The former Deputy Central Bank Governor, and the Presidential aspirant under the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Professor Kingsley Moghalu has bared his mind on the political and social-economic issues ravaging Nigeria.
The former Young Peoples Party (YPP) Presidential candidate in the 2019 Presidential elections in an interview with Maazi Tochuckwu Ezeoke on Njenje Media TV program ‘The State Of The Nation Series”, explained why it may be too late at this point to clamour for restructuring before the general elections next year.
In his words:
“Well you see I’m a pragmatic person, I believe in constitutional restructuring back to federalism, you know so and I believe that that’s the only basis on which Nigeria can prosper as a country and be stable but I’m also practical enough to know two things: One the person who is the President of Nigeria today is absolutely against constitutional restructuring.”
“That’s number one, number two, the time is very short as we have only 12 months between now and the elections. For these two reasons it does not seem the most strategic approach to me to keep insisting that we have to restructure Nigeria before we have the elections in 2023. I don’t think that’s really a practical approach”.
Prof. Moghalu believes a more practical approach will be to elect candidates who believe in the constitutional restructuring of the country.
“I think a more practical approach is that people who believe in the constitutional restructuring of Nigeria should back a candidate or candidates for various positions, not just for the presidency but for the national assembly and state houses of the assembly who also believe that Nigeria needs to be constitutionally restructured. So when/If those candidates win, then the battle becomes easier. So you can mobilize your numbers behind candidates who support or who share the view that Nigeria needs to be restructured, that’s the more practical and strategic thing to do in my view.”
On the chances of the third force and what the intended coalition plans to do, he said:
“These politicians are only out for their stomach, they are only out for their bank accounts, but you see people fighting on the streets on behalf of their slave masters. So there’s a lot of mental slavery that is going on and part of our business as a third force, hopefully, we come into existence as a new mega party will be to educate Nigerians you know and to educate them about their own power as citizens and you know to resist the, what’s going on which is the disempowerment of the Nigerian mindset by traditional politicians.”
Continuing, he said: “So this is what is going on, it’s possible it’s not easy, let us not fool ourselves you know when people have been oppressed for so long. Somebody gave me an example that if you put an animal, some animals in a cage for so many years, maybe initially they tried to escape with no success. If you now remove the top of that thing and say fly away they may just sit down there, they don’t want to fly because you know they don’t believe they can fly anymore. This is what is happening to Nigerians but I hope God forbid, I hope people will wake up, so it’s a valid question as to whether or not Nigerians themselves are tired of the suffering and the dysfunction of Nigerian society but I cannot answer that question I’m only making myself for example available for leadership that can provide what Nigerians need as human beings that are God’s creation. That’s all I can do, I cannot be the candidate and be the voter”, he added.
