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Former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke, has described as a failure in leadership the decision of President Bola Tinubu's administration to acquire a new presidential jet despite the prevalent hunger and hardship facing millions of Nigerians.
He made this known while appearing as a guest on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television on Friday, August 30, 2024.
This comes barely one week after the presidency announced the purchase of a new Airbus A330 to replace the 19-year-old Boeing B737-700 which was bought during the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
According to the presidency, the need to buy a new jet arose after Tinubu was forced to use a commercial plane after the presidential jet developed a fault during his trip to Rotterdam in the Netherlands in May.
The President, who was billed to connect Saudi Arabia from Holland, travelled to the Arab country via a chartered plane as his main jet had been taken for maintenance.
However, Duke insisted that acquiring a new jet when the economy was going through turbulence was a sign of failure by the government.
“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.
“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,” the former governor said.
Duke says Tinubu not a good father to Nigerians
Duke, who governed the South-South state between 1999 and 2007, said the recent #EndBadGovernance nationwide protests by hungry Nigerians were a testament that the President hasn't been a good father to Nigerians.
"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,” he added.
The former Governor urged Tinubu to hold security agencies responsible, reform the judiciary and explore local indigenous solutions to the economy instead of the Bretton Woods system.