From Judex Okoro, Calabar

 

Former governor of Cross River state, Mr. Donald Duke, has stated that bad leadership recruitment, which has produced a food-on-the-table mentality had caused the state the loss of almost a generation.  

Duke, who stated this in Calabar shortly after being inaugurated as chairman of the People’s Democratic Party Campaign Council in the state, said when they came to run, they came with a purity of heart to get our state right, but regreted that things are much worse than it was when he came in.

Duke, who served as governor between 1999 and 2007, advised the electorate not to promote people behind their capacity.

According to him, when we promote people above their capacity, the state will be short-changed and everybody will suffer

He said: “In our state, almost a generation has been lost with this food on the table generation. We now have food on the table generation. So, this is not an enviable time to govern the state and it’s much worse than when we came in.

Related News

“Our desire at the time we came was to prove it could be done. We did not campaign on the basis of where you came from but on the basis of what we could do for our state.

“It’s nice to have your brother or sister or clansman in good positions but never promote people beyond their capacity because all of us will suffer for it and you short-change the entire state.

“We have seen this happen repeatedly in our country and state where people for selfish or almost clandestine reason get elevated beyond their capacity and everyone suffers.

“Very soon, there will be a change of batten. So, is this the kind of state we will hand over to our children? It’s embarrassing, our dolly must come to an end,” Duke stated.

He extolled the qualities of the PDP governroship candidate, Prof. Sandy Onor, saying he has the capacity to do the job and he has no doubt about him.

On his part, Prof. Sandy Onor said everyone would be carried along and advised “party-men to keep working hard, do good works because their time is coming.”