A former Deputy-Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Kingsley Moghalu, on Tuesday urged Nigerians to be actively involved in the process of nation building in order to have a better country.
Mr Moghalu, presidential aspirant, made the call while speaking at the 11th edition of “The Platform” in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the programme with the theme “Get Involved” was organised by the Covenant Christian Centre.
Mr Moghalu said the current problems facing the country would find quick answers 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 resulting in dashed hopes.
Mr Moghalu pointed out “complaining and managing” would not solve any problem until Nigerians got involved in the process of choosing the leaders they desired.
The former CBN chief added that the real power lies with the people and urged Nigerians to use 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.
Mr Moghalu, however, said it would be difficult for people to get the leadership they deserved if they did not partake in the electoral process.
He urged Nigerians to obtain their Permanent Voter Cards so that they could vote leaders of their choice.
Mr Moghalu said Nigeria belonged to everyone, pointing out the passiveness of citizens had unfortunately allowed some few people to claim ownership of the country.
In his speech, a leadership expert and presidential hopeful, Fela Durotoye, noted that 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 the situation could be changed for the better if Nigerians made the decision to make the change happen.
Mr Durotoye 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.
“A great generation is a generation that solves problems not the one that transfers burden to the next generation. A great generation is a generation that acts and the one that passes problem solving techniques to the next one,” he said.
Mr Durotoye said the change that everyone desired was possible if everyone got involved in achieving it.
He therefore urged Nigerians to participate in the electoral process by voting and engaging people in government.
Also speaking, 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 were the same all over and their preoccupation was always to control power and resources.
Mr Omole however said 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.
He said the country would be better if all these were entrenched in the polity and people participated in the electoral process.
“Participation in the process is not about obtaining PVCs alone, it is also about contesting in elections with the objective to make a change,” he said.
In his speech, Francis Adebayo of the Harvest Place (Church) said getting PVCs was not enough to participate in the electoral process.
He said citizens needed to vote and monitor the process and continue to engage leaders on good governance.
Mr Adebayo said the need to be part of nation building made him contest as for an electoral position in the last election.
“Although I lost, but I have no regrets. My advice is that we should all participate in the process to deliver the change we desire,” he said.
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