Donald Duke is a good man! Targeting the wrong people.

I have met him personally, and many of my family members know his family. This is injustice in the highest order!  

FL Gators:

No mind am. He just wants us to know that he knows somebody

EzeUche:

^^^^^^

No, because he is running for president you dunce.

Gbawe:

Precisely . Add charisma and panache to the list as well. Duke has been ruffling feathers to no end of late . I doubt he has anything to hide because he is acting more like Gani Fawenhinmi of late . Speaking vehemently against the PDP and Jonathan (more or less calling him a coward) during the recent cabal hijack of the Nigerian Presidency means , in Nigeria's where politics of blood and vengeance overrides good governance,  Duke must now pay for his "insolence".

Jonathan is now slowly showing his hands as some of us suspected he would. Mr. Beaf (Jonathan's main propagandist on Nairaland) where you at ? I don't know when Nigerians , including some who are very intelligent , will learn that accidental and/or selected leaders rarely ever make good leaders.

Chib4u:


Basically all am trying to say is, the man is just a normal politician, I don’t think there’s a difference between a small thief and a big thief. He’s not our political messiah, as for me Donald Etim Duke is a normal Nigerian Politician. We have a messiah out there but is definitely not Donald.

EzeUche:

hehehehe

But Donald Duke did good things as governor as well. They are targeting the wrong person. Why not go after the former heads of state who stole money, not a former governor like Donald Duke.

mama-gee:

^^Cause he's a corrupt thief.

osifred:

Duke took time to answer d question himself on 123next

I have followed the genuine comments that have flowed from this story. Everyone who has commented here is excercising his/her fundamental rights to free speech and I don't begrudge that. But let me be put on record about what transpired yesterday in Calabar.[size=14pt] I was NOT ARRESTED BY THE POLICE in Calabar as this story has portrayed[/size]. I am not above the law, the police came to enforce an exparte order issued by an Akamkpa High Court. As a lawyer, even a layman knows that Calabar Municipality where the ceremony held is beyond the Akamkpa court's jurisdiction. Regardless, I had to out of courtesy and as a law abiding citizen opted to step in on behalf of my wife, Onari, and clarify issues with the Commissioner of Police and this didn't last more than about 20 minutes and I was back to venue. Please also note that, the health facility is being promoted by my dear wife Onari, [size=14pt]so how could I have been arrested?[/size] If anyone needed be arrested, it is my wife not me and commonsense or logic should have cautioned the reporter not to insinuate as he did. I was a guest at the occassion, ditto other local and international dignitaries, including officials from the World Health Organisation(WHO), Shell, Mikano, Wampco, NAIRDA, Flour Mills etc. As the reporter rightly pointed out, the police first accosted my wife and then I stepped in to intervene. The reason being that, my wife, as host would not have abandoned the ceremony to accompany the police to see the CP; that would have further jeopardised the flow of the event and embarrassed her guests and ruined everything. So for stepping forward, is it now fair to interprete it that I was arrested? Now to the real issues. I would want us, especially those resident in our country to go round the council areas nationwide, assess and tell me the state of the NRC/SDP party secretariats today. When my wife mooted the idea of this project, a place to host it became a major challenge. Although the current building was abandoned and in a parlous state of disuse just like others nationwide, rather than appropriating the property, it was decided that a 25 year lease be taken on the property. What it means is that, regardless of what you invest there, the property remains that of the state. What is the benefit of this project? It is verifiable that through the help of the US Embassy, the hospital has been able to attract support from the world acclaimed Susan Koerman bosom Cancer Foundation and other international donors. In Nigeria, the project is being supported by SHELL, FLOUR MILLS,UBA, WAMPCO, NETCOM,AP,NOKIA,TRIQUEST,DELTA AFRIK, MONI PULO, JAGAL, EXXON MOBIL, ACERGY, FIRST BANK, SHLUMBERGER, MIKANO, CHEVRON and SAHARA. It has NOT benefitted from state funds under my watch. So far, in the entire South South, its facilities are unequalled. And as a not-for-profit non-governmental organisation, majority of its services targetted at women and children are absolutely free. Where does this leave us? Do I hold the state government responsible? No. But let me be clear here, this facility is not out to compete with whatever health programmes or facilities the state government is contemplating, if anything, it is to complement those efforts. I hope and pray that even with this confusion, we can still find a way, work together to benefit our people. Thank you. Donald

Gbawe: Precisely . Add charisma and panache to the list as well. Duke has been ruffling feathers to no end of late . I doubt he has anything to hide because he is acting more like Gani Fawenhinmi of late . Speaking vehemently against the PDP and Jonathan (more or less calling him a coward) during the recent cabal hijack of the Nigerian Presidency means , in Nigeria's where politics of blood and vengeance overrides good governance,  Duke must now pay for his "insolence".

Jonathan is now slowly showing his hands as some of us suspected he would. Mr. Beaf (Jonathan's main propagandist on Nairaland) where you at ? I don't know when Nigerians , including some who are very intelligent , will learn that accidental and/or selected leaders rarely ever make good leaders.

Chib4u:

The problem is most of his supporters have never lived in Calabar. They are seriously blinded by their desire to see a well spoken handsome or beautiful Nigerian president address the UN or giving a titivating interview on CNN. The said hospital is a private hospital with the sole aim of making profit. The building where the hospital is built was once the NRC's state secretariat(a state government property). He sold it to his wife and actually did the same to SDP's secretariat which he sold to one of his fronts and former commisioner for lands and survey Ndem and the place is now called Axari Hotels.

Sorry for going off topic but i challenge anyone that lives or lived in calabar to denie these points that am about to make

Donald Duke recent cry for electoral reforms etc makes me laugh; Donald Duke masterminded and executed one of the biggest electoral malpractices ever witnessed in the state. To call the 2003 general elections an election is an understatement and a joke. This is a man who did not spare any power as an incumbent governor to crush and wipe out the opposition. Little wonder how a state where ANPP produced twelve State House of Assembly members out of twenty five, three members of the House of Representative, one senator and several Local Government Council Chairmen/woman at the 1999 elections ended up not winning even a single ward election during the 2003 general elections. His supporters have also forgotten his constant display of power against the opposition. With the constant suspension and arrest of ANPP state house members, Orok Duke (not saying he’s a saint) for aligning with the few remaining ANPP members that refuse to decamp or his onslaught on ANPP LGA Chairmen that refuse to decamp e.g. Daniel Asuquo (Dansuki), Eyo Okon Eyo etc. His personal fiat against the/any opposition would surely be established if he ever becomes president. This is the same Donald Duke that is talking of reforms.

Tinapa. Yes Tinapa which Donald Duke prides himself as the architect is nothing but a big failure. A project that was set to fail from the onset, a project that has left the state in a huge debt. Lamenting over the precarious financial situation of the state, Imoke said, “We have been supplementing the shortfall because we had to fall back on our savings. But that has dried up. Cross River is insolvent. We carry a huge debt burden, ”
Tinapa was built on exaggerated and wrong-footed feasibility study report. I still can’t get around the idea of building a business resort/free trade zone when we have an Export Processing Free Trade Zone in Calabar already. Now following the failure of projections, it has become extremely difficult for the state to fulfil its basic functions for the people of the state, as interests are chopped off from its monthly allocations by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), thus whittling its revenue base. This is an example of a bad administrator. Talking about the leisure side of Tinapa, what impact has it made on the life of the common man? How many nollywood movies have been shot from that studio? I don’t buy the idea of using the state’s money in building a place for the rich and the above average citizens. With the amount of money and debt involved this particular project is a failure and it was done in such hurry-scurry because of his dictatorial rule in the state.

Just realise that this is getting long so I will just leave the “Donald Duke is our Obama/best candidate for 2011” with a few questions.

At this time in our country, do we need a man known for his tribalism as the president of our country? Judging from his sacking of all non indigenes from the state civil service. Am pretty sure we know what the constitution says about people that were born or have lived in a certain area over a period of time. Can that act be carried out in any developed country without the president, governor or mayor been called Racist etc.? I wonder how some of you will feel if you lost your job of ten or even twenty years just because of your nationality, colour, religion or tribe.

Do we need a nepotist as our president or do we pretend we can’t remember who handled the contracts for the Calabar Carnivals?

What happened to the NRC state secretariat (State owned building) on Murtala Highway? I hope you know it has been turned into a private hospital (not charity) own and manage by his wife, Onari. If this isn’t nepotism then I don’t know what it is and he swore to an oath never to practice it. Before his so call super intelligent supporters support this action with sentiments like “It’s a public- private partnership” The state government (public) has denied and has no records of such partnership and before you say it’s because of bad politics, Duke should show the world the MOU between the two parties. Even if it’s a public-private partnership, why should the private part be his wife or a member of his family? How am I not sure that he won’t privatize NNPC and sell it to his wife if he becomes president.

Who bought Metropolitan Hotels Ltd (Calabar and Ikom) for N200 million even when General Ukpo had offered to buy the same property at N600 million? The same metro that was renovated for Nigeria 1999 at N400 million. Metro was valued at N2 billion. If Metro was sold at a loss of N2 billion in public funds, what was the rationale behind the decision? Is government not constituted to safeguard the overall interests of the people? In what way does the act of foregoing 2 billion naira amount to safeguarding the overall interests of the people? Does the act of foregoing N2 billion of public money amount to transparency in the conduct of public business?

Where did Donald Duke get the money to build ADMIRALTY TOWERS (three sets of high rise luxury flats) located at No. 9A Gerard Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.? Where did he get N555 million to buy the property at No 1 Temple Road, Ikoyi Lagos? Am sure the above mentioned groups have forgotten the court cases between him and the occupier who was a Chief Judge. Check this archives from Thisday and Punch http://odili.net/news/source/2008/apr/15/413.html or http://odili.net/news/source/2008/apr/30/221.html .Based on his official salary and entitlements, a governor shouldn’t be able to afford that unless he has obviously done the obvious.

Basically all am trying to say is, the man is just a normal politician, I don’t think there’s a difference between a small thief and a big thief. He’s not our political messiah. Sorry a leader cannot be excused for too many slips, even a slip in a true democracy has damaged a lot of politicians. The above mentioned groups tries/ keep trying to sell him as an epochal dawn in our national politics, as for me Donald Etim Duke is a normal Nigerian Politician. We have a messiah out there but is definitely not Donald.

The said hospital is a private hospital with the sole aim of making profit.

Obo Boco:

i went through this post and all i could do is shake my head, because i don't know what to call you ( the writer) i don't want to be biased but i must say, that YOU DON'T KNOW poo of what you are saying, i may not know about donald duke's properties in lagos state, but if you are talking about  CALABAR i must say you are very wrong, i have also lived in calabar all my life till i went for service in lagos which i am not yet through with, you just painted a very funny picture here, to make light on you i suggest you go do your findings again or go back to school, to start with you have no idea about the OBONGSHIP in cross river state and i am not even going to start saying anything thing about it, its a good thing i did not change my user name so if claim you know calabar so well and the obongship history the user name name should ring a bell in your head. thats all i have to say, for the tinapa issue you are only making noise about the debt and how only the rich and people living above average can go there simply because you don't know how to calculate your exchange rate, how much do you pay for swimming pools in lagos and abuja nothing less than 1500 or even two thousand, meanwhile the swimming pool in tinapa goes for only 1000 for adult and 500 for children which is very reasonable compared to the ''state of the art'' equipments you have there, the t-mart shop, though their prices is in dollars, your exchange rate calculation should make you know that the items there are even cheaper than the one you get in the watt market and marian market, so pls when next you want to run your mouth make sure that you know what you are saying so that you will not end up embarrassing yourself, stop making assumptions from a distance, try to go closer to know the real picture of things, from my user name, you should be able to do your findings and i am saying all these with so much confidence because am a regular in tinapa and all those places you mention in calabar, when you can't part with a simple 1k for state of the art swimming pool, how do you expect the state to be able to generate revenue for themselves not to talk of paying their debts. if you must know am a GREAT DAUGHTER OF THE SOIL, and i will say over and over again DONALD DUKE DID WELL FOR THE STATE, something that you can't even do if given the opportunity. so pls stop bleeping.

mama-gee:

Police should arrest every Nigerian governor, they are all corrupt.

I don't get why Donald Duke is the only governor being picked on.

jokingmary:

Are you alright?

Obo Boco:




i went through this post and all i could do is shake my head, because i don't know what to call you ( the writer) i don't want to be biased but i must say, that YOU DON'T KNOW poo of what you are saying, i may not know about donald duke's properties in lagos state, but if you are talking about  CALABAR i must say you are very wrong, i have also lived in calabar all my life till i went for service in lagos which i am not yet through with, you just painted a very funny picture here, to make light on you i suggest you go do your findings again or go back to school, to start with you have no idea about the OBONGSHIP in cross river state and i am not even going to start saying anything thing about it, its a good thing i did not change my user name so if claim you know calabar so well and the obongship history the user name name should ring a bell in your head. thats all i have to say, for the tinapa issue you are only making noise about the debt and how only the rich and people living above average can go there simply because you don't know how to calculate your exchange rate, how much do you pay for swimming pools in lagos and abuja nothing less than 1500 or even two thousand, meanwhile the swimming pool in tinapa goes for only 1000 for adult and 500 for children which is very reasonable compared to the ''state of the art'' equipments you have there, the t-mart shop, though their prices is in dollars, your exchange rate calculation should make you know that the items there are even cheaper than the one you get in the watt market and marian market, so pls when next you want to run your mouth make sure that you know what you are saying so that you will not end up embarrassing yourself, stop making assumptions from a distance, try to go closer to know the real picture of things, from my user name, you should be able to do your findings and i am saying all these with so much confidence because am a regular in tinapa and all those places you mention in calabar, when you can't part with a simple 1k for state of the art swimming pool, how do you expect the state to be able to generate revenue for themselves not to talk of paying their debts. if you must know am a GREAT DAUGHTER OF THE SOIL, and i will say over and over again DONALD DUKE DID WELL FOR THE STATE, something that you can't even do if given the opportunity. so pls stop bleeping. 

EzeUche:

^^^^^^

No, because he is running for president you dunce.