The Presidential candidate of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) in the 2027 general election, Donald Duke, has called for an urgent national reset to tackle Nigeria’s worsening insecurity, revive agriculture, rebuild critical infrastructure, strengthen the education and healthcare sectors, and create a business-friendly environment that will promote sustainable economic growth.
Duke, a former governor of Cross River State, who recently emerged as the PRP’s presidential candidate amid legal disputes over the party’s primary, said Nigeria was facing a combination of weak governance, ineffective leadership and economic stagnation.
He also urged opposition political parties to unite and present Nigerians with a credible alternative capable of addressing the country’s mounting challenges.
The former governor warned that unless Nigeria’s current trajectory was decisively reversed, the country risked sliding deeper into a severe social and economic crisis.
Speaking during an interview, Duke said his decision to return to frontline politics was motivated by the urgency of the challenges confronting the country.
“The direction the country is going requires very urgent intervention. Another four years, if we don’t change the trajectory, I see disasters where it is already looming. It will deepen further,” he said.
Duke called on the political class to rise above personal ambitions and work towards charting a new direction for the country.
He argued that Nigeria’s economy had failed to grow in line with its rapidly expanding population, attributing the worsening insecurity across the country to years of poor governance and economic mismanagement.
According to him, insurgency, banditry and kidnapping are symptoms of deeper economic dysfunction. He stressed that the government must prioritise productive investment, affordable credit, improved security and policies that enable citizens to create wealth.
Duke said tackling insecurity should go beyond the deployment of security personnel, insisting that economic opportunities and productive activities must be created for Nigerians, particularly young people.
Reflecting on his tenure as governor of Cross River State, Duke said his administration deliberately focused on agriculture and tourism after identifying the state’s comparative advantages.
He said the strategy was aimed at attracting investment, creating employment and stimulating economic activity by developing the resources and opportunities available in the state.
Duke noted that the Calabar Carnival attracted more than one million visitors annually in December alone, while investments in the Obudu Ranch helped transform the area into a major tourism destination.
He said the experience demonstrated that states could achieve economic growth by identifying and developing their unique strengths rather than relying solely on allocations from the Federal Government.
“Every state in Nigeria has something to sell,” he said, stressing the need for a development model driven by the comparative advantages of individual states.
Duke maintained that Nigeria’s economic recovery would require a deliberate shift away from a system centred primarily on government spending towards one that promotes production, entrepreneurship and private-sector investment.
He said a national reset must address the structural problems holding back the economy while restoring confidence in public institutions and creating an environment where businesses can thrive.
The PRP presidential candidate also stressed the need for increased investment in education and healthcare, arguing that human capital development must remain central to any credible plan to rebuild the country.
According to him, Nigeria cannot achieve sustainable development without equipping its citizens with quality education, accessible healthcare and the skills required to participate productively in the economy.
Duke further called for stronger political cooperation among opposition parties ahead of the 2027 elections, saying their primary objective should be to provide Nigerians with a credible alternative to the current political order.
He warned that the country could not afford another electoral cycle dominated by individual ambitions at the expense of the national interest.
According to Duke, the 2027 election presents Nigerians with an opportunity to make a decisive choice about the direction of the country and demand leadership capable of confronting its security, economic and social challenges.
