Presidential hopeful, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, says he sees opportunities in the political and economic future of Nigeria as the nation confronts her challenges.
Moghalu a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and 2019 presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), made this remark at a Public Lecture delivered at University of Oxford, London.
This is contained in a statement on the lecture on Thursday in Lagos.
Delivering the lecture on “The Political Economy of Nigeria: Challenges and Opportunities for Reform, Moghalu said that “on both the political and economic fronts, Nigeria’s difficulties have been magnified for a combination of reasons.
“While some Nigerians are somewhat gloomy about our country’s prospects for its long-delayed emergence as a stable and economically robust country, I see many opportunities
“But I believe that this phase will pass. Most pertinent is the concern about the country’s nationhood.
“Colonialism birthed a country troubled from birth. But the international law doctrine of uti possedetis is a reality. We must make Nigeria work for its 200 million people, as soon as possible.”
According to him, the matter of continued emergence of a visionary and transformational leadership is key to progress in the country.
He added: “Can we utilise democratic leadership to birth a transformation?
“This depends not so much on the politicians we can predict will seek to defend their vested interests, but rather on the youths and women in our country.
“The 2023 general elections will provide us with an opportunity to look beyond our prejudices, and vote for our hopes and not our fears.”
Tracing the nation’s foundation, Moghalu said that Nigeria had no single founding father around whom national identity and consciousness revolved like some other countries, which he said, had important implications for Nigeria’s political and economic evolution.
Moghalu, who identified seven critical reasons for Nigeria’s current challenges, said these included insecurity and a sense of nationhood as well as weak political order formation.
He listed decline of state capacity and the elite class, the curse of oil, corruption, among others as part of the reason for the nation’s challenges.
According to him, Nigeria matters in the world and this reality is recognised by the world’s great powers and assured to some extent, by the country’s population and economic size in the African country.
“In recent years, as well, Nigeria has been able to get its nationals elected to the leadership of important multilateral organisations such as the World Trade Organisation and the African Development Bank.
“Talented Nigerians perform great feats in the world. But, upon a somewhat deeper examination, we will find that our country is yet to achieve all its potentials as the beacon of the black race in world politics, as China has become for Asia.”
On how to make Nigeria great, Moghalu said that the path to resolving Nigeria’s crisis runs mostly through the character of the country’s politics, the quality of its political processes and institutions, and its constitutional, political and purely economic reforms.
“The seven paths to resolution that I propose are the electoral reforms, citizen political education and participation, emergence of transformational leadership, elite consensus, the Third Force as the vehicle for transformational leadership, constitutional reform and economic philosophy,” he said.
