Moghalu condemns Chris Ngige’s suggestion on Igbo presidency

A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Kingsley Moghalu, has faulted the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, that the Igbo need to pitch their tent with either the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) or major opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to actualise their presidential aspiration.

In a reaction to an interview granted by the minister to a national newspaper titled: ‘Igbo Presidency: Don’t Repeat Moghalu’s Mistakes’, the former CBN deputy governor described Ngige’s comment as an utter contempt and arrogance as a politician towards the poor masses and citizens of Nigeria.

Ngige in the interview was reported as saying that Moghalu failed in his quest to become President of Nigeria in 2019 because the Young Progressive Party (YPP), on which platform the former deputy governor of CBN contested as a presidential candidate, was “a relatively unknown party.”

Moghalu, however, lambasted the minister, saying: “Our democracy is just a “game” for Ngige. Being a visionless career politician “carrying politics bag” before graduating to being a political “overlord” is, for some, the whole point of politics. Little wonder that our country is the poverty capital of the world, and the brain-drain of our medical doctors to foreign countries is of little or no concern to our Minister of Labour and Employment.”

Moghalu described himself as a change agent, not a visionless and recycled politician that claims mandates on the basis of rigged elections and the blood of Nigerians killed in electoral violence.

According to him: “My candidacy for the office of the President of Nigeria in 2019 was not an ethnic candidacy. I was a Nigerian candidate for the Nigerian presidency, not an ‘Igbo President.’ That candidacy was based on a clear vision for our country, competence, and a clear policy agenda to build a real and stable nation based on equality and justice by managing Nigeria’s diversity effectively. To lead economic transformation that will make poverty history in our country, as has been the case in East Asia. To restore Nigeria to its rightful place in the world through competent management of its foreign affairs and international relations.”

To secure, with no excuses, the lives and property of Nigerians in all parts of our country.”

While saying it was no secret that the Igbo have not been well served by many of their “career” political elite on the national scene, Moghalu said his candidacy in the presidential election of 2019 took courage “despite pressures from the two major parties. I ran the race till the end, honorably, and declined opportunities to “sell out” on the national and global vision that drove my candidacy,” adding: “We need not just an “Igbo President. Nigeria needs a visionary and competent leader.