- Throws weight behind electoral reforms, indirect and consensus option.
Former Presidential candidate of the Young Peoples Party (YPP) Prof. Kingsley Moghalu said the votes of Nigerians did not count in the 2019 Presidential elections.
Moghalu spoke on Channels Television’s Political Paradigm anchored by Terry Ikomi, on Tuesday.
According to Moghalu, while not saying that he could have won the election, the result posted for his party at the time did not reflect the actual election at the time.
Moghalu who has delcared interest to return to politics and has declared his intention to contest for presidency said he would be campaigning on the platform of the African Democratic Congress. (ADC).
He said the party has commenced growing a huge platform of like minded political parties into a formidable coalition that would inject new innovations into the nation’s political process.
He said the 2023 election would be a pivotal election for Nigeria, adding that there are several factors that would favour him if his party chose him as its presidential candidate in 2023.
He said grassroots organisation and mobilisation is a huge thing in politics. He said mobilisation and money matter in Nigerian politics
He said many people today are rejecting the old order and turning their back to the money bags in politics, adding that he is working on cells in various communities outside, assuring that he would be hugely represented in all electoral wards in the country.
He expressed huge confidence in the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which is determined to implement various electoral reforms, where essentially peoples votes would count and there would be electoral transmission of results.
He said he is for the inclusion of the indirect and consensus alternatives to the direct primaries which was rejected by the President, adding that political parties should not be pigeoned holed into direct primaries, adding that more people would be attracted into the political terrain.
He said he has gained so much experience participating in the 2019 presidential elections, adding that these ;essons would come to play in the coming election.
He called on the youths, the young people to come out and register in order to be able to exercise their voting rights, adding that no politician could ignore 67 percent of the nation’s population.
“I want to make things better. There are more things I would accept as realities and there are some things I would not. I think any politician who intends to continue to do the same of the same as is being done should be ashamed of themselves.,” Moghalu said.
He said he believed in an innovation economy and would ensure the youths get back in creating wealth.
According to him, between 2015 and now, 30 million Nigerians have become poorer. Over 100 million are poorer today than they were in the last six years. He said the government that is running an insolvent economy cannot take even a million people out of poverty talk less of taking 100 million out of it.
He said Nigeria has a huge economic potential and he is committed to channel this in the right direction.
“I am informed, I am educated and I am prepared to lead Nigeria out of the economic woods that incompetent leadership had led us.”
He explained that what Nigerians need is a transformational leadership that would propel change that would cascade down to all sectors of the economy.
On the proposed fuel pump price controversy, Moghalu said it is a very wrong time to do any subsidy removal. He said the subsidy should have been removed a very ong time ago. He carpeted the dishonesty in communication about subsidy, saying the reason why it has retained is because of economic populism.
He said if subsidy is removed, evenyaully demand and supply would take care of a lot of the anxieties of the people, pointing attention to what played out in the telecommunications sector where a SIM card was almost going for N40,000 when it took off, but has fallen into insignificance today simply because of the power of demand and supply.
He said Nigeria needs a President from 2023, a leader who understands these things and grow an economy that is above the leadership failure of the past.