Former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, has said he will contest for presidency in the 2019 election. Duke, who declared his interest for the job at the third Mike Omotosho annual lecture titled: ‘Mellinials as Protagonists in Nation Building,” on Sunday night in Abuja, promised to kick-start the process at the right circumstances. According to the governor,
“I am entitled to run for the presidency of this country. I am entitled to it. Only on right circumstances I will aspire for it. I don’t shy away from responsibility, only the right circumstance, I will aspire for presidency of this country. I have what it takes to be president of this country.” Duke, however, challenged the youths to fully participate in the electoral process by getting their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and sensitising others ahead of 2019 general election, rather than loafing around, looking for who to heap their problems on”.
The former governor continued…
“It was high time Nigerians begun to project people with the technical know-how to take the country to the Promised Land.” He said: “I hear young people say to me that why would there spend hours queuing and casting their votes when at the end their votes won’t count. And I tell that if their parents conceived them they never gave up on them considering the high mortality rate so why would there not take a chance in building this nation?
We had young leadership at one stage or the other. Even in our first republic, besides the likes of Awolowo, Tafawa Balewa, M. T. Mbu was in his twenties when he became a minister. “Gowon was 30 when he became the head of state. It comes back to the disaster therein because most of them didn’t have experience in governance, which led us into war. We need the combination of both.What I think we should be doing is to ensure a government that is youth-friendly to provide opportunities because we need to groom the next set of leadership” he said.