*Explains why he wants to be president in 2023
By Nwakpa O Nwakpa and Ralph Christopher
Former presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YOP), Prof. Kingsley Moghalu yesterday advised President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the lingering problems facing Nigeria.
Moghalu who spoke while address the media in Abuja, stated that with the way things are getting from bad to worse, only such a commission would be capable of unraving the truth about the crises in the country and reconcile all the aggrieved parties.
According to him, the Commission should’ve made up of seven eminent personalities of international repute drawn from the six geo-political zones and another appointed from either the UN or from South Africa.He said that the Commission should recommend how to end the debilitating situation by turning our ugly experiences into a progressive roadmap.
He also asked Buhari to invite all the separatist agitators to a round table so as to address their sources of worry which gives rise to their agitation for a separate country.
The former presidential candidate said that rather than just review existing constitution, efforts should be made to draft a new one as a collaboration betwen National Assembly, legal luminaries and traditional rulers.
He also called for the setting up eminent academics to draft a new academic curriculum for our schools which will draw lessons from the history of our ugly past, stressing that no country makes progress jettisonjng its ugly experiences.
He condemns curent violence in the South-East and urged the federal government to devise approaches to determine at the Root-Cause approach to resolving the issues. “The militarization of the civilian space as exclusive response to the problems is not going to work. Confront our history, and utilise it for resolution,” he stressed.Prof. Moghalu also urged President Buhari to halt what he described “his continued policy of exclusion, where the three arms of government are headed by people majorly from one part of the country and religion.
On why he thinks government would take his advise, Prof. Moghalu said: “As patriotic citizen, we offer advise not as to whether or not the government will listen to it, but because it goes into history that these recommendations were made and if turns out that they were not listened to, that’s our duty.
“There is too much consciousness on our politiciling system which encourages impunity. “The central control of the police has weakened security in our country. Policing is best when it is local.
“Because of the perception of bias, there is lack of confidence between the people and the police. We hope that a constitutional restructuring will address the problem. “I also hope that the police will appreciate this and quickly embark on retraining their personnel.
“There is political motive or sheer criminality that are driving people to do what they do. What the political motives are, sometime are not clear. “In the South-East, you cannot clearly say what it is, but we have what I call political gangs, some separatist movement, which claimed responsibility over some of the violence.
“The political perspective is to discredit the zone ahead of the 2023 general election.”It is legitimate to look at all the issues that brought is to where we are so we can reconcile.
“My approach is for peace and reconciliation so that our leaders will confront and overcome our ugly past. The US, Germany, Korea, Israel, etc, had their ugly past which they confront and have overcome”.He expressed optimism that inspite of arsonists burning down several INEC offices nationwide, the 2023 general elections would hold.
“President Buhari in one of his recent remarks said that elections must hold and that is what it should be, regardless of the current phase of turbulence we are passing through, and I believe elections should hold.
“Even in war time situations, elections are held. I do not encourage the kind of thinking that allow us to seek refuge in excuses, to truncate democracy, because there is insecurity and I admonish that is the position we should all take,” he stressed..
It is for the government to secure our cities and make sure it deals with anybody who breaks the law, either by burning public facilities of killing people.On why he chose to declare intentions to vie to be the next president of Nigeria, Prof. Moghalu said “I chose this dark period to announce my presidential aspiration. And I say that it is in a period of hopelessness, period of darkness that true leadership rises.
“As a leader, I cannot allow my citizens to be drowning in hopelessness and depression and people have affirmed this is the first good news they received in a long time. “We are where we are as a nation because of failure of leadership. So, we should advert our minds on the standards by which we select our leaders.
“In 2023, another opportunity will come so we don’t make the same mistakes again and again.
“I ran for president in 2019 as a nationalist, not as an ethnic candidate. I will do so again in 2023.
“Ioffer myself based on my four-points agenda: security, war against poverty, accelerated education and healthcare reforms and good governance (SWAG),” he stated.
