Ayo Oyoze Baje
The statistics are simply scary, sordid and scandalous; looking at Nigeria’s Human Development Index, HDI, vis-a-vis its enormous natural endowments. For instance, that the world’s sixth largest producer of crude oil, with a maximum capacity of 2.5 million barrels per day, was recently ranked 152nd out of 188 countries by the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP on HDI, below neighbouring Ghana and Zambia positioned at 139 , Gabon, 109 , and Equatorial Guinea, 135 is only part of the parlous picture.
Similarly, how do we explain the paradoxical fact that Nigeria, also ranked as the world’s largest producer of cassava and yam according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO , has overtaken India to become the world’s capital for the extremely poor people? That is according to the World Poverty Clock. Also, in February, this year Nigeria ranked 11th amongst the countries with global deaths of newborn babies, according to the Executive Director, Ms. Henrietta H. Fore.
One does not need rocket science to know that the missing link is that of quality leadership. We are talking about a leadership that is visionary, dynamic, proactive, pragmatic, detribalized and modernistic in its approach to critical socio-economic issues, as they evolve. Not one that forever finds or flies flimsy excuses for failure but one that musters the political will to succeed, against all odds. Indeed, one that understands the nitty-gritty of people-oriented policies and programmes; one that is intellectually and physically equipped and prepared to take our dear nation to new heights.
There comes in Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN and currently, the presidential candidate of the Young Progressive Party(YPP) for the 2019 elections. It would interest the reader to know that as a characteristic of one that is prepared for leadership he published the book Build, Innovate and Grow (BIG): My Vision for our Country (Bookcraft, 2018) .
Through it he has spelt out in clear terms what he wants to do should the good people of Nigeria cast away the swirling sentiments of ethnicity, religion and a fixed, mesmerized mindset of leadership couched in gerontocracy and pitch their tent with him.
In his words, during the forthcoming 2019 presidential election Nigerians “will be faced with a choice between progress and retrogression, between scary poverty and the prospect of prosperity for millions of our citizens and not just the elite few, between our freedom and our continuing false imprisonment by the political elite that have brought us to our present sorry pass”. One cannot agree any less.
Simply put, it is time to shine our eyes! To those who erroneously believe that this is the best form of government we could ever have, Moghalu warns that: “On current trends of what passes for governance in Nigeria and despite our dynamism and resourcefulness as a people, that future is a bleak one. I want to lead our country as its president because I have a BIG vision for the future of our children and youth”.
One cannot but align with his concern that the International Monetary Fund, IMF has noted that poverty is increasing in our country and we remain the world’s greatest importer of Premium Motor Spirit (refined petroleum) while we export crude oil!
Should he become the president, he will reverse the drift of government controlling and subsidizing the importation and pricing of PMS and go for the deregulating of the downstream petroleum industry.
His practicable vision stands on a tripod of first healing our country and building a new nation. The second step is to wage a decisive and relentless war against poverty and unemployment. This would be a most welcome idea as 11 million Nigerians are believed to have lost their jobs over the past three and half years! His third move is to restore Nigeria’s standing in the world.
And without sounding immodest, he states in unequivocal term that: “I believe I have been well prepared for that task by the level, quantum and quality of my leadership experience. From nation-building around the world to economic management at home, from international diplomacy to the global academia, I have demonstrated a track record of creating superior value”.
Interestingly, several young Nigerians-men and women desirous of true Change- who have listened to him have started keying into his verdant vision.
For instance,, precisely on Saturday, October 6,2018, a volunteer group that goes by the name, ‘Kingsley Moghalu’s Disciples’ had an interactive session with the Media at Ikeja Airport Hotel, Lagos. The South-West Chapter led by the likes of Messrs Nurudeen Yusuf, Ifade Olusegun, Ibikunle Motunrayo and Seun Fakorede, pledged their unflinching commitment to seeing Moghalu becoming Nigeria’s next president.
They explained that they are a network of politically-conscious, committed Nigerian youths, from across the country, blind to ethnicity and religious sentiments but determined to make the real Change happen.
According to the group, they have found in Moghalu an intellectually sound, competent technocrat of high moral fibre to steer the ship of state in the right direction. They could not hide the fact that they are fed up with the recycling of the old -breed politicians who have no solutions to the myriad of socio-economic woes bedeviling the country.
Individually and collectively, they are saying a vehement ‘no!’ to Vote Buying; an unpatriotic act which is capable of bringing a curse on the young generation. As Moghalu’s Disciples therefore, they intend to drive the message home in a determined bid to spread the gospel of good governance down to the grassroots even in the local languages through the Door2Door Campaign.
They, like millions of other Nigerians who want the brightest and the best for the country now believe that there are indeed credible alternatives to the ‘Class of 1966’ that keep recycling themselves in the corridors of Nigeria’s political power. What is required, to start with, is a certain type of mindset, intellectual capability and philosophical insight as well as the ability to assemble a competent team in the government to drive the vision.
With such people in power and with time, Nigeria would be rubbing shoulders with Norway, which tops the table as the number one country in the HDI, and others such as Switzerland and Australia which came in joint second.
As rightly noted by Moghalu, “Our nation cannot be built by ethno-religious irredentists who live in the past and whose instincts are based on extremely narrow worldviews” .