NIGERIA NEEDS URGENT INTERVENTION TO AVERT DISASTER – DONALD DUKE

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party in the upcoming 2027 elections, Donald Duke, has raised the alarm over the state of the nation, calling for an urgent intervention.

The former Cross River State governor, who stayed in office from 1999 to 2007, noted that if the nation’s trajectory isn’t attended to in the next four years, it could be plunged into further crisis.

He made the call in an interview on Arise News on Tuesday, as he lamented the country’s slow economic growth, collapsed security architecture and poor governance.

“The direction the country is going requires very urgent intervention. In another four years, if we don’t change the trajectory, disaster—which is already looming—will deepen further,” he stated.

“A combination of all. The economy is broken; it’s not growing. Call it Boko Haram, call it ISWAP, call it banditry or kidnapping—those are the fallout. Those are the symptoms of inadequacy. We have not grown the economy; that’s one. Governance is poor. In the last 20-plus years, there has been very little governance going on—a lot of politics and no governance,” the PRP presidential candidate added.

He recalled the scandal on the alleged establishment and operations of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council involving the council’s purported Director-General, Adeniyi Adeyemi.

“The recent scandal where someone sets up an office in the Federal Secretariat that is not an institution of government shows there is poor governance in the system. Nothing speaks louder than that. So you have poor governance as a derivative of leadership, and you have an economy that is just not growing. How can you grow an economy with interest rates in the upper 30s?” he wondered.

Duke revealed that his decision to run for the presidency stems from concern over the country’s direction, saying, “It’s the urgency—the clear and apparent urgency of where we are today. You could be a spectator and make all sorts of analysis, or you can get involved.”

The PRP presidential candidate expressed concern over the proliferation of political parties in Nigeria, calling on them to unite to chart a new course for the country.

“I’m a member of the ruling party, as it were, so automatically I’m in the opposition. Ideally, the opposition should come together. The reason why you have a stable democracy in the Western world is that you have primarily two major parties. It’s either/or. We have a splintered opposition with a common goal, but it doesn’t work that way. I want to be the voice of reason, because eventually, I think we all have to come together to decide where this country will go. The egos at play… we need someone who can speak to these egos, because we are in a bad place,” he urged.

Duke hinted further that to govern a country like Nigeria, one needs to have competent and effective hands on his team for productivity, as he noted the stark difference between politics and governance.

While reflecting on his political record as a former governor, Duke said, “Two things. First, your record speaks of your intention—the intention to leave a place better than you met it. That’s my record. The second thing is, when you are governing a country like Nigeria—multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-everything—it’s a command role. You must look for the best hands. The politics is over; now go to governance.

“Each appointee of government must have one credo: make sure you leave this place better than you met it. Make sure that you don’t shortchange the country in the process of governance. We bring politics into governance; no, they are two different things. Politics is a necessary step, because by going through politics, you get to better understand the country. If I aspire to leadership, as I am, I’m going to have to put together a great team—a team that can take us to where we ought to be, not mediocre performers simply because they were chanting ‘Donald Duke for President.’”