Why I want to be Nigeria’s next president, says Duke 

Former governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke, has said Nigeria has continued to lag behind in growth and development due to lack of sincerity of purpose and determination to confront emerging challenges.

According to Duke, his decision to contest the 2019 presidency is informed by the need to lead the path in the restoration and survival of the country, stressing that Nigeria would do better with the right vision.

Duke made the remarks, yesterday, in Enugu, as a guest to the Law Students’ Association (LAWSA) 2018 dinner of the Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria, Enugu campus. He said: “We all agree that we can do better than we are doing currently. The ideas are not lacking. What is lacking is the sincerity of purpose and the determination to get it right. The three things I believe we require are the vision, the will and the attitude.

“The essential element is the will. Agriculture cannot go beyond processing level if you don’t have good policies tied to it; if you don’t have the requisite infrastructure tied to it. For our education, from 1990, we have not updated our curriculum to match the realities of the world. Our healthcare methods are still the way they were in the 60s.

“Our infrastructure is deplorable. Our financing system is wrong. We cannot grow an economy, where in my estimation seven out of 10 persons are unemployed, underemployed, with interest rate regime in the upper twenties.”He lamented that while a lot of young folks would like to start businesses, the system will not allow them do that, stressing, “We need a leadership that is determined to solve these problems.”

He tasked the students: “The country is getting more and more competitive and if you don’t put your best foot forward, you will miss it. Nobody will step aside and say young people should take over. You must work for it. It will be more competitive in the next 30 years.”