why did Donald Duke chicken out when OBJ/EFCC arm-twisted him during the PDP primaries?

Could there be something we dont know? Could this guy have pulled a clever FRAUD on his people?

TINAPA, Nigeria (Reuters) - In the minds of its creators, the Tinapa resort in southeastern Nigeria will rival Dubai or London as a shopping and trading paradise for rich and enterprising Nigerians.

In reality, about $340 million has been spent since 2005 but 80,000 square meters of pristine retail space lie empty, the silence broken only by the footsteps of a few security guards.

this is 34billion Naira down the drain.

Nigeria's biggest banks have invested in it, though the state of Cross River where the resort is located and the federal government have contributed more and are now heavily in debt

He said Tinapa would succeed because there was pent-up demand for it from affluent Nigerians who currently travel to Europe, the United States or Dubai on shopping holidays.

"Our target customers don't watch Nigerian television, they watch CNN. To them, Nigeria is not glamorous. We want them to associate Tinapa in their minds with Dubai or Paris," said Ndem.

The other key target group for Tinapa are Nigerian traders who take frequent flights to Dubai, India or China to buy goods which they bring back as luggage and sell at home

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKL1718592420071226?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

I appreciated the ambition behind the Tinapa project
but always thought they were biting off a bit more than they could chew.

When a Black man makes mistakes By TRYING TO COPY PEOPLE THEY SAY ALL KINDS OF THINGS.

Just try and Check out the mistake and catastrophe of other race that even cost lives.

When a man tries something lets us encourage him. Dont let us make example of failure. This is what FELA Left us. Looking at a fault and glorifying it.

Maybe he had good intentions with the project.

But clearly, from the look of things I think this one has snowballed to one gargantuan elephant project we really don't need now.

Good Intentions my as s!

There is no clean fish in the dirty and smelly river!
This is why war against corruption in Nigeria is a pure joke and won't work.

Too many are Too corrupt for Too long!

The judge is corrupt, the lawyer is corrupt and the juries are also corrupt; so, how do you handle a criminal that is being charged for corruption?
How can a fair and lawful verdict be rendered by bunch of criminals (judge, lawyer and the juries)?

This is why my recommendation to solve corruption in Nigeria will be adopted very soon.

Killing all the Corrupt people by Jungle Justice will never work.

Rawlings is now Satan's Younger brother in Ghana. He is disgraced to the Highest level.

Our Black Heroes are Eroded by the desire for wealth. The Solution is to look at the Younger Ones.

When Rawlings Speak the media spends days talking about him. The GOV set up a reconciliation committee to ridicule him.


You wonder whether Rawlings was still ruling

C_JAY:

Maybe he had good intentions with the project.

But clearly, from the look of things I think this one has snowballed to one gargantuan elephant project we really don't need now.

well i dont think its all bad. To be honest, no economic activity is ever wasted if funds are used in the first place unlike
where it ends up in someones bank account gathering dust.

Jobs were created, infrastructure was updated in the immediate vicinity albeit lookin like a commercial dud.

Killing all the Corrupt people by Jungle Justice will never work.

Rawlings is now Satan's Younger brother in Ghana. He is disgraced to the Highest level.

Our Black Heroes are Eroded by the desire for wealth. The Solution is to look at the Younger Ones.

When Rawlings Speak the media spends days talking about him. The GOV set up a reconciliation committee to ridicule him.


You wonder whether Rawlings was still ruling

Pay attention; there is nobody killing anybody. You can not compare my recommendation to Rawlings.

I am from that state and happy with what is on ground.

Backslider:

Killing all the Corrupt people by Jungle Justice will never work.

Rawlings is now Satan's Younger brother in Ghana. He is disgraced to the Highest level.

Our Black Heroes are Eroded by the desire for wealth. The Solution is to look at the Younger Ones.

When Rawlings Speak the media spends days talking about him. The GOV set up a reconciliation committee to ridicule him.


You wonder whether Rawlings was still ruling

Prove it !!

doyin13:

I appreciated the ambition behind the Tinapa project
but always thought they were biting off a bit more than they could chew.

Well said!

gregg2:

I am from that state and happy with what is on ground.

Well, it is the new year and I do not mean to be aggravating. But just my two cents.  It is very easy to "be happy with what is on ground" when you are 6 feet under the ground.  Whatever you see above your casket is "paradise"!!!!


Enjoy!!!!!

A big fraud, but knew how to play the game well, well.

Very simple!
Say yes sir, yes sir to OBJ and send down kolanut to Aso rock from time to time; and you immediately become the invisible to Ribadu EFCC.

Instead of spending that money to update our eduational system especially UNICAL to world class standards, free education, developing the rural areas with agriculture and the industrialization of the state, he went and built a tourist resort. Calabar is close to the ocean, at least they should be on there way to establishing a ship manufacturing industry or some  big time high-tech industry with that money. No wonder he recused himself from running for presidency because there was so much dirt on him.

It is easy to be a "visionary" with other people's money.
The true test is what you do with your own money. ;-)

Nigerian will always complain in any slight opportunity.Cross River is a tourist state(bearing Obudu Cattle ranch in mind).TINAPA is not a goose project(and should be seen as an extention of the EPZ vision) and should be supported by those who have ever been to calabar.Don't forget the popular UK  'Dome project' has not realise its dream.
Duke,has done so well for Calabar.My last visit to calabar in 2007 after years of graduation,gave a hope that some of our leaders still have the interest of the electorate at heart.Inshort we boarded the same flight to Abuja without the usual VIP protocol.
If you have an issue with Duke over Cross River state,i will give you a holiday to Edo state and see the other side of things.

Cross River is a tourist state

Really?

You must be straight from the village!

I am sure you have never steps your foot into Calabar.I must tell you,calabar will benefit from my retirement home.

That was a joke!
Yes, Calabar still one of my favorite place in Nigeria.

Good,at least we one thing in common on that.
FYI i left Calabar in 1993 after a 4 years at the university.I only went there April 2007 and the remarkable changes i saw beats my imagination.
On the other hand if you know Calabar very well and her importance in the history of Nigeria,certainly you will agree with me on her tourist importance in the tourist industry.
The point to note here without going into much argument is,Duke did a right thing to bring Cross River back to her right place in the history of Nigeria.

But is Duke corrupt?

My dear lets be real.There is no perfect man on planet earth.
The question i expected of you is-Did Duke deliver to the people of Cross River state ?

The question i expected of you is-Did Duke deliver to the people of Cross River state ?

Yes, he did:
about $340 million has been spent since 2005 on TINAPAP but 80,000 square meters of pristine retail space lie empty, the silence broken only by the footsteps of a few security guards.

It would be better that the project was never built in the first place than for it to be built and end up economically inviable.$340m could go a long way in developing infrastructure in Nigeria.

wether d project suceeds or not is duke's cross.he willynilly commied d resources of d state to d ginormous project.it was a risky gamble and he must live with d consequences.irrespective of his good intentions , he must be made to acct for what becomes of this colosal investment.

i hope and pray tinapa succeeds , but if funds weremismanaged or misappropriated, all those behind it must be made to account.i always have an issues when people in govt embark on projects they wont be able to finish within d course of their administration.i don't blame liyel imoke if he doesnt feel tinapa should be priority no 1.calabar is mo than just tinapa.

that being said, d people r d loosers if it comes to nought.every concievable impediment to its success, man-made or natural, must be minimised.it simply cannot afford to go to waste.

I pray Tinapa succeeds as dreamt. Not only Calabar or Nigeria, but West Africa will sing songs. I have been to the project site and honestly, anyone (including EFCC) could be "tempted" to agree that this project is worth the billions spent.

I am not paid by Duke to defend him on nairaland, neither am I calling him a saint. You can truly speak about TINAPA when you visit the site also. The quality of infrastructure is wonderful. It is unlike Nigeria. You will forget you are in Nigeria, honestly. TINAPA is something every Nigerian should be proud of. I love people that dream big. Again, the prayer is "God  let Tinapa succeed.

duke is corrupt, and a thief Fraud

duke did the right thing as per the tinapa idea Visionary

he was both a fraud and a visionary

for him to get sympathy and also try to get away unpunished for his fraudulent ways he devices a means of siphoning the money.

my view is at least he did something there whether it works or not, whether he embezzled or not, dats no to say make EFCC no still carry am cos i know say he sef steal plenty but give him credit for promoting the TINAPA idea. e still beta pass Ibori, Lucky and Odili

@Almondjoy

You won't kill me o; i could not help laughing at your post

@ALL
Tinapa was a mistake just like Ajaokuta, Huge infrastructural development alone is not enough. The calabar EPZ is still trying to find its feet so also is the local airport which they thought will go International. Obudu Cattle ranch is too far away to bring help to the canaan city but all hope is not lost yet. Perhaps when Duke becomes president in about 9 years time then something tangible may happen but till then we wait.

But Duke miscalculated. Those TINAPA target customers, not minding relative cost, will still fly to Europe and America to do shopping. Afterall, that offers them opportunity to hide their loot in foreign banks.

Oh Dear,no viable project is a mistake.But management of this projects is the problem.In the so called western countries courses are been developed like- Innovations and knowledge management.Most projects in Nigeria are built based on political plans and not economic plans.Examples-Ajaokuta steel plant,Oshogbo steel,Delta steel.There where viable projects,the downside where the geographical locations,the projects where build by different countries/contractor.Billets produced cannot be fined to rods/sheets etc in another plant(s) because of difference machine settings.
I did my NYSC at Nigeria Machine tools Oshogbo(a door neighbour to the steel plant) and there where suppose to complement each other which never was.The machine tools was still been subsidise  by the FG as at 1995.There was no  knowledge to turn around the vision of the project(though i don't know the state now).
In a nutshell the government should allow people that are selfless into the governance and after 10 years the dividends will be visible.

gregg2:

But Duke miscalculated. Those TINAPA target customers, not minding relative cost, will still fly to Europe and America to do shopping. Afterall, that offers them opportunity to hide their loot in foreign banks.

I don't think he miscalculated. He was just clever!

we have crude-governors, who basically STEAL the money of their states.

We have clever Governors, who will initiate a grandiose projects as vehicle to siphon money. These are more difficult to prosecute because they will say project had good intention but situation made it un-viable. Meanwhile billions of TAX-PAYERS money gone.

What we should rather have in-place is that PEOPLE should vote for which project they want after having access to all project details.

We should have a system where people will give permission to spend their money and not just because you are a GOVERNOR you can start spending the money!

Where I live the Governor wanted to build more Prisons but people voted against it and voted for more schools: Governor had to build the school.

What a backward comparison are you bringing in here-''A prison and a School''.
Where on earth are you!
We are here in Nairaland talking about Nigeria of 21st century and i am personally not interested about OLD STONE AGE IDEAS.
You have killed the thread you created QED.Thank You.

What a backward comparison are you bringing in here-''A prison and a School''.

whats wrong with prison & school? both are needed in any society.

for instance, Nigeria need more quality prisons as well as more quality schools. both are equally important.

the import of my example is POWER OF PEOPLE to decide what PROJECT government should be doing and not Government alone deciding the project.