Duke Calls for Urgent National Reset as Nigeria Faces Deepening Crisis

Presidential candidate of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) for the 2027 general election, Donald Duke, has called for an urgent national reset to address Nigeria’s worsening insecurity, revive agriculture, rebuild critical infrastructure, strengthen the education and healthcare sectors, and create a business-friendly environment capable of driving sustainable economic growth.

Duke, a former governor of Cross River State, who recently emerged as the PRP’s presidential candidate amid legal disputes surrounding the party’s primary, said Nigeria was facing a combination of weak governance, ineffective leadership and economic stagnation.

He also called on 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 driven by what he described as the urgency of the situation in 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.

He said the political class must rise above personal ambitions and work towards charting a new direction for the country.

Duke argued that Nigeria’s economy had failed to grow in line with its rapidly expanding population, attributing the worsening insecurity across the country to decades of poor governance and economic mismanagement.

According to him, insurgency, banditry and kidnapping are symptoms of deeper economic dysfunction, stressing that the government must prioritise productive investment, affordable credit, improved security and policies that enable citizens to create wealth.

He said tackling insecurity should therefore 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 designed to attract investment, create employment and stimulate economic activities by building on the resources and opportunities available within 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 from a system centred on government spending to one that encourages production, entrepreneurship and private-sector investment.

He said a national reset must therefore 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 further stressed the need for investment in education and healthcare, arguing that human capital development must remain central to any credible plan to rebuild the country.

He said Nigeria could not achieve sustainable development without equipping its citizens with quality education, accessible healthcare and the skills required to participate productively in the economy.

Duke also called for stronger political cooperation among opposition forces ahead of the 2027 elections, saying the primary objective should be to provide Nigerians with a credible alternative to the current political order.

He said the country could not afford another electoral cycle dominated by individual ambitions at the expense of the national interest.

According to him, the 2027 election provides an opportunity for Nigerians to make a decisive choice on the direction of the country and demand leadership capable of confronting its security, economic and social challenges.