children.
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