Former Cross River Governor Donald Duke has criticized President Bola Tinubu for purchasing a new presidential jet and yacht, calling it a failure of leadership amid what may be the worst economic crisis Nigeria has faced since independence.
He appeared as a guest on “Inside Sources with Laolu Akande,” a socio-political program that aired on Channels Television on Friday.
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“There is no glamour in saying your people are going through hard times. It’s a failure of your leadership.
If I’m the head of a family, I want my family to have everything. I don’t want life to be difficult for them.
“If life is difficult then I feel I’ve failed to provide for them or do the things I ought to have done.
I’d ask him (Tinubu) to see the Nigerian nation as his family.
What is good for his family is good for the nation,” the former governor said.
“Buying a new aircraft or yacht or living large is a failure.
You can’t have kids who are hungry and you are living lavishly, going to parties and wearing the biggest agbada.”
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Duke, who served as governor of the South-South state from 1999 to 2007, stated that the recent #EndBadGovernance protests across the nation by struggling Nigerians demonstrate that the President has not been a caring leader for the country.
The former governor said, “A protest is like your kids coming to tell you that ‘Daddy, I am not happy with you. You have failed to do this and do that for me’.
“I’d ask him (Tinubu) to rethink a number of things that are going on and test his policies.
The policy of floating the currency was a mistake because it wasn’t thought through.
“The largest pressure on the Nigerian currency is the importation of fuel, and the way it is being done, it is fuelled by corruption. So, we are paying the price for it.”
Duke urged the President to hold security agencies accountable, reform the judiciary, and tackle the economic challenges using local, indigenous solutions rather than relying on those from the Bretton Woods system.
