 It's still plus politics now the African Democratic Party, ADC presidential aspirants, Kingsley Mogalu, who earlier resigned from the party after failing to clinch the presidential ticket size at fundamental clashes of values with the ADC leaders as a reason for leaving the party. Now today we're going to be talking about his political future and what 2023 holds for him. While joining us to discuss this is Michael Achimoglu, he's the director of media and strategy for Professor Kingsley Mogalu. It's good to have you join us Michael. Thank you so much. Great. The last time we spoke we spoke about his resignation from the party and a lot of people would were wondering why he left because of course there are others who stayed in the party even after they also complained about what happened during the presidential primaries in the party. But of course many would ask what's in the future what does the horizon hold for Kingsley Mogalu now that he is not in the ADC and he has not spoken about where he's going. He's been pretty tight-lipped about it and why is that? First of all he's not the only one who left the party, you know, Lamidu if you remember also left and then there's some aspirants here in Lagos state as well who had left the party even before the presidential primaries, you know, citing the same reasons as the matter of fact. One of them won his primaries and still left complaining about the same thing, you know. Yeah, so that said there's a number of options on the table. All I can say for now is that Kingsley Mogalu would still play a very critical role in deciding where the polls go, you know, in 2023. So in some quarters some people might advise, you know, resign for now, you know, and then restrategize for 2027, some other platforms are offering their platforms for him to still run. But at the end of the day he has to put his supporters into consideration, his family of course and of course himself and he'll be back soon shortly with a proper announcement. I'm curious to push you forward to ask, I mean, because the last set of people we're talking to, we're talking about the Labour Party and the NNPP and these people seem to be in talks and they mentioned, if I remember correctly, that they're not just necessarily in talk with themselves but they're also talking to other political parties which might involve the ADC and people, which could also be Kingsley Mogalu in the mix. But then Kingsley Mogalu seemed to have very interesting ideas as to what he wanted Nigeria to be if he were to imagine, you know, the president. So let's go into some of those issues. He talked about the fact that 2023 would be a watershed moment for Nigerians. He considered a lot of things. He also talked about the poverty and the sufferings of Nigerians. Now he doesn't necessarily have to be president this year to help Nigeria achieve that. So if he were to merge or rather associate himself with these other parties, how would he be able to bring to bear some of these interesting ideas to help those parties in effect to win their own elections? Professor Kingsley Mogalu has been helping Nigeria for many decades now. 17 years at the United Nations, making us proud there. And he rose to the highest level, even became a UN undersecretary. And you know, when he was CBN deputy governor, you know, most of the policies that he rolled out, most Nigerians might not be aware that he was responsible for running out the Bivvian that all of us use today. He has never shied away from offering his services serving Nigeria. And he did say, if you read his resignation letter, that he is available to save Nigeria in any capacity. At this point, I must first of all issue a disclaimer about some of the social media posts making the rounds yesterday to the effect that Kingsley Mogalu had joined the Labour Party and the Peter O'Bee campaign. No such thing has happened. He's still consulting widely. Once his decision is made, it will be made public. But what would be wrong if he were to join the Labour Party, being that a lot of people, especially the young people, are in favour of a governor Peter O'Bee? And we also know that the vice presidential candidate who was announced is just a placeholder for the original presidential candidate. If a Kingsley Mogalu, I mean, but again, he's from the same place, so he would be very difficult. But if he were to join that campaign, being that he also is targeting the young Nigerians, vibrant Nigerians, would that not be a great start? I mean, to continue in your words, you know, to be a vibrant part of the Nigerian movement and helping to grow the Nigerian space? Yeah, of course. All the political parties are going to need to work hard, you know, for whatever kind of victory they would earn this time around. This is what I like specifically about the 2023 elections. Everybody needs to work harder than they ever worked. It's very unpredictable, really. Peter O'Bee, Kingsley Mogalu has always called him brother. They are from the Southeast. He has nothing against him. But this is politics, and it's a game of interest, you know. Kingsley Mogalu has always been more interested in the return to greatness of Nigeria. You know, he has a plan and a plan to achieve that plan. Now, he has to sit down and if he's not going to run, that is if he's not going to run. He has to consider the ideology, ideological differences, you know, and a host of other things before he makes a decision who to align with. Do not forget that prior to this time, he had rebuffed the advances, open advances from the APC and the PDP as well. But then it's politics, who knows, he could still align with any one of those three, the top three PDP, APC, Labour Party, and even the NNP. Can we hold on to this and run with it to say that he might just be joining? But let's move away from that. Let's talk about, let's go back to the ADC. Even if Kingsley Mogalu emerged as the presidential candidate of the ADC, looking at the players, the key players for the elections come 2023, I mean, for the big parties, look at Anasewaju for an APC, Chikua Buwaka for the PDP, and their running mates, even though the APC still has a placeholder, did he really stand a chance? But of course. How so? Every aspirant, every candidate stands a chance. A month plus ago, Peter Abil was not in the presidential race. Look at him now. Yeah, but politically speaking, Ipitalbi and Kingsley Mogalu, I mean, they're on different pedestals. And the reason why I asked that question is, how much votes could he have garnered as opposed to these men? I mean, we're still having conversations about, you know, according to the last guest's spoilers and people who might, yes, cost a split in the votes, but then for Kingsley, he's talking about winning. So did he really stand a chance to clinch that ticket at the end of the day and say, well, I can be President of Nigeria? Of course, anybody can say they can be President of Nigeria. But numbers-wise and politically speaking, where is he? Even with the momentum of Peter Abil on social media today, can you tell how many votes he would have tomorrow? Oh, that's left to the elections. But then there can be some certain level of acceptability that one would say, well, he has an influence. I mean, you heard the guest. He had certain influences in certain parts of the country. For Mogalu, where and where can we succinctly say, oh, well, if you look at the North Central or the Northwest or in the South South or in the Southeast, you'd get this certain percentage of votes. Can we really say that? Well, his strategy, Abinusio, you know, was to focus on getting the ticket. And so there was no metrics to have measured, you know, how it would have turned out had he got in that ticket. However, he had the strategy to execute after emerging as a candidate, you know. Unfortunately, going to some sharp practices and corruption here and there, it didn't end up how we projected. But yes, Kingsley-Mohalu, compared to 2019, it stands in a much better place, you know. And could, even if he didn't win the election, could still, like the other guy said, play the role of a spoiler, you know. Do not write him off is all I can say for now, even now at this point. Because Nigerians are tired, really. All they needed was leadership in the right direction. Everybody wants an alternative way. And let's not forget also that before what happened in Abiyakuta, Kingsley-Mohalu has been the most consistent face of the Third Force in Nigeria and the most invested in it. And now for now he's out of the race. But let's see what happens in the coming weeks. Let's talk about some of the things he spoke on. He spoke about, you know, use having a role to play in the coming elections and the much needed change. We're seeing something that is seemingly like young people are getting more interested. We saw the number of people at the stadium trying to get their PVCs here in Lagos. And I think that's detailed for every other part of the country. You see a lot of people flocking to get their PVCs. But then does that amount to people showing up on the election day at the polling units to cast that same vote with the voter card? I say this because a lot of people have said that the fear that they have for 2020-3 is not about the campaigns we're seeing on social media, even the ones we're seeing on the streets. It's about how many people will show up to the polls. Now he's talking about the young people and I asked my former guests what they think about people's enthusiasm, the level of enthusiasm when it comes to casting their votes. And they spoke about voting along ethnic and religious lines. How does that get us to where we want to get to as a country? Well, if there's anything I'm proud of at the moment, it's seeing young Nigerians become this interested and invested in politics. Will it translate to electoral victory? The extent of the results that would come out of this, one cannot tell at the moment, because the big question is, is this sustainable? If you look backwards, especially the end-sustained, the last time, it's easy to galvanize initially. But for how much time can we sustain this? Do we have the staying power? We still have about six, seven, eight months there about before the elections. We can have this conversation properly again in the next five months. If we don't have a burnout. Oh, well. If we don't have a burnout. If we don't have a burnout, yes. Kingsley Bogalew also talks about a revolution if the hardship continues. He talks about the fact that he's just the need that if poverty was not addressed and insecurity in the country was not addressed, it would worsen. And then this would push Nigerians to the wall. Again, I've asked so many people this question. In 2015, we said, oh, we were suffering. We wanted anything else but a good luck. And then we had a President Bahari. And then in 2019, Nigerians said, oh, Bahari didn't deliver. We don't want him. But then Bahari won that election. We saw a low turnout of voters for that 2019 elections. And here we are talking about 2023 again. Do we really, are we really tired? Or we just say that we're tired, but maybe we're used to where we are and we continue to manage. Are you not tired? Is that it? I mean, I'm asking you. You're the one who's in politics. You're the one who's canvassing for a better Nigeria. And you're a young person. I can see that. So what is the issue with us? Not just the young Nigerians, but Nigerians in general. We say one thing, but then when it's time for us to change, we never really show up for that change to happen. What do you think the problem is? It's the weaponization of poverty. You see, it's difficult to tell the hungry man not to accept to sell his votes. We live for the now in Nigeria because it's all about survival at the moment. When you think about going back home from the polling unit with nothing as against your colleagues who are going home with 20,000 Naira that could feed their families for that day and perhaps the next day, you're tempted because really everything is hopeless. Our leaders, you know, cumulatively over the years, it was intentional to leave the people, look at some states in Nigeria. It's state governor with all salaries for four years. And then on the eve of the next elections, he pays six months, you know, arrears of salaries. It's intentional, the things that they do. But how do we stop it if we keep aiding and abating? Because I mean, we're happy to take that little money and smile, but then they're going to keep doing it. It seems like a chain, you know, we keep doing it. So how do we change it if we're still also part of the problem? How? Where do we even start? You're the guys who are asking and come back asking for change to happen. Well, there are privileged young Nigerians who have the resources, who have the connections, you know, it's up to them to crowdfund. We need to start looking at these options now. If someone, I saw a tweet earlier this morning where someone was suggesting crowdfunding to fund voters in the rural areas especially so that they are empowered and able to reject money coming directly from politicians so they can vote. How do we ascertain that that crowdfunding is also not being piggybacked on some politician because there's always the hand of ESO in cases like this. So how do we make sure that it's as transparent as possible because there is a possibility that some money back somewhere can just, you know, start a go fund me and make it look like it's the people. Well, there's always risks to these things. But you see, we need to make up our minds. The thing again, just like Professor Kingsley Mujal always says we've seen countries where some of their citizens are poorer than ours, but they do not allow, you know, their morals to be so decadent. You know, they don't sell their votes. They don't commit crimes as a way of life. And so I think that this has to do with sensitization, sustained sensitization over a long period of time. It took us a long time to get here. You know, so it's not going to happen overnight. The change that we seek, it's even possible that despite all the galvanization you see on social media today, you know, the Labour Party, Peter O'Bean, the persons who are supposed to be beneficiaries of this momentum might fall very, very short. But it's a good thing that it has started now. You know, answers began, it didn't last for too long. You know, it stopped. We're hoping, what next? Today we are here. This has lasted longer than answers. So no matter where it stops, hopefully it doesn't. But no matter where it stops, it's a gain for us. And so by the next electoral cycle, we'll be able to improve on this one, hopefully. All right. So soon we'll get to Alderado. We'll keep our eyes on that. I mean, a lot remains to be seen. But Michael Achimago is the Director of Media Strategy to Professor Kingsley Mogaloo and his campaign. We want to appreciate you for being in the studio. Well, thank you all for staying with us. I'm Mary Anacola and I'll see you tomorrow. Same time on Plus Politics. Thank you for watching. Don't forget to watch if you missed parts of the conversation on our YouTube channels at Plus TV Africa and Plus TV Africa Lifestyle. Have a good evening.