He accuses the former governor of favouring military rule over democracy that the nation now enjoys.
Presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has accused another candidate, Donald Duke, of fighting to keep the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha in power when Nigerian youths were agitating for democracy in the 90s.
The late Abacha had overthrown the transition government of Chief Ernest Shonekan in 1993 and ruled the country with an iron fist, with several allegations of human rights abuses under his belt, until his mysterious death in 1998.
Duke was a member of the National Economic Advisory and Intelligence Committee under the Abacha regime, but he was also later a member of the G-34 political movement that challenged his military rule for a return to democratic rule.
However, while speaking at a summit, "African Leadership In The Millenium", a part of Felabration 2018, in Lagos State on Monday, October 15, 2018, Sowore said the former Cross River State governor campaigned in support of Abacha's regime while other youths in the country campaigned to ensure the return of democracy.
He said, "We should not forget that young people intervened to drive the military out of power. There's a man who didn't come here today. I heard he bailed out: Donald Duke.
"I would have loved to meet him and just remind him that in 1997 or thereabout, he was one of the people who was chanting that Abacha must remain in power. Donald Duke was part of the 'Abacha Must Stay' people.
"When we were younger, in our 20s, we fought to drive the Abachas out of power. We fought to drive Babangida out of power. In 84 days, we drove Shonekan out of power when he illegally cornered the position meant for MKO Abiola. But nobody is studying us in history books. We're studying criminals. We're praising criminals."
After Abacha's government fell in 1998, Duke went on to serve as Cross River governor between 1999 and 2007. He's contesting in the 2019 presidential election on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), same as Sowore who's contesting on the platform of the African Action Congress (AAC).
Buhari is a useless man - Sowore
Sowore further took a stab at one of his biggest opponents at next year's polls, President Muhammadu Buhari, noting that history has been kind to the people that destroyed Nigeria.
He said Nigeria has no future if any of 75-year-old Buhari or 72-year-old Atiku Abubakar, another strong contestant, is allowed to emerge victorious in the 2019 presidential election.
He said, "Sometimes, we don't celebrate our own. We don't celebrate the contributions that we've made at different times in this country. And that's why I think they don't teach history anymore. Because if we had history in our curriculum, somebody would have taught our children that Obasanjo is a bad person, that Babangida is a thief, that Atiku was a Customs officer who made it by stealing, that Buhari is a useless man. We didn't need Donald Trump to tell us Buhari is lifeless.
"But here we are in 2018, there is a debate about who to choose between the worst and the baddest. And we're all here still romanticising about what Nigeria should be in the future.
"Let me tell you, Nigeria has no future with these guys. It's the truth. We have no future because people who destroyed your past cannot guarantee you any future."
Sowore said Nigerians cannot hope to simply have power voluntarily transfered from one generation to another and must fight for it through a deliberate revolution.
He pointed out that the system is rigged to keep the old establishment in power and that Nigerians must resist it so as to actualise the country of their dreams and not the one of their ineffective leaders.
"The solution is a revolution. We're not going anywhere without adding the revolutionary fervour to this coming election," he said.
The 2019 presidential election, scheduled for February 16, 2019, is expected to be keenly-contested between Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) who served as vice president between 1999 and 2007 and lost in the 2007 presidential election.