A former deputy governor of the nation’s apex financial institution, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu says he is carrying out wide consultations in readiness to contest the 2019 presidency.

Speaking to journalists in Lagos on Monday, Moghalu said the time was ripe for technocrats, intellectuals, experts and experienced people to take over the mantle of leadership in the country from politicians.

While stressing that politics in Nigeria should be detribalized for the giant of Africa to grow and take its rightful place in the comity of nations, Moghalu said he would not be deterred from joining the race despite speculations that 2023 was the year slated for the South-East to have a shot at the presidency.

He said: “It is the turn of any competent Nigerian to aspire for the post of the presidency because career politicians have failed Nigerians.

“Zoning was an internal arrangement by political parties,that was not constitutional. It should no longer matter where the president comes from. The future of Nigeria rests in technocratic interventions.

“We need thinking people that will take Nigeria from the politics of stomach infrastructure to politics of mental infrastructure,” he added.

He said zoning which had been by the major political parties in the country might have been useful in the past but is not necessary in the current dispensation because according to him, competence should be placed above tribal sentiments in present day Nigeria.

He stressed that the nation must look beyond depending on proceeds from oil and encourage independent institutions to flourish in the country whose citizens he said, must eschew docility and become more pro-active in demanding accountability from their leaders at all levels of governance.

Moghalu, who served as deputy governor of the CBN from 2009 to 2014 is a lawyer, a political economist and a former official of the United Nations (UN).