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As part of my serial on the performance of past governors of the states of Nigeria, I decided recently to turn my searchlight on Cross River State. My purpose is simply to compare and contrast the two previous gubernatorial (Duke versus Imoke) administrations of the Cross River; and tell the public what my findings revealed. I will tell the story without any fear or favour.
My hope is that by pointing to ‘gubernatorial’ misdeeds of the recent past, Prof Ben Ayade, the current governor can glean some lessons and proceed from there to do his best for Cross River, while consciously avoiding anything that might taint his good name.
This essay therefore is a chronicle of my investigative report of the administrations of former Governors Donald Duke and Liyel Imoke. Below is the summary; and I will take them in seriatim:
First, regarding what a governor should not do whilst in office, I found that during Duke’s tenure, Arab Contractors was working on Cross River state projects the same time it was also building 24 blocks of flats for Donald Duke in high-brow Ikoyi, Lagos. So, even as Liyel might have ignored calls for probing Duke on this brazen act of corruption, it may well be that Gov Ayade would want to look into this.
Second, just before the end of Duke’s tenure, N2b was released in March 2007 for Bakassi. Just as soon, this humongous sum disappeared as Duke hastily proceeded to pay the ‘contractor’ 100 percent without even a public tender, talk less of any structural design; and nothing was ever built. But on assumption of office in May 2007, Liyel had to source for money elsewhere to build the Bakassi project. Needless to say that it is very likely that Buhari’s anti-corruption federal government will soon look into this.
Third, during his heydays as Governor, Duke awarded and made full payment of N600m for Idundu bridge project. The Contractor, evidently unqualified but curiously favored by Duke, proceeded to do only piling works, which soon collapsed because it was substandard. Vintage Duke never raised a whimper. Better yet, in the end, the contractor could not continue but the rest of the money earmarked for the project disappeared with nothing to show for it, all under Duke.
Fourth, regarding Duke’s infamous beef with civil service salary increase made by Imoke, the true story is this:Â During Duke’s reign, Cross River was amongst the States with the lowest paid civil servants; and that’s simply why Imoke promptly increased their salaries on assumption of office. Duke continues to be bitter just because he didn’t have the good heart to attend to the salary increase throughout his eight years; and he couldn’t take the praises Liyel received for doing what was right.
Further, Duke’s anti-civil servant tenure was dogged by many strikes, and justifiably so. The record shows that Duke arbitrarily sacked civil servants. It is instructive that the Courts have since reversed all of those sacks he made. But on a more strange note, a couple of weeks before Duke left office in 2007, he signed a law that dramatically increased the wage bill of political appointees; and he maliciously left it for Liyel to implement.
Finally, the good people of Cross River need to ponder this: Where did Donald Duke get all the billions of Naira he lavishly spent on his failed (and ill-advised) presidential run in 2007?
Odey, a moral crusader writes from duncanodey@gmail.com