You heard it here first on IGBERE TV.
Yesterday the former Governor declared his interest to run for president in 2019 in a closed door meeting with other past governor’s and some currently serving senators.
A reliable source disclosed that Duke currently had the backing of two former presidents of the Federal Republic who will bankroll this campaign and offer all other support needed
Find below a brief manifestos and profile
Donald Duke was born on September 30, 1961 at 16 Annesley Street, Calabar, Cross River State of Nigeria, to the family of Mr. Henry Etim Duke and Mrs. Genevieve Etim Duke. He is the fourth child in the family of five children. His father, Mr. Henry Duke, was the Chairman of the Board of Customs and Excise (now The Nigerian Customs Service) between the years 1967 and 1975.
His first foray into the Nigerian political arena was a successful Cross River state governorship bid in 1999, as a founding member of People’s Democratic Party. At 38, Donald Duke was the youngest governor in the country and the capital city of Calabar presents a compelling case study in his process of translating forward-thinking vision into tangible reality, in spite of unfavourable odds. The structural rehabilitation of the tourism, agricultural and education sectors betray a fastidious commitment to excellence and a sensitivity to potential at its ripest and most impactful. The challenges of Nigeria are complex and many-headed, and the path to recovery begins with those same earnest steps he walked as governor, the same motivations which led him to formulate agendas that catered to Cross River’s least privileged, to put work in their hands and electrify homes that had stayed too long in darkness.
In a tribalised country split across fiercely held ethnical lines, Donald Duke’s educational background and considerable private sector experience cuts across the entire country. Born and partly educated in the Eastern region, he attended Secondary School and bagged a law degree in the Northern region, received professional training in the Western region and completed his education in the University of Pennsylvania, USA. In the private sector, he ran a Lagos-based law firm, Onyia & Duke, where he garnered extensive hands-on knowledge of the Nigerian judiciary system. He later assumed full management of the family’s shipping business when he became Chief Executive of Hegeds International Limited, a primer into the intricate workings of running a multifaceted international organization in a competitive industry. Duke represents the archetypal detribalised Nigerian; beyond ethnicity, language, arbitrary borders, the Nigerian who is first, Nigerian.
Donald Duke understands the importance of a major bloc of the country’s demographic, the youth, in deciding the fate of country. His close affiliation with The Future Project and its Nigerian Symposium for Young and Emerging Leaders highlights this perceptive understanding. He will continue to work closely with this bloc to understand their needs and desires. His relatively youthful age bracket and progressive stance on key policy and social issues favourably positions him as a strong alternative for an agitated youth demographic to rally behind in their quest to wrest power from apathetic old guards.
Finally, his public and private sector stints across the country has driven broad networking opportunities and consequently, a peerless Rolodex of influential Nigerians and Africans. All of whom will answer, in a multitude of ways, when called upon.
In an era in which centuries-old alliances are tested, nation-states reconfigured, and much of the post-colonial world is left in a state of upheaval. The questions we have taken for granted as a people rear up at every turn with greater urgency, as we continue our slow, beleaguered stride to meaningful nationhood. But these unique times call for different hands, different eyes. A Donald Duke presidency is an idea whose time has come
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