Ex-governor throws hat in ring for Nigerian presidential vote

Another high-profile candidate has announced he wants to stand in the 2019 presidential election in Nigeria but held off declaring which party he would represent.

Donald Duke, a former governor of the south-eastern state of Cross Rivers, told AFP: “I am running. I am sure many will join.”

Duke is a respected politician who was in charge of Cross Rivers for eight years until 2007 and is a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

But he has been linked to a movement backed by former president Olusegun Obasanjo, who has fiercely criticised Nigeria’s incumbent Muhammadu Buhari.

Obasanjo said in January that Buhari, whose fitness to govern has been questioned after he spent months in London last year being treated for an undisclosed illness, needed a “deserved rest”.

Buhari, who like Obasanjo previously headed a military government, had shown a poor grasp of the economy, foreign policy and Nigeria’s complex internal politics, he added.

Another former military ruler, Ibrahim Babangida has equally implied Buhari should step aside instead of seeking a second, four-year term, saying “analogue” leaders should make way for “digital” rulers.