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Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Kingsley Moghalu has reiterated that the pervasive hardship in the country occasioned by poor economic management in the country are reasons he intends to challenge President Muhammadu Buhari in the contest for the presidency in 2019.
Moghalu, in a statement he made available to BusinessDay on Tuesday, acknowledged that President Muhammadu Buhari, who declared his intention to run for the President on Monday, April 9, has every right to seek a second term in office if his political party nominates him. He added that it will be up to Nigerians to judge his performance track-record so far.
Moghalu however, noted that he will challenge the President based on the record of increasing poverty and insecurity in the country, saying “I offer my vision of something new, bold and different. I offer a new kind of competent, inclusive and effective leadership that will truly usher Nigeria into the 21st century and build a better future for our children and youth.”
Moghalu declared his interest in the presidency on February 28 where he assured Nigerians that if elected President of Nigeria in 2019, he will lead a government that will unite Nigeria and build a stable and secure nation, reverse extreme poverty and high unemployment with effective economic management, and restore Nigeria’s standing in the world, the statement said.
The 55-year-old Anambra-born technocrat, has however, not declared for any of the 68 registered political parties even as he expressed sadness that despite Nigeria’s enormous wealth and talents, about 180 million people and thousands of businesses in the country are struggling to share a measly 4,000 MW of electricity.
“My government will establish a productive innovation-led economy that reduces dependence on oil revenues, establish a public-private venture capital fund with a minimum capital of N500 billion (with private sector co-investment to fund could attain a size of N1 trillion) to create jobs by investing in new businesses by unemployed youth, reform the Nigerian Police Force by recruiting, training and equipping a minimum of 1.5 million persons with improved remuneration to create safe and secure communities, empower women with a 50:50 gender parity policy in political appointments, and initiate a constitutional restructuring of Nigeria to restore true federalism for stability and prosperity,” he added.
The erudite professor of International Business had during his declaration lamented that nearly 60 years ago, the vision and hope of Nigeria’s founding fathers such as Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello, have not materialized following successive years of misrule. He added that military rule, oil boom and bursts and failures of the civilian political class have combined to rob Nigeria of what seemed its destiny at independence in 1960.
“I am standing with the 100 million Nigerians experiencing crushing poverty, living on less than N300 a day.”I am here today because 33 million of our able men and women are unemployed or underemployed, nearly 15 million children are out of school, and only 60% of Nigerians are literate” he said during his declaration.
He said that education will enjoy a prominent place in is government pointing out that he will establish and propagate through the educational system a foundational philosophical worldview for the Nigerian state, around which all Nigerians will unite in a common purpose. “Education will be allocated 20 per cent of the federal government budget, with a progressive increase to 30 per cent over eight years,” he said.
