*Says it is the turn of any competent Nigerian to present himself or herself for the presidency of Nigeria
When The Niche trio of Ikechukwu Amaechi, Oguwike Nwachuku and Alex Emeka-Duru had a two-hour chat with Prof Kingsley Moghalu, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and President, Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation, last week, it came with a caveat.
He informed us he would formally declare his ambition to run for the highest office in the land in next year’s general election on Wednesday, February 28, and requested that part of the interview embargoed until after the declaration.
Few hours ago, Prof Moghalu mounted the dais in Abuja to do as he promised.
And in this second part of this explosive interview (the first part that dealt mainly with the economy was published on Monday) he tells Nigerians, perhaps better than any other politician has ever articulated, why he wants to be president.
The story is all over the place that you are running for Nigeria’s presidency in 2019. Is that true? If yes, why do you want to leave your comfort zone for the murky Nigerian political waters?
It is true that I have been thinking about running for the presidency. I went through consultations. I went through reflections and based on that I am going to take a final decision very soon.
Why do I want to leave my comfort zone to go into politics? Because I am a citizen of Nigeria and because the welfare of Nigerians matters to me. And I am fed up with the divisiveness in this country, the lack of unity and I am fed up with our inability to achieve our potentials. I am fed up with the poverty and hunger in the land.
What good is it if I am doing well personally but my neighbour is not doing well, the man on the street is not doing well? I come home and everybody wants a handout from you. That is the reason I have gravitated towards politics.
There is also another reason which is the fact that I have found from experience that it is the capacity of the political leadership that matters most. It is not whether they surround themselves with technocrats. They can surround themselves with technocrats and take decisions that suppress the recommendation or the thinking of the technocrats. In fact, a situation can be created such as we have today in which you may have some fine technocrats or some intelligent people but they are afraid to do the right thing because they know that those things may be against vested interests that are powerful. If they know that the president is surrounded by people who have influence over him and those people will not like certain things they may want to do, they will not do those things because self-preservation is the first law of nature.
But there are some Nigerians who insist that there is no alternative to a Muhammadu Buhari presidency right now.
There is no greater fallacy than that. On what basis is that statement being made? Is it on the basis that Nigeria is now a united country? Is it on the basis that our economy is now better than when Buhari came? Is it on the basis that we are now more secure than before Buhari?
People should defend statements they make. You don’t just make statements based on a worship of an individual and you are ignoring the facts that are staring you in the face that that individual may not have delivered the result that he or she promised.
When President Buhari was coming to power in 2015, many promises were made, none of them has been achieved or delivered. Why should I vote for politicians who don’t deliver on their promises? I am removing from myself as a citizen the power that I have which is actually the biggest power – my vote.
It is not just your vote but there is something called beyond your one vote, how do you exercise that right? This is what is coming into play in 2019.
How do you exercise that right? There is one part which is come out and vote, there is another part which is, on what basis are you voting? Are you voting on the basis of ethnic sentiments? Are you voting on the basis of religious sentiments? Or are you voting based on what is actually in your interest which is to vote in a competent Nigerian to be president and manage the economy well and create better cohesion and stability in our country.
This country is sliding into anarchy and chaos. You cannot sleep now without one eye open. People in various communities in this country are being attacked by marauding herdsmen, there are kidnappings, and there is still Boko Haram. So, on the issue of security of life and limb which is the number one job of a government, they failed.
The only person who should have the monopoly of the use of force in any society is the state. Today in Nigeria, there are many groups that command the use of force and the state can do nothing about it.
You are moving on the road to state failure. That is number one.
Look at the economy. We have had the worst recession in 30 years. Look at the divisiveness, the extreme ethnocentricity of the government of the day. And when the president now says he will take a second look at the appointments, it is an indirect admission that that criticism is true. So, the person who is telling me that there is no alternative to the present leader should please give me another argument. That is tales by the moonlight.
There are certain factors, bad as they are, that inform political calculations. For instance, you are not identified with any of the two major political parties in the country today, APC and PDP. Secondly, there is also the issue of rotational presidency, though it is not constitutional, don’t you see these factors militating against your aspiration?
Yes, they are obstacles but that is why we must think big and that is why I wrote the book, Build, Innovate and Grow (BIG). We have to think outside the box and we have to educate our people that what is in their interest is not what is on ground now. So, we must build something new on ground because what is on ground now was created by human beings, so it can be changed.
I do not subscribe to the philosophy of powerlessness. This is what is on ground, we cannot change it, and so we all retire and surrender. The day you surrender, you are dead.
The two major political parties have failed in governance. We can see that, there is evidence. So, I believe that something radically new is now necessary in Nigerian politics. It is not a question of coalition here and there. I am interested in the real coalition of the people of Nigeria – the coalition of students, technocrats, businessmen, market women, everybody. It is not the coalition of elite politicians.
What we need in this country is not a coalition of the same old same old because that was how APC came into being. It was the dissatisfaction with the status-quo that led to the creation of the APC. Meanwhile, APC has given us yet the same status-quo. They have not delivered any result that is different from what they replaced because old wine cannot be put in a new wineskin. They are all cut from the same cloth. And for them politics and party formations are just vehicles for the capture of political power for selfish reasons. Not for service to the people.
That is why I said we need new people and they exist in this country. They just stayed out. More of those people are beginning to come in and that is why people like us are coming in because we recognise that if we continue to pontificate from outside without taking the necessary steps, nothing will change.
It may not change in one day, but it is an evolutionary process. But I believe that talk na do. I have talked enough, I am now into the fray. I am going into the ring.
Another thing that has held Nigeria down is this north/south dichotomy because we don’t have a worldview in this country and that is why I believe that the first job of the next president of Nigeria is to establish a national philosophy.
First of all, there must be an identification. Who are we as Nigerians? Where are we coming from, where are we going? How are we going to get there? And this must be taught in schools – primary and secondary schools – that is how you change mindsets. It won’t happen in a day, but in another four years or eight years, you will see a big difference.
Therefore, I think it is the turn of any competent Nigerian to present himself or herself for the presidency of this country. We have done zoning which is not constitutional, so it is something that happens in one or two political parties. There are many other parties and they are not zoning. We seem to forget that.
Now the argument about zoning, assuming but not admitting for the sake of argument that there was a zoning argument, and you are making a reference to my part of the country. First of all, I am not an ethnic candidate as I make it very clear. My interest in the leadership of this country is based on my vision and my concern for Nigerians from Jigawa to Ikot Ekpene, from Onitsha to Ado Ekiti.
But even if you want to look at the zoning argument, and people talk about Southeast and 2023, that is the biggest political 419 of the century.
Let me explain why. If Buhari runs in 2019, let us assume that he wins, in 2023 the APC candidate will most likely come from the Southwest because they have people in the party. APC does not have a strong following in the Southeast, so the region will not get the party ticket. Let us also assume that the PDP wins the election in 2019, whoever wins will like to be president for eight years. So, again, in 2023, the Southeast is out. In which of these two scenarios does a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction come up in 2023? None. That is why these ethnic arguments are false and that is why I don’t want to proceed on that basis. I prefer to proceed on a national basis.
What we need is competence, not ethnic identity. After all, what has Buhari’s presidency done for the average man in the north? Not much. Nothing, in fact. Some people that are close may have benefited but that is all.
You seem to believe so much in Nigerians —
(Cuts in) Yes, but I am not naïve. So, let me just bury that thought because I can guess where you are coming from. I want you to understand something and it will become apparent with time. I am not naïve at all. You will see more with time. I don’t believe in the angelic nature of anybody. I believe that if you want to change a reality, you organise for it. Period. I am not just preaching, I will take the necessary steps along the lines of what I am preaching.
And just by the way, it is the same principles that informed the civil rights struggle in the U.S. because many black people accepted the inevitability in white racism, so why does Martin Luther King bother? Why would Malcom X bother because nothing can change the status-quo? But those people stepped out when nobody else believed the situation could change. And eventually we saw the result.
I think that Nigerian youths who have not been involved in politics so far have a very important role to play in effecting this paradigm shift. They have stayed out mainly because they are apathetic, some are disgusted, so we should get them involved. They have the numbers to shift the needle. They are more in number than the people who are actively engaged and voting for the PDP and APC.
They are but there is the issue of how faithful they are.
That is where organisation and persuasion come in. It is a tireless job. You don’t just sleep and people become faithful. No! You continue to work on it. You continue to talk to them, you continue to organise them and show them why their own interest is served by this vision and not by the vision that is “on ground.”
Politics is a capital intensive venture globally but it is even more so in Nigeria. How do you intend to compete with the moneybags all over the place?
I believe that we should come to a situation in this country where campaign finance is properly regulated. We don’t have that today. This is a responsibility that INEC has and we should all rise up and put pressure on them just as we are talking about underage voting. We really need to reduce, not eliminate, money is a legitimate factor in politics but it is a question of how the money is used. Just logistics alone will cost you money. If I am flying from here to there, it is money. So, you need money to do that.
But if the money is for bribing people to vote, that is where the problem is. Now, there are many ways to raise money. We believe that those citizens of Nigeria that want something new and different must put their money where their mouth is. They should support politicians they believe in with their N500, with their N1,000, N5,000, N10,000, N100,000, N1,000,000. If they do that, those who believe the way I do can have a change. So at the end of the day, power is in the hands of the people.
Some of us don’t have godfathers and if the people want to stop godfatherism, then they should support politicians who do not believe in godfathers. Simple!
So, we will be making this case and there are 180 million Nigerians, of which 50 million to 100 million can easily bring out N1,000 and put in the campaign, that is it, if they believe that they want change. So there are many ways to skin a cat.
Do you believe that the electoral umpire as presently constituted can deliver on its mandate of free and fair elections?
I don’t want to comment on the present constitution of INEC. I want to comment on the process. And all I will say is that I should hope that INEC will be a neutral umpire. But it is not enough to hope. Hope is not a strategy.
I will tell Nigerians to organise themselves to watch and protect their votes. Don’t trust INEC alone to protect your votes based on the experience we have seen in this country. The issue of underage voting going on in some parts of the country already is an indicator that we need to be awake to our responsibilities to ourselves as citizens in this country.
Many people insist that APC took over power without being prepared. In other climes, when people or political parties are jostling for power, they are usually prepared with shadow cabinets and all that so that when they win, they hit the ground running. Are you thinking along that line?
I already know who will be what in my government.
So, what should Nigerians expect from you?
A very highly competent government. A first eleven team that will be announced on day one, a team which will not only be meritocratic but also inclusive. On day one, we will announce the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), the National Security Adviser (NSA), and Chief of Staff. They will come from three different geopolitical zones not what we have now, all of them from one zone.
What we have now is not inclusive at all and those are the reasons we have problems in this country. You can get very competent Nigerians across this country.
On what political platform is this your ambition going to be realised?
For now, my focus is on the people of Nigeria. Obviously, I will run on some platform. The people with whom I share this vision we are discussing and we will agree on a political party that we will join. We are not forming a new political party. We will join an existing political party and seek the opportunity to contest on that platform.
That discussion is currently going on but the focus for now is the people of Nigeria. We have focused too much on platforms in the past. I want Nigerians to first of all assess me and my competence and track record as to whether or not I can be a very good president for the country.
We will find a platform that aligns with our vision. Right now, a number of party platforms are speaking with me, asking me to come and join them. I do not want to commit myself or to rush into that. I need to consult with those who are members of this movement and together we will decide on the best platform.
If any of the two dominant political parties – APC and PDP – offers you their platform, will you accept?
They cannot because they are zoned and my vision is for the presidency. Both parties will have candidates from one part of the country because they have zoned it.
What do say to people who see your campaign as a bargaining chip for vice presidency, probably running mate to a presidential candidate from the north? Is it what this is all about?
You have to discuss at the level of your vision. I am not looking for a job. I am looking for an opportunity to serve this country as its president.
If I was looking for a job I won’t be in this. I know that it doesn’t matter who is in power in this country I will be in contention for some important positions in government. Just based on my track record and my background, I could be Minister of Finance, I could be CBN Governor, I could be a number of things. I could even be the Vice President but that is not the point because if you are not the person with the political authority, it is not your vision that is being implemented.
As a president, what will be your priority infrastructure-wise?
My priority in terms of infrastructure will be three things.
First is electricity and my approach to electricity infrastructure will differ radically from what is going on today. I want to link Nigeria to renewable energy – solar, wind, etc. Nature favours us. We have the sun. Hydro and gas fed electricity will power industrial zones but Nigerian homes and offices will be powered by solar energy. We will provide incentives. We will not decree it but simply incentivize the market. So, there will be an electricity market created by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). That is their function but they are yet to execute that function because politics won’t let them. People want to be selling power holding companies to their friends and that is why we don’t have electricity in this country.
But if you do the right thing and the market is structured in a certain way, this problem will go away over time. It won’t happen in one day but we will set the system in motion to realise the goal.
The second priority is social infrastructure, that is to say education and healthcare. Those two things will be such strong priorities. We need to reform our education system so that it can produce skilled and employable people. We need to reform the healthcare system.
But overall, my economic vision is a vision that is inspired by innovation and human capital. That is what will drive the Nigerian economy under my presidency.
What do you say to people who believe that Nigeria is a rich country?
Nigeria is a poor country in reality and it is poor because it has been impoverished. How can Nigeria be a rich country when the average GDP per capita since 1960 is $1,600, when the GDP per capita as at 2016 was $2,000? GDP per capital in South Africa is $7,000, Malaysia $9,000. So, compare and contrast.
People like to dream. If you don’t tell yourself the truth, you will not wake up. If we continue to tell ourselves that we are a rich country, we will remain poor.
So, let me spell it out, we are a poor country, in fact, we are one of the poorest countries in the world. That is where our politicians have left us.
On what basis do we claim to be a rich country? Wealth is measured in per capita income and the production of the economy itself. Wealth is measured by how inclusive growth is. On all these counts, we are weak and somebody says we are a rich country.
Where is the wealth? We think we are rich because we have natural resources but that is actually why we are poor. There are very few countries on earth that have natural resources that are truly wealthy.
Let me tell you why that should not surprise anybody. Natural resource automatically induces laziness. In Africa, only Botswana has escaped it and may be South Africa to some degree although in the last few years, they have had a leadership that was very “Nigerian.”
What produces the wealth of nations? It is economic complexity. That is to say how do you take natural things and create complex products out of them at competitive prices and competitive cost. How do you give them value and export?
That is why we import things made from raw materials from many African countries. That is why we are exporting crude oil and importing refined petroleum products. I don’t know what other clinical definition you have for madness than this. If you don’t add value to your products and export in your economy, you cannot be wealthy.
Look at all the countries that are wealthy – Switzerland, South Korea, Japan, name them – what do they have under their soil? Nothing! But they take your natural resources and turn them into complex products and export back to you.
And you are telling me you are rich. If you are rich, what is Japan? We should stop fooling ourselves in this country. Enough!
How optimistic are you about Nigeria?
If Nigeria changes its leadership to a different type of leadership, the trajectory can be much better. I will be optimistic. On current trends with the current political class, there is no hope. The country is sliding down further and further. You cannot give what you don’t have. They don’t have what it takes. If you don’t have the moral character to take a certain position regarding leadership, you cannot invent it.
If you don’t have the intellect to conceptualize and frame certain types of policies and approach to governance, you cannot invent it. If you do not have the communicative ability to manufacture consent in a fractious country like this, you won’t go far.
As president, I will be holding town hall meetings with Nigerians across the country. I won’t be sending ministers because I know I will explain the issues better than any minister of mine. I will tell them why we need to move away from the way we do things. That is what leadership is all about but if you don’t have the right leader who will do that, then you won’t get the result. Is that rocket science?
If I have the type of engagement we have had today across the six geopolitical zones as president of Nigeria, do you think it will have no impact? Of course, it will have impact.
That is why I do not believe in the inevitability of our circumstance. We just need the right type of leadership. It may look difficult now but all things are possible.
