Donald Duke, the 2027 presidential candidate for the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and former Governor of Cross River State, has declared that Nigeria is exhibiting the characteristics of a failed state and warned that the nation’s middle class has entirely disappeared.
Speaking in an interview on Tuesday, Duke anchored his presidential ambitions on the “urgency of now,” asserting that he could no longer remain on the sidelines while the country’s challenges deepened without offering himself as an alternative.
“You get to a point in your life where you say, ‘Either I walk away or I do something.’
“There is no guarantee that you will win. But I don’t want to look back and say that all these things happened and I did nothing,” he said.
Duke said Nigeria could not afford another four years of what he described as its present economic and social decline.
“I talk about the urgency of now because I don’t think we can go on like this for another four years,” he said.
He added that his campaign would focus on policy options and solutions to the country’s challenges rather than personalities.
“What I want to do is focus on those who aspire to lead this nation on addressing the issues that affect us and how we can resolve them.
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“I talk about the options. I talk about the real issues. I don’t want to talk about personalities,” he said.
On insecurity, Duke argued that Nigeria’s security challenges could not be separated from the economy’s failure to create enough opportunities for its growing population.
“If we don’t address these issues squarely and fundamentally, we’re already a failed state. There’s no question about it.
“Look at what is happening — banditry, terrorism, kidnapping and all sorts of conflicts. These are symptoms of a state that is unable, not only to properly articulate its challenges, but to deal with them,” he said.
Explaining his assessment, Duke said the existence of a government and public institutions did not necessarily mean that a state was meeting its responsibilities to citizens.
“What is the definition of a failed state? Fundamentally, it is a state that fails to meet the aspirations of its people.
“You may still have a government and institutions, but if the state cannot protect the people and provide the environment in which they can live productive lives, then it is failing them,” he said.
He added that victims of kidnapping would have little reason to be concerned about academic debates over the definition of a failed state when they had experienced the consequences of insecurity.
“Talk to someone who has been kidnapped. That person does not need you to explain the definition of a failed state. His experience has already told him what failure of the state means,” he said.
Duke also lamented what he described as the virtual disappearance of Nigeria’s middle class, arguing that economic pressures had left many households struggling to meet their daily needs.
“You have perhaps one per cent who are genuinely wealthy and then a huge number of people struggling around or below the poverty line.
“The so-called middle class does not really exist anymore. Many of those we call middle class are only surviving from day-to-day. Let there be one serious emergency and they crumble,” he said.
He said businesses were contracting while new enterprises were not emerging fast enough to absorb the growing number of people entering the labour market.
“Businesses are contracting. New ones are not springing up the way they should. At the same time, we are turning out graduates every year and adding more people to the working population, but there is no work for them to do,” he said.
The PRP candidate also linked poverty and unemployment to kidnapping and banditry, arguing that efforts to tackle insecurity would remain inadequate without addressing the underlying economic conditions.
“When it comes to banditry and kidnapping, poverty and unemployment are at the bottom of much of it.
“We keep reacting to these crises instead of asking what is producing them. We are too reactive in our governance. Governance is not just about today; it is about laying the foundation for tomorrow,” he said.
Duke said another issue the presidential campaign should address was whether Nigeria’s economy had expanded sufficiently to support its growing population.
Comparing the country’s crude oil production with its population growth, he said Nigeria’s economic capacity had not kept pace with the number of people it needed to support.
“In 1980, Nigeria was producing about 2.5 million barrels of oil a day. Forty-six years later, we are producing around 1.7 million barrels, while our population has tripled.
“So you have to ask: has the economy expanded enough to carry the population? Clearly, it has not,” he said.
He argued that Nigeria’s population should be an economic asset if citizens had access to quality education, employment and opportunities to contribute productively to the economy.
“Our numbers ought to be an asset. But a large population is an asset only when you can educate the people, employ them and make them productive,” he said.
Duke warned that continued economic hardship could encourage more Nigerians with the means to emigrate, while those remaining in the country faced mounting pressure.
The presidential candidate said his ambition was also rooted in his decision decades ago to return to Nigeria after studying and working in the United States.
“I had the opportunity in my twenties to remain in America. I went to school there and worked there for a while.
“But I voluntarily decided that was not where I wanted to be. I believe the Almighty put me in Nigeria for a reason. I believe in this country’s possibilities, and this is where I believe I should contribute,” he said.
Duke said the same conviction informed his decision to contest the Cross River governorship election in 1999 and had now motivated him to seek the country’s highest political office.
“I wanted to prove then that we were better than what we were putting forward. From experience, I know Nigeria can be a very successful nation,” he said.
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