BY Chinedu Asadu
Kingsley Moghalu, former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has urged Nigerians to be actively involved in the process of nation-building.
Moghalu, a presidential aspirant, made the call on Tuesday while speaking at the 11th edition of The Platform, a programme organised by the Covenant Christian Centre in Lagos.
Moghalu said the current problems facing the country would be addressed if citizens contributed their quota to the nation’s development.
He said Nigerians were justified to complain about a number of issues based on disappointments by leaders.
The former CBN chief added that the real power lies with the people and urged Nigerians to “get involved” by using the power to bring about change.
“There is no power greater than the power of the people. The power to change belongs to the people. We can get the kind of nation we desire if we use our power,” he said.
Also speaking, Fela Durotoye, a leadership expert and presidential hopeful, said the country had suffered rot in all sectors consistently for about 50 years.
He blamed the problems on poor leadership and followership as well as “erosion” of the country’s values.
He, however, said rather than continue to blame the past generations for the parlous state of affairs, the current generation of Nigerians could brave the odds and bring solutions.
“Very soon, the old generations would be no more and the problems might still be here. So this generation of Nigerians should strive to be a great generation,” he said.
“A great generation is a generation that solves problems not the one that transfers burden to the next generation; a generation that acts and the one that passes problem-solving techniques to the next one.”
Similarly, Charles Omole, a leadership expert and lawyer, said it was wrong for anyone to believe that Nigerian politicians behaved differently from those in other parts of the world.
He said politicians are the same everywhere and their preoccupation was always to control power and resources.
Omole, however, added that the reason why things worked better in other climes was because of strong institutions, respect for rule of law and more effective competition in the democratic space.
According to him, “participation in the process is not about obtaining PVCs alone, it is also about contesting in elections with the objective to make a change.”
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