Former Governor of Cross River, Donald Duke, says it’s “failure in leadership” for President Bola Tinubu to acquire a new presidential jet at a time Nigerians are hungry.
Last week, the Presidency through a senior aide, Bayo Onanuga, had confirmed the arrival of a new presidential jet for the Nigerian president.
According to Onanuga, Nigeria procured an Airbus A330 to replace the 19-year-old Boeing B737-700 acquired under former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
But, Duke condemned the move.
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“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,” he said while featuring on Inside Sources, a Channels TV programme, on Friday.
“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.”
On the security challenges facing the country, Duke, the governor of the South-South state between 1999 and 2007, asked the president to hold heads of security agencies responsible.
He said: “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.”
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