Former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke, has described President Muhammadu Buhari as a failed leader. He said the Buhari-led regime was a government of many failings, disconnected from reality.
Duke, who has declared his intention to contest the Presidency, said
the Buhari administration was not ready for leadership and that was why
it took the President nearly six months to appoint ministers.
The presidential aspirant said this during an interview with DW Africa.
When asked why he thought he would be a better President than Buhari,
he said, “Because I see such obvious failings. I see a leadership that
is steeped in the past; that has refused to evolve with a nation that is
predominantly a nation of young aspiring people and still doing things
the way they were done many years ago and did not work.
“I think our leadership in the country today is totally out of tune
with the current reality of our nation. There is disconnect somewhere so
when you have a leadership that blames its young people for instance of
not striving enough or of being lazy, there is a disconnect because the
tools to make them achieve their aspiration have not been provided.”
He said the health sector was in crisis adding, “The President,
himself, receives treatment abroad. That is a sad state of affairs.”
When asked to state Buhari’s worst problem, he said, “They were not
prepared for leadership. For example, it took six months to set up a
cabinet. Where do you hear such? President Buhari came into office to
fight corruption and insecurity.
“Let us look at the scorecard. Corruption is not dead. Prosecuting
corruption is addressing the symptom and not the problem. The real
problem is you have got to create jobs for people; you have got to
strengthen institutions that make it almost impossible to engage in such
an activity.”
Duke also faulted the government’s claim that Boko Haram had been defeated.
He said suicide bombings, kidnappings were still occurring mainly in the North-East.
“They have announced that the war is over and Bokom Haram has been
defeated. We know it hasn’t been defeated. There are still bombings and
kidnappings in the North-East. If you visit the IDPs, you will see that
we are breeding the next generation of very disgruntled people,” the
ex-governor said.
He said interests rates must be lowered to encourage entrepreneurship and job creation.
The presidential aspirant added, “You can’t grow your economy with
the type of banking system we run where the interest rate is in the
upper 20s. You need to have affordable credit which will enable small
and medium scale businessmen to borrow and expand their businesses.
“Nigeria grew faster when we had regulation on interest rates; when
the interest rates were in single digits. Secondly, we have to grow the
economy at 15 per cent for 10 years to recalibrate the system.
“Nigeria ought to be a $2.5tn economy and not a $400bn economy.”