Biden and Trump

By Kingsley Moghalu

Regardless of the party in power – Republican or Democrat-the United States is a global superpower. Nigeria needs to engage more effectively with Washington to advance Nigeria’s interests.This requires a savvy understanding of the American mind, and cultural/intellectual capital.

It calls for leaders with real knowledge of statecraft in the context of global grand strategy. Countries that lack a real, ideological, articulate worldview will have difficulty in this game. You can’t be strong abroad if your domestic foundation is weak.

Kingsley Moghalu

The problem Nigeria has in advancing its interests in the world today is that we have the smartest citizens but many of those who call the shots politically lack similar capacity. This creates gaps and dislocations that limit our ability to project our interest on the world stage.

I know this from my experience at home and abroad, my education in international relations at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (one of the world’s top schools of international affairs) and the London School of Economics, a long career in the United Nations, and the rare honor to have been a professor at a the Fletcher School teaching future world leaders.

We are not serious yet. One day, with the right kind of leadership, the right constitutional structure, and harnessing the innovative talents of our youth, we can achieve greatness. The leaders of the countries that are rising don’t have two heads!

-Professor Kingsley Moghalu, former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria and President, Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation, is a Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow and Senior Fellow, Council on Emerging Market Enterprises, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University Massachusetts, USA.