Moghalu Lists Qualities Nigeria’s Next President Must Have
As the search for a true leader who would succeed President Muhammadu Buhari thicken, one of the contenders for the race Professor Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu, has decried a situation where the country has spent five decades including 22 years of democracy since 1999, “chasing shadows because we have failed or neglected to focus on the question of leadership.”
Once again, Moghalu has called for the constitutional reordering of Nigeria, returning the country to true federalism including the devolution of powers to regions, arguing that it would improve leadership and governance by bringing governance accountability closer to Nigerian citizens.
Moghalu , who was the guest speaker in Awka, Anambra State Thursday, during the 10th Emeka Anyaoku Annual Lecture series, reminded the packed audience of politicians and technocrats that only the search for true leadership, not politics, will salvage the country out of its political morass and its ranking among the worst corrupt countries of the world and as a global poverty capital among other issues.
He added: “With countries like Malaysia and South Korea that were at par with Nigeria in the early 1960s now far ahead of Nigeria in economic and technological development, and with 100 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty, we face an urgent leadership crisis that we must confront.”
The founder of the Moghalu 4 Nigeria Movement continued: “Politics as usual will not do the job. We must accept that our democratic politics of the past 22 years since 1999 has not yielded, cumulatively, any significant dividends of democracy in terms of economic and political development.
“We must therefore return to the fundamentals. Leadership, not just politics, is the main driver of the progress of human societies.
“We must as a nation move from divisive politics that is making us poorer and weaker collectively, and now turn our politics into a search for real leadership that can unify our country and take it to prosperity.
Moghalu who was recently shortlisted among the Presidential hopefuls to watch in an Arise News ranking as a follow up to its interview with former military President Ibrahim Babangida, continued by insisting that for a government to be truly effective, it must have a leadership capacity that will enable it to deliver on the promises it has made, or on deliverables that are essential for effective governance.
These deliverables, he said, include security of lives and property on the one hand, and economic development-human development indices such as health care, education, and potable water supply, on the other hand. “This is what the Nigerian Constitution requires in section 14(2)(b) where it states that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”.
According to Moghalu, a responsible and effective all inclusive, transparent, and participatory government backed by respect for the rule of law and accountability to citizens, will not tolerate “the waste created, and efficiencies destroyed by the huge costs of governance in Nigeria across the board, at the levels of both federal and state governments, is a predominant aspect of bad governance in Nigeria.”
Moghalu called on political leaders to get beyond the current dominance of politics without governance, to politics that takes good governance as its purpose, as a priority of electoral platforms and candidates. “For example, candidate selection by parties for the presidential elections should prioritize aspirants who are versed in the economy, nation building and international relations and foreign policy,” he advocated.
He added: “We need to focus on the political education of citizens to know what they should be looking for, to make informed voting decisions. This is a necessary part of a shift in emphasis from mere politics to elections as a democratic search in real leadership without which good governance will remain a mirage. Political education is a function for INEC, primarily, but also for political parties and civil society actors.
He also said non-partisan actors such as elder statesmen including Nigerian’s living former heads of state and government, as well as clergy, traditional rulers, civil society, and professional bodies must now begin to play a more robust role in leadership selection in Nigeria.
They can do this, he suggested, “through public statements, endorsements, or quiet recommendations. Every country must fashion its democracy to its unique environment. Politics is too important to be left to politicians alone.
“A recent positive example of the potential role of elder statesmen is the recent intervention by former military President, Gen Ibrahim Babangiida on the profile of a potential future president of Nigeria in a media interview to mark his 80th birthday.”
He concluded by noting that Nigeria’s development failures after 60 years of independence, with our country ranking at or near the bottom in every index of corruption, healthcare, education and human capital development, policing, state fragility and others, can no longer be casually shrugged off or explained away with excuses. “The Asian developmental states were also colonized at similar points in history but are today strong, capable as stable states,” he noted.
