THE Citizens Forum, a civil rights and political engineering platform, led by Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, on Friday announced it has adopted the Presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) Professor Kingsley Moghalu as its consensus candidate for the February 16 election.
A statement by the Forum, which was endorsed by Professor Soyinka indicated that the group arrived at the decision after broad consultation and comprehensive assessment of opposition presidential candidates on parade for the February 16 election.
The Forum said: “After a rigorous process of broad consultation, and comprehensive assessment of the opposition presidential candidates in the 2019 election, Professor Wole Soyinka and the Citizen Forum, today, endorsed Kingsley Moghalu for President. Moghalu, a new-breed politician and experienced technocrat, is the presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP).”
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Soyinka, in a statement on behalf of the Citizens Forum, titled “New directions in a time of decision” indicated that Nigeria has been brought on its knees and thus urgently need new directions.
“The nation has been brought to her knees. Internally, the blaring media testimony needs no augmentation. Beyond her borders, Nigeria is the tale of citizens designated pariahs of the global community for whom special dossiers are opened, and units of security agencies are specifically assigned,” the statement read.
The Nobel Laureate said that the Citizens Forum, which was last heard of during the regime of the late General Sani Abacha was resurrected to engage in the exercise to which he said entailed studying of the careers of each candidate, watching debates, interviews and personalised interactions.
He gave details of the assessment procedure thus: “There was nothing complicated about assessment parameters: mental preparedness, analytical aptitude, response to the nation’s security challenges, economic grounding, grasp of socio-political actualities, including a remedial concern with the Nigerian image in foreign perception etc. etc. not forgetting a convincing commitment to governance and resource decentralization – commonly referred to as Restructuring.”
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He said that the Forum rejected “retrograde propositions of a political merry-go-round,” which canvassed support for some candidates on the basis of “our turn” at the next presidency, adding that the process proved that there is over-abundant leadership quality in the nation.
He added: “Let me reiterate: there is over-abundant but stifled leadership material, and there can be no excuse, now that that potential of high quality is being manifested, for constricting the political space in a population that is nudging two hundred million.”
The statement further read: “Moghalu’s CV is however in the public domain – his publications, record, and vision. The above is just a side-note that contains its own mild, thought-provoking instruction, for those who care to examine the distractions of ethnic equivocations, and the rigid mindsets and stereotypes imposed on products of circumstance.
“That immediate task being now completed, Civic Forum will now join forces with those who pray, “Evil Spirit, leave us be!” – at least those who subscribe to the belief that political elections are not a Do-or-Die Affair!”