• Warns opposition division could hand incumbents electoral advantage
Sunday Ehigiator
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and former governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, has advocated an emergence of two dominant political blocs in Nigeria, arguing that a fragmented opposition could give incumbents an electoral advantage under the country’s presidential system.
Duke also called for a review of Nigeria’s constitutional requirements for electing a president, saying the existing electoral framework could produce a winner without the support of a majority of voters.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, the former governor said Nigeria needed to understand the differences between presidential and parliamentary systems and structure its political competition accordingly.
“Those of us in the democratic space in Nigeria today really don’t understand how it works. There are different ways of expressing yourselves democratically. But for the system we run, the presidential, the avenue towards success is different from that of Westminster, for instance.
“The Westminster system, you can have several parties. The ability to form government is, if you’re a minority, if you don’t have all the required number of seats in parliament, you can cobble together an opposition. The presidential is different,” he said.
Duke maintained that a presidential system would function more effectively with two major political blocs representing the incumbent and the opposition, warning that the division of opposition votes among several parties could weaken the chances of challenging an incumbent.
“The important thing is that if you want a proper presidential system of government, you ought to have only two major parties, right? An incumbent and an opposition. Once you, like I said, balkanise or fractionise the opposition, you will lose your ball. The incumbent will always have it,” he said.
Citing the 2023 presidential election, Duke argued that the existing constitutional provisions could allow a candidate to win without securing an absolute majority of votes cast nationally.
“It will still be a minority government. It won’t get the majority of the votes cast on election day. Last time we had about 36–37 per cent,” he said.
He warned that the same scenario could recur in the 2027 general election if opposition parties failed to overcome their divisions.
“So that scenario may replay itself. It may even be less. It may get maybe 25 and all that. But because they are fractured, all you would strive to do is get 25 per cent in two-thirds of the states and a simple majority.
“It doesn’t need to get eight million votes. It could just get 10 votes more, five votes more than every other person. And that is one of the faults with the electoral system. It’s not designed for a presidential system.”
Under Section 134 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, a presidential candidate must secure the highest number of votes cast and satisfy the prescribed geographical spread requirements.
The Constitution does not generally require a candidate to obtain more than 50 per cent of all valid votes cast nationally.
Duke called for a review of the constitutional framework, arguing that Nigeria needed electoral rules that better reflected the principles and workings of its presidential system.
“This is why we really need to revisit the constitution, because those who put it together probably didn’t understand these fundamentals,” he said.
He also criticised the absence of clear ideological distinctions among political parties, saying this had encouraged politicians to move between platforms without firmly established philosophical commitments.
“We don’t have any ideological stance in our politics. They’re just platforms. We have not developed to the point where we stand for certain ideologies. So, these platforms are not ideologically based. And that’s why you have people swarming back and forth,” he said.
Reflecting on the political arrangement of the aborted Third Republic, Duke said there was some merit in the attempt to establish two broad political platforms through the Social Democratic Party and the National Republican Convention, although he questioned the process through which the military government created them.
“Normally, parties form governments. But in this case, the government formed the party,” he said.
Beyond electoral reform, Duke argued that Nigeria needed to redefine the purpose of government by prioritising citizens’ productivity, economic opportunities and security.
“What I find, the synergy I find with PRP, is it articulates something I always believed in, that the main essence, the main function of government is the optimal productivity of our citizens within a safe and orderly environment.
“I think that’s what the government is all about. Not just for people to administer or supervise over people, but to ensure that they are productive within a safe and orderly environment,” he said.
He said education, healthcare and infrastructure should be viewed as investments in the productive capacity of citizens.
“That’s why we send kids to school. That’s why we send them to hospitals. We build infrastructure. All towards the productivity of our citizens. That is the mission statement of the government. It changes the way we see the dynamics of government.”
The former governor also called for Nigeria’s 36 states to develop sustainable economic bases by identifying and exploiting their comparative advantages, rather than functioning primarily as administrative units.
Recalling his tenure as Cross River governor from 1999 to 2007, he said his administration sought to demonstrate that every federating unit could become an economic centre through agriculture, tourism and other viable sectors.
“We wanted to prove a point that it could happen. We wanted to prove that every federating unit in this country could also be an economic unit.
“So, we took our strengths, right? Agriculture, we have incredible land mass. But beyond that, we took a low-hanging fruit like tourism, which everyone thought wouldn’t work. And it worked spectacularly. It can be done. That can-do spirit has been proven before,” he said.
Duke cited Tinapa, the business and tourism project established during his administration, as part of the effort to expand Cross River’s economic opportunities.
“Tinapa was one thing that we built in Cross River. It was a dream. To the extent that it was commissioned a month before I left office, it was successful,” he said.
He maintained that electoral reforms, viable political competition and economic development should ultimately serve the purpose of improving citizens’ living standards.
“Government is to ensure that they are productive within a safe and orderly environment,” Duke said.