Former Deputy-Governor of Central Bank, Professor Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu has shared experience in the Nigerian politics landscape.
In a message he shared on X, Moghalu wrote:
“Nigeria needs you”. I hear this phrase a lot. I believed it myself when I left my prestigious perch as a professor on the faculty @FletcherSchool @TuftsUniversity in 2018 and returned home to offer myself as a presidential candidate in 2019, and tried to become a candidate a second time in 2023 but was betrayed by self-serving, cash-and-carry political entrepreneurs in one of the so-called “alternative platforms”.
After which I decided it wasn’t worth the bother for someone who does not need the Nigerian “system” to feed, and whose contributions are demanded and appreciated well elsewhere. So I ended my brief foray into politics and returned to international professional life. Best decision I ever made.
Life since has been quiet, happy, and fulfilling. I love my country but I also love myself, my health, and my family whose time and attention to their needs – and resources to which they are entitled – I sacrificed in 2018/19 and again in 2021/22, because “Nigeria needs me”. Resources earned from honest labor, not “you-know”. And I still contribute occasional commentary on public and economic policy to help shine light on important issues of statecraft (but I do NOT make partisan commentary since I am not aligned with or a member of any political party).
Now I know better. So when I get the “Nigeria needs you” line I respond: “it needs you too, and ALL of us, not just me”. Our country is down deep, whether anyone accepts this or not. It can only be fixed by the people themselves, if they were to recognize their own power and come out in their millions to demand responsible and accountable governance and a transparent democracy where their actual votes are more important than those who “magic-count” votes. Governance remains absent because the Nigerian people have consciously disempowered themselves with excuses such as “poverty” etc – the very reason they should exercise their people power and shake up the greedy politicians.
Citizens in other countries- citizens, not politicians- have changed the trajectories of their own troubled countries. Admitted, not everywhere, and it’s admittedly not easy, but it has happened in places that did not have 220 million people. May we not become the Democratic Republic of Congo – although some would retort “what’s the difference, really?”
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