Kingsley Moghalu: An Exciting Odyssey at 58

Kingsley Moghalu who turned 58 last Friday, May 7, is a man whose cap of accomplishments is festooned with many feathers. His entry into the Presidential contest in 2018 changed the Nigerian political narrative, Nduka Nwosu writes

In his autobiography My Odyssey, President Nnamdi Azikiwe in a scintillating narrative, described how how he focused his mind as a student in America in the 1920s. He came to acquire the knowledge of the white man and equip himself for the war ahead, the quest for an independent Nigeria, not to acquire wealth.

Chief Obafemi Awolowo on the other hand went into the cocoa business primarily to make some money and travel to England to read law. The cocoa season was so rewarding he moved into the next season and even borrowed money from others to make a big return. The inclement weather failed him so much so he lost all his investments and became a debtor who had his property auctioned before his very eyes. These two great men stayed on course in their quest for knowledge.

That partly explains why in Anambra State the Nnewi kindred still places a high premium on education notwithstanding the fact that the people are largely mercantile in their pursuit.
Therefore when the Nnewi king, Igwe Dr. Kenneth Orizu III who himself comes from an intimidating lineage of a 600-year-old hereditary kingdom, conferred on Professor Kingsley Moghalu, the presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) in 2019, the traditional title of ‘Ifekaego’ of Nnewi (literally meaning something higher than money) it was a case of giving honour to whom honour is due.
Moghalu’s track record as a merchant of knowledge and intellectual property, and a courageous national political leader has distinguished him as a pace setter and endeared him not just to his community in Nnewi, a town of great men and women, but also across Nigeria and the world.

Moghalu has lived a thousand lives in one lifetime. These days, he wears his renown and intellectual affluence comfortably like a pair of overalls, and enjoys a scandal-free life as the political, intellectual and social equivalent of any top Hollywood star. He is, if you like, the suave, cosmopolitan middle-aged Professor of the new millennium, who embraces life with a knowing wink.
And why not?
Moghalu was born in Lagos in 1963 to Isaac Moghalu, a Nigerian diplomat, and Vidah Moghalu, a schoolteacher. He moved with his parents to Switzerland and Washington DC as his father’s calling demanded.

The senior Moghalus later gave their young first child a deserving exposure in such institutions as Government College Umuahia and Federal Government College Enugu with Eziama High School Aba as his take off point. That background plus his admission into the University of Nigeria Nsukka where he read law, equipped him for his latter day foray into academic excellence, criss-crossing Europe and America and getting admitted into such institutions as The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University where he picked his Master of Arts degree, London School of Economics (LSE) where he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Institute of Risk Management in London, and executive education at Harvard, Wharton, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Institute.

In the words of Time magazine’s famous essayist Lance Morrow, the question resonates: which is a better bargain, a pact with the Devil in order to be known or a bargain with Lucifer in order to know all things? Morrow concludes that either way it is a Faustian bargain. Neither Plato who delved heavily into metaphysics and the Eleusinian mysteries where the secret religious rites of ancient Greece flourished, nor Aristotle who taught Alexander the Great in his Academy, nor Socrates who thought Plato and Pythagoras could unveil the mystery of the universe, their great learning and contemplation of the nature of God notwithstanding.

These scholars did not set out to be known though they could be accused of wanting to know all things, in which case it was a Faustian Bargain. Moghalu’s universe on the other hand, transcends the Faustian alternative. Indeed he suffers the private pains of humanity, just as his personal Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did, and in the sense that every new knowledge that came his way became a reinforcement of the previous knowledge, not in the quest to be known or to know all things but to be better equipped to help make the lives of his fellow men better. In this context the man paints the image of a male complement or the twin brother of Doris Day, Alfred Hitchcock’s heroine in the epic screenplay Man Who Knows Too Much. Or maybe, just maybe, a brother of Catherine Hepburn, the blithe siren character of James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story. They both exemplify the glamour and idealism of the 1980s.

Moghalu’s intellectual glamour and philosophical depth first took centre stage when, while he was still a Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, he published his globally acclaimed book Emerging Africa: How the Global Economy’s ‘Last Frontier” Can Prosper and Matter, where he summarized his world view to make Africa prosper. Next, just before his presidential candidacy, came Build, Innovate and Grow (BIG): My Vision for Our Country. This vision was sold to the youth of Nigeria and endorsed by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, his former boss the de-throned Emir of Kano Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, and the Ooni of Ife among many great personalities and movements who saw something refreshingly different from the soapbox when Moghalu threw his gauntlet into the ring of presidential contest. For him it was a matter of vision translated into the reality of a country that is facing an existential problem, a country that has been abbreviated in the past tense headlined as: ‘There Was a Country,’ in Achebe’s last dialogue with his people.

All this relates to the sense of urgency with which Moghalu approaches the problems of humanity. This sacrificial commitment to public service comes from his parents, who could have settled for the beautiful life offered abroad, but returned home to Nigeria and walked into a civil war many flew away from to escape hunger and death. Moghalu survived the Nigeria-Biafra war, and as a child witnessed some of its sordid tragedies. A combination of that family background and the civil war experience paradoxically sharpened his discomfort at seeing human suffering.

This family background and his prestigious qualifications prepared Moghalu, who elected for academic pursuits after a brief stint in journalism as a legal correspondent at Newswatch magazine in the late 1980s, for public service. His career from the United Nations to the CBN and his bold entry into the political space as a serious candidate for Nigeria’s presidency, is a story of leadership foretold.
At the United Nations where he largely served under Secretary General Kofi Anan, Moghalu saw a silhouette of Nigeria’s Civil War in those of Rwanda and the Former Yugoslavia, and could not but marvel how leaders used ethnic politics to further their selfish interests not minding the wider consequences for those they lead. Between 1992 and 2008 when Moghalu worked with the UN, he served high profile assignments including as Human Rights and Electoral Officer in Cambodia, Political Advisor at UN Headquarters in New York on the conflicts in Somalia, Angola, and Rwanda, in Croatia, and as Legal Adviser and Spokesman for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal For Rwanda (UNICTR). He was also at a point the Head of Global Partnerships and Resource Mobilisation at The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATAM) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Moghalu resigned from the United Nations in December 2008 and founded his own business outfit Sogato Strategies SA, a global strategy and risk consultancy, in Geneva. When the late President Umaru Yar’Adua appointed Moghalu Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, a regulator and manager of the financial system of the country, Moghalu did not disappoint. By 2014 when he stepped down, he had become firmly associated with revolutionary changes especially in the area of financial stability and financial technology (FinTech) reform in the Nigerian financial system.

As Deputy Governor for Financial System Stability Moghalu played a key role in ensuring that no Nigerian bank failed after the global financial crisis, and no Nigerian lost one kobo of his or her savings, thus safeguarding the livelihoods of millions of his compatriots. As Deputy Governor for Operations, in charge of currency and branch operations, payment systems, and the management of Nigeria’s foreign reserves of $37 billion, he led the rollout of payment systems reforms including the development and introduction of the unique identifier Bank Verification Number (BVN).

We should also not lose sight of the significance of his professorship at the prestigious Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, a reflection of a man who had impacted largely on society and needed to return to the ivory tower to impart the lessons learned during his active years in international assignments even before his bid for the highest office in his country – the Presidency. Although he lost the election to Muhammadu Buhari, he made a bold statement carrying the flag of a new-generation political party, and that young people have what it takes to lead the country without compromising their values.