Donald Duke to Tinubu: It’s failure of leadership to buy presidential jet while people are hungry

Donald Duke, former governor of Cross River, has criticised the acquisition of an aircraft for President Bola Tinubu. 

Last week, the presidency confirmed the purchase of a new Airbus A330 to replace the 19-year-old Boeing B737-700 acquired under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Speaking on Friday when he featured on Inside Sources, a programme anchored by Laolu Akande on Channels Television, the former governor described the decision as “failure of leadership” considering the country’s economic situation.

“There is no glamour in saying your people are going through hard times; it is a failure of your leadership. If I am the head of a family, I want my family to have everything. I don’t want life to be difficult for them,” Duke said.

“If life is difficult, then I feel I have failed to provide for them or do the things I ought to have done. I would 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.”

‘HOLD SECURITY HEADS RESPONSIBLE’

Speaking on the security challenges facing the country, Duke asked Tinubu to hold heads of security agencies responsible.

He said there should be consequences for poor performance of duties by security officers.

“Hold the security agencies responsible for a failure of security. There should be consequences. You cannot sit down and say you are a DPO, commissioner of police or you are GOC and crime is being committed in your domain. Hold them responsible,” Duke said.

He also advised the president to “completely decentralise” the judiciary.

“It may require us having maybe three to four times or even 10 times more judges that we have but ensure that whoever is a judge there are consequences for it,” Duke said.

The former governor asked Tinubu to address the economic challenges in the country by finding local solutions.

“The IMF or the World Bank would not give you those textbook solutions. It has to be an indigenous solution to our problems,” he said.

Duke was governor from 1999 to 2007, during the same period Tinubu governed Lagos.