As the race for next year’s presidential election gathers momentum, many eminent Nigerians have mounted the stump, aspiring to challenge President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, who has already thrown his hat into the ring. One of them is 55-year-old former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Prof. Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu. In this interview with SEGUN OLATUNJI (Acting Editor), and KAYODE FASUA (Head, Editorial Board), Moghalu unfolds his agenda to revamp the Nigerian economy. Excerpts
There is this general belief that the North has yet to finish its slot in the zoning formula for producing a president. As someone from the South-East, don’t you see this as a big challenge to your presidential ambition?
Let’s be very clear that, what is popularly called zoning is not an
outspoken agreement, except between a few recycled politicians in one or two political parties, to inflict an agreement of such a small minority on 200 million Nigerians. It’s a perfect example of how the political class has manipulated Nigeria into poverty and instability.
The Constitution does not recognise zoning. Nigerian citizens can
lawfully and legitimately aspire for the presidency and it is time Nigerians understand that focusing on things like zoning will not liberate them from the unemployment we have today, from poverty that we have today, from the insecurity we have today. It is time we begin to look for merit, to focus on merit; that is my view.
So if I say it, I am only saying it for the obvious. I am not saying it because I don’t like APC or anyone that is in the party. The statistic on the economy is very obvious. The economy has been a monumental disaster and Nigeria needs a leader who understands the economy, economic management, political economy and economic philosophy; that can reposition the whole economy in a direction that can actually begin to create wealth for all of us
Again, why have you opted to run on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance?
I have not yet announced my political platform; I will do so soon, this month. So that is just it…Let me explain what will guide my decision on a platform. I will be interested in a youth-oriented party, because the youths are the future of Nigeria; and I focus on the future, not on the past. So when you want to shift a paradigm, you don’t shift it by being inside the paradigm. You can only shift a paradigm from outside it. And if you are inside it, you are so surrounded by it that you cannot shift it. These are just simple laws of Physics. So I am urging our people to join me and the movement that I am part of; it is not just me alone. We would be looking forward to joining a youth-oriented party that shares our philosophy, which is people focused and people-centred.
What is your take on the Coalition for Nigeria Movement floated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo? Are you a member of the coalition or do you subscribe to its ideologies?
Let me explain that we are in a democracy and people have the right to come together; so in that sense, technically speaking, the former president and his associates have the right to form any coalition. At the time, I am not a member of the coalition. I am not a member of any coalition at this moment. I believe that the coalition will be helpful, perhaps even necessary, to win the 2019 presidential election. I believe a coalition must be of the people, by the people and for the people of Nigeria. I don’t believe in a coalition of expired politicians, who are simply unhappy that they have not got what they wanted in APC or PDP. I don’t believe those kinds of coalition are what will save Nigeria today.
Since you are new in politics, who among Nigeria’s long-serving politicians can be classified as your godfather?
First of all, God is my father, as I always say. After God, the people of Nigeria are my godfathers, the 200 million of them. I don’t have a single godfather in the traditional political sense. I don’t want my government to be captured by cabals and I want to be a president that will serve Nigerians, not a particular people or a section of the people. I think it is very important we talk about this paradigm shift again. If you listened to my speech at a platform in Lagos recently, titled, “They believe that nothing will change”, you would appreciate the need for the real change. We have to change the system and it is you and me that will effect that change. So if we continue to believe in all this old song, we will not make progress. If we believe without godfathers, we will not make progress as a nation; it is a contradiction, because with all the godfathers we have had, we are regressing. We are not making any progress. So why do we feel we still need those godfathers? People of Nigeria need to liberate their minds first of all, and this is what we are educating voters about. If you continue to believe you still need a godfather, then it means you worship the god of small things. I don’t worship the god of small things.
So I think, we, the citizens of Nigeria, take part of the responsibility for the terrible condition in which Nigeria is today.
Our leaders are directly responsible because they have not discharged it. Citizens are also responsible because they continue to empower bad leadership. You empower bad leadership when we talk about zoning. We believe that zoning has to determine where the president will come from; we believe that a candidate must have a godfather. It means you are operating in the paradigm that is oppressing you. You have a very active collaborator in your own oppression. This is what we are saying to Nigerians. We need to snap out of this mentality and it takes a new kind of vision to achieve result; such that I am trying to bring down to the table, and to offer myself and Nigerians to break away from this. This is why I tell you, that Nigeria will not make progress without a radical change in its political leadership. A radical change from its political leadership can only come from outside the recycled class of politicians in Nigeria today. Anybody who thinks that the traditional Nigerian politicians will bring solution that will create prosperity in Nigeria, or create stability, is reeling in self-delusion. It won’t happen. The reason is because, old habit dies hard. They can never change their ways; they can promise you that they will effect a change just to get your vote. But once they are there, they go make their money back. And they can only get there on the basis of tribal divisions, sentiments, zoning, and other unpalatable things, except merit and a vision that can actually make Nigeria a better place for your children and my children. I refuse to be part of that.
Nigerians need to understand that the way I am pointing to, is actually the way of salvation for liberation, for our long-suffering masses; that is just The Point. You cannot escape the poverty in this country, the instability and insecurity of herdsmen killing people every day in communities, without consequences. We can’t escape these problems if we do not determine that we must move to a different direction; that decision must be made by the citizens. The politicians will not make it for you, because it is not in their interest.
What’s your assessment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, in economic terms, given your background as a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria?
I think the assessment of the economy is quite obvious. What is the state of your personal economy? It is our personal economy put together that makes up the Nigerian economy. People are poor, people are strait for cash, prices are high. There is no real production that is going on in the economy. Unemployment has increased by over 100 per cent in the last few years. So, that is the state of the economy. The fact speaks for itself. We call it in Law, res ipsa loquitur, that is, ‘the fact speaks for itself.’
So, if I say it, I am only saying it for the obvious. I am not saying it because I don’t like APC or anyone that is in the party. The statistic on the economy is very obvious. The economy has been a monumental disaster and Nigeria needs a leader who understands the economy, economic management, political economy and economic philosophy; that can reposition the whole economy in a direction that can actually begin to create wealth for all of us. That is why I am saying the people who are here now don’t have any new ideas; so they should make way for those who do. I have a vision for the Nigerian economy; that is very clear, and the vision will be effectively executed.
So, for the Nigerian economy, what can you do differently, if elected President?
Nigeria’s economy needs to be massively stimulated. Nigeria’s economy needs to be shifted strategically away from oil, into a productive economy. How these things will happen? Here is the vision:
One, as President of Nigeria, I will establish a massive capital fund.
The government will put in N500 billion. We will invite the private sector to put in another N500bn. It will be a public-private partnership. The private sector will run the fund, the government will not run it. If the government runs it, politics will enter it. That Venture Capital Fund will have as its duty, investing in so many businesses to be created by people who are presently unemployed.
Currently, there are about 30 million unemployed Nigerians that have
been factored in. So we will invest in new businesses to be undertaken by these millions of
Nigerians.
Can you expantiate more on how this would work?
The people who don’t have jobs will be gainfully employed. The businesses will be properly managed and the fact that the Venture Capital Fund has equity in your business, it means somebody is looking over your shoulder, so you cannot just take the money as ‘awoof’ and ‘chop’ it. It’s not going to happen. Do you see why this idea is actually the key; nobody is going to give you ‘awoof’
money.
Secondly, we will change the educational curriculum of schools and move it towards more vocational skills and technical subjects.
Entrepreneurship will become the dominant portion of intake into Nigeria’s universities. Strategically, this will not happen in a day but by the time our four years is over, Nigeria will be well on the path towards full industrialisation and self-sufficiency. So the next generation of our educational institutions will not become a pipeline into unemployment, because that is what universities are today: pipeline into unemployment. Hundreds and thousands of people coming out of universities, polytechnics every year, no jobs, because in the first place, they are not properly trained; they don’t have the skills to employ themselves or to be employable by a lot of people. So, when you change this paradigm again, you decrease unemployment
significantly.
Also, I have talked about the new police force that we are going to create in Nigeria. Nigeria cannot have 350,000 policemen for 200 million people; it is a joke. Why will you be surprised that there is no security in Nigeria today? We are going to raise the police force’s strength to 1.5 million, or possibly, two million. We will give them new skills but what does this do when you recruit two million people?
They are wiped out of the unemployment line; so, there are several ways to attack unemployment, and strategically repositioning the country such that if you must actually pay people in the public service, they will be doing something that is useful. Securing Nigeria is a very necessary and essential task. So if the government is spending money and paying these policemen, it is an investment in the security and in the lives of Nigerians. It’s a proper investment.
So these are the ways I will look at the economy. Then, another fundamental approach to the economy is the structural shift of the economy away from oil. We run an economy based on innovation, not based on the receipt from oil sales, which makes up 90 per cent of Nigeria’s FOREX today, and when oil price sneezes, Nigeria catches the pneumonia, and that happened quite often and we are always sick. It is a boom and bust cycle. This is the dynamic that covers natural resources. So, any country that relies on raw natural resources for its wealth or stability will never be rich. That is why Nigeria is where it is today. So when you shift on the Nigerian economy, what are you saying?
The young man in Agege or Mushin (both in Lagos) or Kano, who is brilliant enough to invent all kinds of contractions that everybody will be amazed, will be motivated and useful. Look at how brilliant our kids are and the newspapers will take their photographs and put on the first page; after that, we will never get to hear of
them again.
To unleash the wealth of Nigeria is something that requires intellectual and conceptual thinking. In Nigeria today, we have a government that is busy managing poverty, because they cannot create wealth. The intellectual framework to release the wealth of Nigeria does not exist in the government today, and it has not existed in our government for quite a long time.
To unleash the wealth of Nigeria is something that requires intellectual and conceptual thinking. In Nigeria today, we have a government that is busy managing poverty, because they cannot create wealth. The intellectual framework to release the wealth of Nigeria does not exist in the government today, and it has not existed in our government for quite a long time
