", Rythm FM is conducting an opinion poll for a presidential candidate. It started a week ago to end this sunday(June 11th) and the result of the ten most nominated candidates will be announced on monday, June 12th. You can nominate a candidate by texting the name of the candidate to 333 33 on Vmobile and MTN network."

That is EXELLENT! Thanks for this info Wiseguy. This is the sort of campaigns I have been looking for to show Nigeria that Duke is the man for Nigeria so PLEASE let us all nominate Duke ASAP. Can everyone please text or email their friends, those who support Duke of course, to do the same?

I have just seen this news article (dated 4 June). If true it is good news for those of us who support Duke:

http://www.independentngonline.com/?c=127&a=3924

i have seen it as well, means there is hope for naija in a way

Yes o

Does anyone know the result of the Rhythm FM poll? I am assuming they have announced the top 10 nominated candidates.

I've been waiting to hear the result too. I've not had time to listen to radio today. I also assume they must have announced it.

The rythm poll is still on. But the number to text to have changed. You can nominate your candidate by texting NP(or Next president) and the name of the nominee to 937 to MTN and 32413 to Vmobile.

For example, NP Donald Duke.

Lets nominate Donald Duke.

When does the poll end?

The poll ends on the 25th of June.

Donald Duke,

Just dont see him as the person with enough clout and chrisma too do the job.

we need people that are respected and well known nationaly and beyond our shores.

Donald Duke has my deepest admiration.

@ zexyworm,

i am the treasurer for his nairaland campaign and as such all monies for his campaign and all donations should be forwarded to me.
cheers

Well Let us all start a duke solidarity forum I will be the chairman we can make something out of it. Just imagine if he wins.

@zexyworm dont even think about being the treasurer

Stanech, let's go for it. Get the ball rolling as you have volunteered for Chairman.

NAIRALAND/DUKE SOLIDARITY FORUM
CHAIRMAN: stanech
TREASURER:toshmann


wanted: publicity secretary, legal adviser, basket mouth
apply in person.

Been reading the news this morning. It is pittiful to see Victor Attah, a seasoned failure, to present his official presidential aspiration letter to the PDP party while Donald Duke watches on!

Mr. Duke, if you're reading this, please do not miss your chance to vocalize and PUSH for the best of Nigeria!

Gents/ladies,

I have just registered www.donaldduke.org

Celemel: Chairman, Board of Trustees. (Tony Anenih would be green with envy)

Please help me call Donald Duke to go for it, else I give him a red card

Or, I mobilize a one-trillion-man-march to his Diamond Hill Office Calabar to sniff him out.

celemel,

you need to buy the chairman board of trustees form from me (since i'm the treasurer)

u also pay mobilisation fee for the form

total fee? £5,000.00

send it to my account in natwest bank(it doubles as the campaign account. so no worries)

hurry, the earlier the better

i just voted for him. indeed arc victor attah is a seasoned failure.

I will like to tale up the webmaster job. I can get a good webtemplate and use one of my existing domains.

Revolution,
Thanks for your offer!
The domain was registered, I'm waiting for the official confirmation, will then take care of hosting.

count me in.

Donald Duke

Donald Duke (born 30 September 1961 in Calabar) has been the Governor of Cross River State since 1999. He has been at the helms of affairs of the State since the commencment of the present democratic dispensation in Nigeria. He received LLB degrees from Ahmadu Bello University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Spearheading the incumbent debt of Nigeria, Duke pushed for democracy and against military control. He stated; "What got the military out of power was not democracy but the dreadful state of the economy. If we, the democratic government, cannot deliver food for the mass of people we can forget about democracy.(1)"

Duke has been appraised for his contributions to the fields of Agriculture, urban development, government, environment, information and communication, investment drive, and tourism. Through his work Cross River is considered the "cleanest city in Nigeria."

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Duke

Donald Duke (by The Independent Newspaper):

Governor Donald Duke of Cross-River State is also a major contender that might easily surprise bookmakers and emerge the governors' choice. Insiders, who insisted that he was on the cards for the office of the President in 2007, said it was President Olusegun Obasanjo that first drew the attention of PDP leadership that Duke has displayed admirable managerial capacities in the way he has governed Cross River State. His associates said the youthful governor's performance impressed President Obasanjo so much that he has suddenly become one of the 'possibles' from the South-South.

Even amongst his colleagues, Duke is believed to be the favourite of many, mainly because they have come to see him as one of the less controversial PDP governors. He is also seen as a credible representative of youths in government, who have shown that there is a future for Nigeria.

As a neutral political force, Duke has somehow emerged everybody's friend in this era of high stake political alignments. This singular factor, coupled with his acceptability at the Presidency and by the South-South, makes Duke a likely candidate.



Another Newspaper quote:

"If Nigeria were a country looking for people with competence and ability to get things moving, Duke (Donald) should be head hunted." Vanguard – May 19, 2006

Vanguard and Silverbird's search for the next President

http://www.vanguardngr.com/articles/2002/cover/june06/27062006/f327062006.html

Oya O! Let's all nominate and support Donald Duke. Let the revolution begin here, we can break the stronghold the small elite click have on power in Nigeria by raising further awareness and publicity for Donald Duke. I believe that through rigging you can prevent a man with 50 or 55% support from winning a election but you can't stop a revolution where the front runner has 70% - 90% support.

@ Toshman: I wish to apply for Basket Mouth position, trust me, I can REALLY run my mouth

Errr, can we discuss the profit sharing formular?

OK Guys, I am ready to start developing the website. I need the best pictures of Donald Duke you guys can lay your hands on. The pictures should of course look presidential. Also I need Duke's speaches, achievements etc.

Who will be the editor of the site i.e. write the contents of all the pages etc. We need to lay down a COMPELLING arguement why Duke should be president. Zexyworm will you do this?

Lets get cracking I mean business and hope to have the site ready in 2 - 4 weeks. So please send me pictures, speeches, positive quotes by Duke or about Duke. Send them to uche.onyema@btopenworld.com and please put "Donald Duke" in the subject so that I can easily identify it if it goes to my bulk folder.

OK Guys, the site is almost complete. Please check it out and give feedback. I have done most of the pages except the "Successes" page. I need volunteers to write about Duke's achievement in a formal and professional way, Celemel I think you may be the best candidate since you live in Calabar and have already written tons of good stuff on Duke in this forum. Are you happy to do it? In any case there can be several volunteers and if so I will merge the different write-ups.

Here's the site: www.dukeforpresident.com

I have seen the site and I have started making it public as in making others know about it. well lets get started now. Let make him the guy we are looking for.

Barrister Hemeson Tina Agbor is a legal practitioner and businesswoman from Cross River State. She studied law at the University of Thames Valley, England. She is at home with politics, which she started almost a decade ago. Agbor contested election to the House of Representatives under the late General Sani Abacha’s truncated transition programme under Democratic Party of Nigeria ( DPN). In this interview with Reporter Rita Smith, the politician speaks on why Governor Donald Duke should be the next President, her journey so far in politics, declaring that her greatest challenge is to contest with a man and win, among other issues. Excerpts:

You are a lawyer, how did you get into politics?

I think it happened by fate. I was in Lagos practising law and something came up. I went to Cross River State to live in an estate. I was doing one project, that estate management. I was handling it and in the process I found out that I became popular and I was drafted into politics. That is all.

Have you ever contested? Which position?

The State House of Assembly

Under which party did you contest? Where are you now; PDP, ANPP or AD?

Right now I am in PDP. I started with the DPN. I contested into the House of Representatives in the DPN during Abacha’s era. That was the only time I had ever contested. But after that time the party changed from DPN to UNPP, then APP and at last PDP and all that. So I joined APP and contested for State House of Assembly. After that, I joined PDP.

For how long have you been playing politics?

I think I started about 1997

What are your views about women in politics? Is the number of women in politics impressive?

I am not impressed with the number of women in politics. I think women seem to be too scared about politics, they think politics is dirty, it is for men, it’s antagonistic and all that. No. If we keep running away from men, we will just have the wrong people ruling us, so we should come into it. It is improving. Women are better administrators. As you can see, Nigeria is being saved by women. Obasanjo’s team has women, so women should come into politics more; they are not enough. We can’t demand for our 30 per cent slots in appointment if we stay out.

What plans do you have come 2007? Do you see yourself contesting for any position?

No, I am not contesting. I am in PDP, PDP is a family, you know when the time comes, they will decide what happens. So, I am not eyeing any position.

PDP, most people say, is factionalised, which of the factions do you belong?

I have always said it to the people that PDP is like a large family, a family of a king, a king with many wives and many sets of children. Many of these wives quarrel with one another, the same with the children, but everybody hangs on to the man because that is where the solution is. So, no matter what happens, if you quarrel, nobody packs out, everybody quarrels and stays in. That is why when you see somebody who says, oh, this person has been expelled from PDP, he goes to the paper fighting back to say no, I am not, I am still there.

Nigeria just celebrated seven years of democracy, what is your own assessment of democratic governance in the country?

Oh, thank God for democracy. Things are different from what we used to know and we have seen how democracy has changed us. The perception of the outside world about us has changed. Our economy is different; especially our President has done so well, he has brought in women who have proven their worth. Everywhere you turn, there is a woman who has proven her worth. You see NAFDAC boss is a woman, Okonjo-Iweala is a woman. So, I am impressed; democracy is good for us.

What do you mean by saying that democracy is good for us?

I am not saying democracy is not okay, democracy is okay. We are growing, and we are starting something, and it is through this democracy that I can say we have taken off. I think things are working. Things are not done in business as usual manner any more; things are different. And I am impressed.

Are you now implying that Obasanjo’s government has done very well?

Yes. One, our economy is okay now. Other people complain about the light, but what I think is that people complain without comparing with the past. But by my comparison, what we have now is better than what we used to have. There are roads; people’s standards of living have improved. There are people like me who were nothing before, but they are now big boys because they all have jobs. What else do we want really? We have the great GSM.

You are in PDP, how did you take the result of the just concluded Constitution Amendment debate to allow tenure elongation? What do you think went wrong? Are you happy with the outcome?

We have not said we are not happy with the result. The President has just come out to say that is democracy in action. Democracy has decided. That is what it is. And that is why we are talking about democracy.

How do you combine your profession as a lawyer with estate manager at the same time as a politician and then as active mother?

That is the beauty of a woman; a woman is a great manager: You check out your time, you know where you should be at what time and you balance it up and make sure nothing is left unattended to. That means I am doing well. Well, when I am doing politics, I am not practising law. I was running an estate that I just told you about. I contested the election and after 2003, I came back to Lagos to practise law. For now, I am not doing anything except politics.

What has been your greatest challenge as a politician?

My greatest challenge in life is to be able to run an election with a man and win him. (Laughs)

You are running a project, which is campaigning for Donald Duke to become the next President of Nigeria. Why do you think that he is the right person in the South-South to go for that position? And why are you campaigning for a male president and not a woman?

Donald Duke has done credibly well. He is impressive, he is improving. I told you when we started that I was in ANPP. That means I did not work for Donald Duke. But I will tell you something that after seeing Donald Duke from 1999-2000, I could see how well he was doing. Between 2003 till now you need to get to that state. I can stand here and tell you that that is the cleanest state in this country, the most hospitable. If you are talking about tourism, go to Cross River. He has got the panache, the carriage; he’s got the ability to run. He has run Cross River State very well. I have not seen any woman who wants to run.

You have just talked about how Governor Duke has performed very well, what is the potential you think he has to now manage a country like Nigeria? Don’t you think managing a state and administering a country are two different things?

Well, the way he has managed Cross River State, I think it’s a matter of expanding that method to be able to take care of the entire nation. If he manages Nigeria well like Cross River, we will be removed from being Third World; I am sure we will be moved to Second World. This is because he has been tested and proven, and that is why I am in Lagos telling people about his ability. I am from Cross River going around the country telling about his ability, and I am sure I am not going to be alone.

Is he aware of your project?

He is not aware; I am only doing this to draft him in.

Do you think he is going to take it?

I don’t know, but that is my view about him.

Governor Kure of Niger State made a statement recently that there is no credible candidate in the South-South, what is your about this?

Why? To say that there are no credible candidates in the whole of the South-South is insulting. Let’s take Niger State and compare it with Cross River then we know who is more credible. I mean they came into power at the same time.

Don’t you think Governor Duke is too young to rule a country like Nigeria?

Oh, my God! When you talk about young age, you should remember that we are in the computer age. Donald has ideas. The young age gives him more credibility because he knows what is happening today. This is not a matter of experience. The experience we have in Nigeria is old people ruling us and given us old ideas that are taking us to nowhere. So, we are talking about new ideas from a young man who understands the current challenges.

Stanech, there is a discussion forum on dukeforpresident.com please feel free to use it and start some interesting discussions that will generate interest and publicity to the website. Once I have finished the 'Successes' page then the real publicity will begin, hopefully including paid adverts on radio and other mass medium.

Does anyone know the result of the first round of Vanguards/Rhythm FM People's president poll?