Kingsley Moghalu, former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has warned Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the president-elect, against repeating the mistakes of the outgoing president, Muhammadu Buhari, saying that Tinubu must not leave the control and management of the country to a few selfish individuals with vested interests.
Moghalu, who has been active on the political scene, has on several occasions advised the political elite, including the current administration, on how to best solve some of the pressing economic issues. Issues that have unfortunately created more than 130 million Nigerians living in multi-dimensional poverty, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
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Giving this warning on Tuesday via his official Twitter handle, the former presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) said, “It is important that the incoming administration in Nigeria avoid state capture by vested interests in the management of the economy.”
He said that it would be foolish for him, as president, to continue to allow this cabal to dictate not only the direction of his government but to control the lives of Nigerians through state resources.
“They will be foolish to make the same mistake previous administrations have,” he tweeted.
Our economy does not create the wealth of nations because it is captured, and works for, the wealth of a few elites and not the millions of the poor. Strong political will is necessary to overcome this fundamental problem.
— Kingsley Moghalu OON (@MoghaluKingsley) April 4, 2023
In 2014, the then presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari, alleged that the oil sector, especially the fuel subsidy brouhaha, was a product of fraud by a few selfish individuals. He promised that if voted into power in 2015, he was going to remove the subsidy, but unfortunately, he failed to tame that devil called fuel subsidy.
The fuel subsidy payment, running into trillions of dollars, has continued to be one of the ways the cabal has controlled state resources, welding so much power to bring sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest economy to its knees.
Apparently, in an interview on Arise TV earlier this year, the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said that the presidency was going to remove the fuel subsidy in May.
Moghalu re-echoed that the Nigerian economy does not capture the wealth that it can create because of these few people. He believes that the economy has to be set free to fully optimize its potential if only the incoming administration can show the political will and sincerity of its purpose.
He tweeted, “Our economy does not create the wealth of nations because it captures and works for the wealth of a few elites and not the millions of the poor. Strong political will is necessary to overcome this fundamental problem.”
Our economy does not create the wealth of nations because it is captured, and works for, the wealth of a few elites and not the millions of the poor. Strong political will is necessary to overcome this fundamental problem.
— Kingsley Moghalu OON (@MoghaluKingsley) April 4, 2023
