A former Governor of Cross River
State, Donald Duke, has indicated his interest to run for president.
According to a report by
Vanguard, Mr. Duke made his interest known at the third Mike Omotosho annual
lecture titled: “Millennials as Protagonists in Nation Building” on Sunday
night in Abuja.
Mr. Duke was governor of Cross
Rivers State between 1999 and 2007.
He promised to start up the
process at, ”the right time and circumstance.”
“I am entitled to run for the
presidency of this country. Only on right circumstances I will aspire for it. I
don’t shy away from responsibility, I will aspire for presidency of this
country. I have what it takes to be president of this country.”
Mr. Duke challenged the youth to
be active in the electoral process by getting their Permanent Voters Cards,
PVCs, and sensitise others ahead of the general election, rather than, ”loafing
around, looking for who to heap their problems on.”
He noted that country once had
young leadership in its first republic.
“It is high time Nigerians begun
to project people with the technical know-how to take the country to the
Promised Land.
“I hear young people say to me
that why would they spend hours queuing and casting their votes when at the end
their votes won’t count. And I tell that if their parents conceived them they
never gave up on them considering the high mortality rate, so why would they
not take a chance in building this nation?
“We had young leadership at one
stage or the other. Even in our first republic, besides the likes of Awolowo,
Tafawa Balewa, M. T. Mbu was in his twenties when he became a minister.
“Gowon was 30 when he became the
head of state. It comes back to the disaster therein because most of them
didn’t have experience in governance, which led us into war. We need the
combination of both. What I think we should be doing is to ensure a government
that is youth-friendly to provide opportunities because we need to groom the
next set of leadership.”
Mr. Duke lamented the recent
death of Nigerian migrants on Mediterranean sea, slavery in Libya, job loss and
the rate of unemployment in Nigeria.
“I don’t know what a definition
of failed state is and I don’t want to categorise Nigeria as a failed state
yet, however, a state that was unable to provide for its people has faded up.
“So, if we are not there yet, we
are walking with our eyes open towards it. And we need to pull the hand break
now before it gets late.”
The ex-governor, speaking on the
activities of the current administration, said the challenge is that there is
disconnection between President Muhammadu Buhari and his cabinet members. He
attributed the failure of governance on the lack of consequences for erring
leaders which has given room for incompetence.
“The challenge we have today is
the disconnect. That is the challenge of the governance today. Because if you
speak with the folks in government, and I am being candid here, I think we
should stop to deceive ourselves here and stop all these political correctness.
There is disconnect between the president and even the ministers.”
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