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By Christy Anyanwu
In 2019, Prof Kingsley Moghalu was the presidential candidate of the YPP and today he is aspiring for the same position in the 2023 elections.
Moghalu is the founder and president of Strategies LLC, a global risk management and investment advisory firm that has advised multinationals, private equity, asset management and other emerging-market investors such as the Swiss bank UBS, Syngenta, Actis, Goldman Sachs, TPG Pactual, Eaton Vance, and Old Mutual (South Africa).
He is also the founder and president of the Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation (IGET), a public policy think tank.
He served as deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 2009 to 2014.
Prof Moghalu previously worked in the United Nations system for 17 years in international security, nation-building and diplomatic assignments at the UN Secretariat headquarters in New York and in duty stations in Cambodia, Croatia, Rwanda, and Switzerland, rising to the rank of director.
He is the author of a number of books, including Emerging Africa: How the Global Economy’s Last Frontier Can Prosper and Matter (Penguin).
Moghalu obtained his Doctor of Philosophy degree in International Relations at the London School of Economics, M.A. at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and LL.B. degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, among other certificates.
Speaking with Sunday Sun recently he poured out his heart on how he would bring back the lost glory of Nigeria if he is elected president in 2013. Excerpts:
In 2019, you made the first attempt to become the president of this country, it didn’t work out. You are gunning for presidency again in 2023, Why do you want to become the president of Nigeria?
Because of the passion I feel for the rising poverty and insecurity in this country. Because of the vision I have for the country, I believe that I have the capacity to execute that vision. Nigeria needs in 2023 a very different kind of leader from what we have had in recent years and I believe that I am the person that will answer to that need at this time. That’s why it’s not ambition, it’s vision. They are two different things. I entered into politics not because I saw myself going into politics, I never did actually. So, I was surprised at my own self, but because I was angry at the situation in Nigeria, because I have had a very successful life. I’m no longer interested in myself, but I’m focused now on the situation in our country because I have children, I grew up here as a child, this is a very different country today and it breaks my heart what’s going on. Just look at what is happening in Kaduna or what happened in Kaduna within 24 hours ,so many people were killed, kidnapped, because of terrorists bombings and attacks on the railway, on the highway . Just a few days before this incident it was at the airport. So, this country is under siege and if we are not careful within a short time it can be overrun by terrorists and we could become like Afghanistan. We should not downplay this scenario. So the politics of 2023 therefore is not the politics for the usual kind of politicians because they are the ones who brought us to this mess; 2023 is a very defined year for the history of this country; 2023 is in my mind and that should be the case for every Nigerian, it should be a battle between the past, the very disappointing past of this country and a much better future under capable visionary leadership that is sincere and cares about Nigerians. So, that’s why I’m back again in 2023. Now, I’m back with lessons learnt from 2019, which was my first attempt. We did not have resources, we did not have a strong structure across the country, and I have learnt that those two factors are very important in politics. So, for 2023, I will definitely ensure that we have both and indeed we are very far advanced in those arrangements already. So, I’m playing to win in 2023. If 2019 was an introduction to the Nigerian people, but the impact of my 2019 candidacy was very high. I have very high impact in this country because my candidacy showed Nigerians for the first time, a very different profile of leadership. What a president should look like, sound like and be like. But the people were not ready yet. I hope that in 2023 they will be.
Why did you say people were not ready?
They were not ready yet because in 2019, it was all about the two big parties, APC and PDP. Those two parties have failed. I think it is becoming clearer to many people that those two parties may not be the solution to Nigeria’s problems except there’s a radical change in the personality of the persons they are putting forward as presidential candidates. Otherwise there’s no hope coming from them. So, the suffering in Nigeria today. Look at inflation, look at the security situation, look at how much it has deteriorated. Look at foreign debt of Nigeria, look at how much our economy and or our security, the value of life in Nigeria has been devalued almost completely between 2019 and 2023. So, many people, the bleakers they were wearing in their eyes are beginning to drop off. In 2019 also, there was an incumbent running for re-election. It’s very difficult to defeat an incumbent. In 2019, there was a general belief that it is the turn of the North to continue to hold on to the presidency, in 2023 all these factors do not exist. Therefore, the opportunity for political distruption in 2023 exists far more than in 2019 and I, as a politician and as a strategist, of course, will hope to play on those advantages in addition to our vision and messages to the Nigerian people.
What exactly is your vision for Nigeria?
My vision for Nigeria is that Nigeria should become a 21st century modern economy ,where its youths are well educated, have skills and have jobs. A country that moves from poverty into prosperity over the next 20 years, achieves what countries like Malaysia did, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates,etc. I have a vision for Nigeria that is transformed by competent, visionary, capable leadership that I would love to provide for our country. I’m a transformative leader, I’m visionary. So, i have a vision, and I have a plan to achieve the vision and I have a plan to execute the plan.
When you become the president, how do you intend to tackle this sorry state of our insecurity?
What will be different when I become president of Nigeria is as follows: first, I will have political will to deal with insecurity. That is the first element and it’s missing in Nigeria today. There must be political will that says zero tolerance to the killings of Nigerians by terrorists. We don’t see that type of attitude. All we get today is a book of lamentations being written after every attack. As president of Nigeria, I will be proactive. We will take the battle to the bad guys. We will not allow them to strike first. We will take the fight to them and take them out. That’s a very different approach and we will use technology, we will use intelligence, and the political will. For me, the life of one Nigerian is too much to lose from terrorists attacks. Let alone hundreds and let alone thousands. Which is what has become the norm in Nigeria over the past 10 years and it’s in rising progression? I will also bring a very different approach in the reform and security architecture, it’s going to be based on competence not ethnic or religious affiliation which again is what we see today. We will also have to tackle allegations of corruption in the Armed Forces. There are allegations that the war on terror has become very profitable for some people in the Armed Forces and these are allegations we must take serious, the truth is, it’s a failed state. That’s just the fact. We can pretend anywhere we like, Nigeria has failed, but we have to build it back up again. And it requires a leader that has a transformational capacity. Not just your usual politician. This is why I began by saying that 2023 calls for a very different kind of leadership for Nigeria. So, our past politics and our politicians, they brought us here. The people who brought you here by thinking and behaving in a certain way cannot be the people who can take you out. So, Nigerian’s have to look for a very new type of leader and leadership and that’s where I come in.
What do you think about the ASSU issue? Students are at home now?
It’s part of what I talked about. Nigeria has become a failed state. The educational system has collapsed. When I become president of Nigeria, ASSU strike will end forever. This is not a promise, it’s a fact. I’m a university professor, I have been, among many other things I have been. I know and will bring to the table what is essential , massive reform of education. First of all, in my government as president, education will be not less than 20 per cent of the budget. It will have the highest budget, 20 per cent minimum. The next will be health care at 15 per cent of the budget. Today, both of these items are less than five per cent. We must invest in the social infrastructure. We must invest in equipping our young people to colonize the future and part of that is look at the universities, to look at negotiations with ASSU, what is the government owing ASSU and prioritise meeting those obligations. That is what I will do as president. So that this thing will end and then we reform the education system itself. There will be teacher training reform; we are going to retrain a lot of teachers in primary schools and secondary schools. If people are not qualified to teach your children, your children they are teaching will not come out the best. So, we will reform the curriculum. I believe that the curriculum of Nigeria’s educational system should be 70 per cent Stem: Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, plus Entereunership. We have to teach kids how to run their own businesses. The world has changed. It is not the world of 30, 40 years ago. Today in most countries youths create their own jobs. For that, my government will establish a one trillion naira venture capital fund. 500 billion investments from the government, 500 billion from the private sector, the difference is, the funds will be run by the private sector as a private sector company. If it’s run by the government, it will become dysfunctional, corruption will come in, nepotism will come in. We want to encourage people to create wealth. This funds will finance innovation, when people invent things the fund will finance the commercialization of these products . That is how wealth is created in the advanced economies. The fund will finance acquisition of skills by young people, and it will then bring equity capital into new businesses that young people want to set up upon graduation and things like that. That fund will also be given to finance the transitional unemployment support that we will provide for youths for six months or one year after graduation on the condition that you must acquire a skill, and then apply for the venture capital funding to start your own business if you don’t have a job after one year. I have a plan and I have a plan to execute the plan. Still on education, my government will also invest heavily on educational infrastructure. Go and look at the learning environment in any of our universities, you cannot go to the bathrooms of any university in Nigeria. Go to the hostels, students are living like pigs in a country that is supposed to be the giant of the black race. My presidency will restore Nigeria’s standard in the world. Nigeria is the first son of the black race, but we have not met that obligation. I’m the first son of my parents, when you look at me you know what a first son looks like. (smiles)
Talking about corruption and nepotism in Nigeria, isn’t there a way of stopping corruption completely?
There is. When I become president, here is what I’m going to do about corruption. All the so-called fight against corruption, war against corruption is a joke, it has been a joke. And that is the reason corruption is rising despite the fact that people said they are fighting it but it’s getting worse. The way to fight corruption is to understand first of all , corruption is part of human nature. There’s no country in the world where you will not find corruption. What makes countries not corrupt is the rule of law. The fear of consequence. Go to London, if the whiteman in London did not know that if he tries any underhand business in the civil service he will go to jail. If that did not exist he will just be like an average Nigerian. That is very important. So, impartial accountability is key to fighting corruption. Secondary, the fact that corruption has become an industrial scale enterprise in Nigeria, is because of the collapse of values. So, we must tackle the problem at the root. As president I’m going to introduce the subject of ethics into education in Nigeria. Primary and Secondary schools, especially in secondary school level. We will introduce ethics because children need to be taught what is right and wrong. They need to grow up with sense of values. We must restore that and the educational system is the way to do it. So, the fight against corruption is a generational issue. Many people in Nigeria today are too far gone in their habits but we must fight for the next generation. Another way that we will fight corruption is that in the award of contracts we will use technology. We will maintain comprehensive data base of the price of everything. As it’s changing the data base is changing. Any proposal for contract where the items go beyond 30 per cent of the real price”yeye dey smell”. These things are very practical ways but you have to have political will. And this is why you need a president who is not from the corrupt traditional political class because leadership that is transformational calls for courage, it calls for the ability to stand alone if necessary but I will be able to mobilize people who will stand with me. There are many people in Nigeria who think the way I do. I’m not from Mars. There are many millions of Nigerians who don’t like corruption. There are many millions of Nigerians who are competent to execute public service assignments, but nobody is looking for them, nobody is giving them an opportunity. I will, so together we two will become a movement in ourselves. We will engage the system and begin a dialogue to transform it. If you know that when you steal in government and you are caught the only thing that would happen is that you are sacked. Assuming you are sacked. Many do not get sacked. Many are tolerated because the proceeds of corruption are shared up and down the line. But if we begin to do these accountability where people have to go to prison. In china they execute you for corruption. It is death penalty. So, people have to understand the laws of consequence because all human beings are the same. There are no angels on earth. There are people who are good and know what is right and wrong and they try not to do the wrong thing. But there are many they know but their instinct will push them, whether they say ,we have to survive , this is the way it is in Nigeria, everybody is doing it, join them. So, these are the ways to fight corruption . its not this theatre that you have where people are using the fight against corruption simply to witch hunt political opponents. That is a joke. I will fight corruption from the root.
Nigeria today, electricity, fuel is an issue, how would you tackle this?
Nobody is an expert in everything. I don’t claim to be an expert in electricity; I don’t claim to be an expert in fuel supply. A leader’s job is 30 to 40 per cent. The rest is the team. So, the first job of a leader is to find the people who have the technical solutions. I’m not an electrical engineer but having talked to people in the power sector that fixing the power sector and giving Nigeria 10,000 megawatts of electricity, which will be my immediate ambition would take 18 months to two years. This is what I have been told. But part of my plan is that I will also move the country massively to renewable energy use for homes and non-industrial use, so that we focus the generational capacity of Nigeria on industrial production. One of the consequences of this is that the price of goods would fall because 40 per cent of price of everything in Nigeria is generation cost transferred to the consumers. Once you hit this thing at the source, electricity reforms first will focus on Lagos, Kano, Nnewi , Onitsha , Aba, and Ogun State. The centres of industrial production in this country we will make sure that they receive at least 18 hours of electricity minimum. If possible 24 hours supply. Production cost will come down immediately and inflation will start going down. This is my strategic approach to issues of electricity. I cannot come out here and tell you I will give everybody 24 hours supply of electricity immediately, but I’m telling you what I will do within the first year and two years that will have a systemic impact in the country. As we are moving people to renewable energy many of which are cheaper to use. People can use solar. People can use wind. People can use biomass. My government will run an innovation economy and would bring brilliant people who have solutions to all these problems. They tell you Nigeria is complex. What is complex about Nigeria? Nothing, order than the incompetence of its leaders. They are visionless and selfish. That is why they cover with that word, Nigeria is complex. Once we have a leader who has a vision and capacity you will see how this country can move forward. We are not the only multi-ethnic nation in the world, it is lack of leadership that has reduced Nigerian into the cauldron of ethnic conflict. I was a United Nations diplomat for many years and I helped to build peace and rebuilt broken nations. Nations that went to war on the basis of ethnic conflict. So, I’m prepared for the Nigeria presidency because I know what to do. But part of the problem is with Nigerians themselves because it is us as citizens that are voting for this same people because they are in the APC and PDP. The APC and PDP have Nigerians in a mental slavery and the moment those Nigerians can come to the realization that these two parties are not serving us and vote not based on party but based on candidates, the better for us. Find a candidate that has the capacity in your view and vote for his or her party. There are 18 registered political parties in this country, there’s no law in the universe that it is only two parties, that is a convenient name they created for themselves. Nigeria has never been a two party system,. In the First Republic, were there two parties? No in the Second Republic, were there two parties, no. In the Third Republic, when the military came Babangida tried to create NRC and SDP, it was shortlived. So, this is a very recent phenomenon. Before the APC came, it was just the PDP that was the dominant party and so many other small parties. So, this note about APC and PDP because they have the structure. PDP is a failed opposition party, the APC has failed to deliver the goods to Nigerians and PDP is a failed opposition, they are simply looking for their turn to chop. They are not going to solve the problem. Let’s stop fooling ourselves.
Being a former deputy governor of Central Bank . what would you say about the exchange rate, because it is really getting bad?
The problem is incompetence, and maybe worse. That’s the problem with the foreign exchange scenario. Let me explain a little bit. The exchange rate of any currency is determined largely if that central bank is an independent entity. If you go to the Francophone West Africa, many of their central banks are aligning with the French central bank. They were using the CFA which is a currency tied to France, but if it is an independent central bank that has its own monetary policy , the fact of the matter is that the exchange rate is determined on how productive the economy is. That’s why in my government, we will need the re-diversification of the Nigerian economy towards the export of value added goods that earn forex. If we manufacture and export value added products then we get in international trade forex. The more you do that the more forex comes into the country, the more your currency is competitive. Secondly, inflation, a very high rate of inflation is contributing to the very weak naira exchange rates. One of the reasons we have that inflation is because the central bank is irresponsibly printing money for the Federal Government. This government is surviving on central bank overdraft; 18 trillion naira has been given to them in the past seven years. This is contributing to the inflation. So, how can an institution that is supposed to manage inflation paradoxically be creating inflation because it is not politically independent from the government. The Central bank today is not the central bank when I was deputy governor of central bank. The central bank today is an appendage of the presidency. And for that reason, decisions are made not on the basis of sound micro economic management, but decisions are made for political purposes.
