by Uduak Udom
In the course of my periodic review of archives of Nigerian newspapers, I happened on a recent interview Mr Donald Duke, former governor of Cross River granted to Thisday. While I took much of what Duke had said with a pinch of salt, there was one particular comment he made that really got me upset and set me on a course of calling Donald Duke to other, especially as it seems the comment passed unchallenged thus far.
In response to a question on Boko Haram, Duke veered off-point and began to rant about Niger Deltans. Hear him: “We tolerated miscreants from the Niger-Delta and even elevated some of them to the highest heights of prominence, dining and wining with criminals and anarchists in the name of political expediency”. It is clear that Duke is referring to beneficiaries of the Niger Delta amnesty.
As a proud Niger Deltan and someone who knows Duke too well, I just couldn’t take this lying low. So, I thus proceeded to gather my facts together and do an Open Letter to Mr Donald Duke, just for him to check himself and get a grip. Now read on:
Article continues after the photo
Mr Duke, please cease and desist from denigrating your fellow Niger Deltans. From what many people know too well, you lack the legitimacy because you never supported anybody that succeeded in politics. And you never even worked for anybody to succeed. You have only been interested in working for your own success; and your envy is rekindled each time you fail to get your way in politics. As I see it, what seems to be eating you up is your failure to have your way in the just concluded elections in Cross River.
In your serial abuse of your fellows, you even, in the same interview, called Ugba Murphy and Etubom Nya Asuquo, two prominent Cross River elders ‘drunken minions’. How dare you, Mr Duke? This is reminiscent of the abuses you had also hauled at your godfather, Clement Ebri, a highly respected former Cross River governor. You forgot that it was Clement Ebri who picked you up from being a failed customs clearing agent and made you a commissioner for finance on a platter.
Mr. Duke, have you forgotten that you met Ebri because you were then recommended by a kind customs officer to clear Ebri’s new Mercedes. The recommendation was an act of mercy propelled by the abject poverty ravaging you at that time. Yet, in a strange demonstration of envy and sadism, you went on to later seize Ebri’s land in Calabar once you became governor.
The subject of your unprovoked sadism even extends to your other benefactor, former governor Imoke. To you, Mr. Duke, Imoke’s only sin was that he dared aspire to run for the 2007 Cross River governorship. You didn’t want Imoke to run but was too scared to tell him to his face. It never mattered to you, Mr Duke, that you were yourself running for President in the same 2007. Yet, propelled by your prodigious envy, you tried all you could to stop Imoke by bad-mouthing him to Obasanjo but OBJ knew you too well. Little wonder then that you had failed to stop Imoke.
Finally, Mr. Duke, regarding your condescending comments against the PDP, let me remind you that you have no locus to be commenting on PDP internal affairs because you formally resigned in writing from the party. Recall that you had proceeded then to join the Labour Party. But whence you got your fingers burnt in LP, you quickly turned around supplicating to PDP leaders in your Ward/LGA to be forgiven and allowed to re-join the party but, as you very well know, nothing officially came out of it. As of now, you cannot even sustain the claim that you are legally a member of PDP.
Uduak Udom is a social and political commentator, and a proud Niger Deltan. He can be reached by email.
The opinions expressed in this email are solely those of the author.
