The President of the African School of Governance (ASG), Mr. Kingsley Moghalu, has expressed support for United States visa restrictions on Nigerians and called on Nigerians to make greater efforts towards the betterment of the country.
Reacting to the development in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, Moghalu asserted that morality is not the yardstick for measuring international affairs, noting that geostrategy aims to protect national interest, however it is defined.
“Citizens of countries who have none should quit criticizing those that do. President Donald Trump is acting in the interests he has defined for his country. Sometimes those interests could include ‘morality’ based grounds, such as a concern with religious freedom.
“It could be mixed with other reasons of a strategic economic or military nature. It doesn’t matter. What matters is: what is our strategy in Nigeria and Africa? Is checkmating terrorism in the Sahel in the interest of Nigerians or not?” he questioned.
Moghalu, who was the presidential candidate of the Young Progressive Party (YPP) in the 2019 elections, pointed out that the issue is not about the vested interests of corrupt elites, who could rightly be described as “economic terrorists” in their own right.
Rather, he stated that it concerns the interests of the average man and woman who wish to live and carry on their occupations in secure environments that have disappeared due to collusion between some members of the elite and terrorists, arguing that this is the proper way to view the matter.
According to him, Africa has been “conned” for a long time by people in places like America who profess to “love” the continent, but whose actual policies advance agendas that impoverish Africans and expose them to mayhem, death, and impunity.
On immigration, the former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) affirmed that while it is natural to seek greener pastures, every sovereign country has the right to control immigration, especially illegal immigration, into its territory.
However, he said that this should be done in a sensible manner, stressing that the clarifications recently issued by the United States Diplomatic Mission in Nigeria are sensible and appropriate from the standpoint of US national policy.
Moghalu emphasised that the fact that Nigeria’s borders are porous, allowing all sorts of criminals to enter and operate as destabilising agents or fake voters, does not mean more serious countries do not have the right to protect their homelands from being overrun by others.
He added: “And the fact that we have failed to rise up against our oppressors at home and change our destiny on the ground (some of us offered ourselves years ago, but the people preferred those who buy their votes but have no plans for their welfare) does not give us an entitlement to another man’s land.”
