Ayodeji Ake
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Donald Duke, has said the disappearance of Nigeria’s middle class reflected the deepening economic crisis in the country, warning that widespread poverty, unemployment and insecurity were pushing the nation towards state failure.
Duke, who spoke in an interview, yesterday, said many Nigerians who previously considered themselves financially stable were now struggling to meet their basic needs, leaving them vulnerable to economic shocks and emergencies.
He argued that the country’s economic difficulties had been compounded by shrinking businesses, inadequate job opportunities and a rapidly expanding population that the economy could no longer adequately support.
“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.
The former Cross River State governor said the widening gap between the wealthy and the poor was an indication that Nigeria’s economy was failing to provide the conditions necessary for a decent standard of living.
“You have perhaps one per cent who are genuinely wealthy and then a huge number of people struggling around or below the poverty line,” he said.
Duke said the situation had become a major motivation for his decision to contest the 2027 presidential election, arguing that Nigeria could not afford to continue on its present path for another four years.
“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 explained that his decision to seek the presidency was driven by the need to move beyond criticism of successive governments and offer solutions to the country’s worsening economic and social challenges.
“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.