Selfish Leadership, Personal Ambition Nigeria’s Greatest Political Problems – Duke

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Donald Duke, has identified selfish leadership and excessive personal ambition among Nigeria’s political elite as some of the greatest obstacles to the country’s development.

Duke, a former governor of Cross River State, said Nigeria had abundant human and material resources to become a prosperous nation but had continued to struggle because successive political leaders often placed personal interests above the national good.

Speaking in an interview on Tuesday in Abuja, the PRP presidential candidate argued that the country’s challenges were not necessarily caused by a lack of resources but by poor management and failure of leadership to prioritise national development.

He said leaders who viewed public office as an avenue for personal advancement would find it difficult to make the difficult decisions required to transform the country.

“Political leaders must be prepared to make decisions based on what is best for Nigeria rather than what is politically convenient,” he said.

Duke linked the country’s persistent economic and security challenges to the failure of successive administrations to address critical issues, including insecurity, unemployment, energy shortages, infrastructure deficits and poor public services.

He maintained that leadership required the ability to place national interest above personal ambition, urging members of the political class to cooperate on issues of common national importance rather than allow their struggles for political offices to undermine collective progress.

The former governor said the problem was also evident within the opposition, where individual political ambitions had often taken precedence over the broader objective of providing Nigerians with an alternative political platform.
According to him, politicians genuinely interested in changing the country must be willing to make sacrifices and subordinate personal ambitions to larger national objectives.

He regretted that the competition for political positions had frequently overshadowed the more important question of how public offices could be used to improve the lives of Nigerians.

Duke said Nigeria needed leaders prepared to take long-term decisions, even when such decisions might not yield immediate political benefits, adding that the country could not continue changing administrations without addressing the structural weaknesses responsible for widespread poverty.

He called for a new political culture anchored on responsibility, accountability and service, insisting that public office should be treated as a trust rather than a personal entitlement.

“Public office should be regarded as a trust rather than a personal entitlement. Nigeria’s leadership crisis is ultimately a crisis of priorities: whether political leaders choose to serve themselves or serve the country,” he said.

Duke also said the country was facing serious economic and security challenges, stressing that opposition parties had a responsibility to present Nigerians with a credible and coherent programme for addressing the problems.

He explained that his participation in the presidential contest was part of a broader effort to contribute to finding political solutions to the country’s challenges.

On the possibility of multiple opposition candidates splitting votes in the 2027 presidential election, Duke acknowledged the concern but argued that politicians should not be expected to withdraw from the race without first establishing an alternative structure capable of bringing them together.

He advocated a process through which opposition politicians could identify common interests, resolve their differences and work towards building a stronger political platform.

“The objective should be to give Nigerians a genuine choice at the ballot box. My political experience has given me a clearer understanding of the challenges involved in governing Nigeria,” he said.

He added that Nigeria required leadership capable of making difficult decisions, managing public resources responsibly and creating an enabling environment for businesses and citizens to prosper.

Duke further said his return to the presidential race was not simply about occupying the nation’s highest political office but contributing to a change in the country’s political direction.

“It is about helping to reshape the political conversation and demonstrating that Nigeria could be governed differently. Opposition politicians should focus less on individual ambition and more on the national interest.

“If political leaders could overcome their differences and work together, the opposition could become a serious force,” he said.