By Kingsley Moghalu
I am happy and have found peace in withdrawing from partisan politics since June 2022. No apologies. As a citizen I will always have my preferences and will vote for specific candidates, but there are times and circumstances when one can better contribute to nationbuilding from a nonpartisan perspective.
Partisanship is necessarily divisive. I have been in that space before. No longer. I have paid my dues.
Besides, I always had a second (professional) address outside politics. I have since returned to that address. Some professional activities are simply INCONSISTENT with, and won’t be credible, if mixed with partisan politics. Leading an independent, nonpartisan policy think tank such as the Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation (IGET) www.igetafrica.org (which can bring out policy ideas that can benefit political leaders and candidates) is one of such activities. Certain types of business and entrepreneurship as well. www.sogatostrategiesllc.com
I understand the passions and goodwill of those who argue that I should formally “declare/campaign” for this candidate or the other. They argue so because they believe my views are listened to and may be “influential”. But I urge such people to also understand, and respect, my own personal decisions. They have not been, like I have, presidential candidates (without having a war chest of stolen public funds) or stood in the arena, bloodied but unbowed. No regrets, but only I know what I have sacrificed, the personal price I have paid.
Many people cannot do it, especially for someone in my position who really did not need to, when there were so many other more comfortable things one could have done with one’s time. But the impact my humble, sacrificial effort in 2019 made, and earlier on in this current cycle, is part of what paved the way, and is driving, today’s story. That’s a major contribution already. I am satisfied, for the quest for Nigeria’s redemption is a journey, not an event.