Moghalu charges Ndigbo to look beyond Buhari, explains why secession will fail By Lawrence Njoku (Enugu) and Ibrahim Obansa (Lokoja)

Anambra guber aspirant bemoans leadership disconnect from citizens A former presidential candidate, Prof. Kingsley Moghalu has charged Ndigbo to look beyond the President Muhammadu Buhari administration and plan towards repositioning the South East region beyond his era.

Insisting that the Buhari government would end in the next 23 months, he also stated that the current secession agitation might not succeed now due to several constitutional, international and other extraneous factors. Moghalu, who spoke on What Do The Igbo Want at the inauguration ceremony of the Igbonine Socio-Cultural Organisation in Enugu yesterday, insisted that although Ndigbo were committed to an indivisible Nigeria, time was ripe for the rest of the country to prove their commitment to a country anchored on equity, fairness and justice. Lamenting the situation of the Igbo since the end of the civil war, he stated that while the region had survived economically, Moghalu, who had declared his intention to run for the 2023 presidential election, said it had become difficult for the South East to survive politically, due to the psychological impact of defeat in the civil war. He said the situation had brought several choices on the people of the region including constitutional restructuring to true federalism with significant autonomy for regional or state governments, demand for a Nigerian President of Igbo extraction, secession (Biafra) and allowing the status quo to remain. Moghalu, who is a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), argued that although restructuring was inevitable for Nigeria to survive, President Buhari’s public opposition to it would make it difficult to be realised during his time in office. On a Nigerian president of Igbo extraction, Moghalu stated that it was essential to stabilise the country and secure full reconciliation after the Nigeria civil war, regretting that the option was, however, under attack from some forces outside the South East region. He also decried the situation in which the two major political parties in the country-the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) were not committed to allowing a president from the South East region. IN a related development, Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Dr. George Moghalu, yesterday, declared that one of the major challenges to the development and advancement in the country was the disconnect between government and the people. Moghalu, who is a governorship aspirant in the November 6, 2021, Anambra State gubernatorial election, disclosed this in Lokoja, Kogi State, while addressing journalists, maintaining that his mission was to restore the people’s confidence in governance through good leadership. “So, my mission mainly, is to restore confidence, restore the people’s confidence in government before infrastructure development.” The people will be willing to work with the government once their confidence is restored. It is about engagement. “When people see the honesty, commitment and dedication of their leaders, there is no way they won’t listen to the government. Insecurity, insurgence and other challenges will also attract my immediate concern,” he said. On his chances in the APC governorship primaries, he said: “I have offered myself and I know I have what it takes. I believe strongly that power belongs to God and he gives it to whosoever He pleases at His own time. I’m confident that by the grace of God, I will make it.”