We’re really not in a democracy — Donald Duke alleges as he claims Nigerians were better off in 1999

Peoples Redemption Party presidential candidate Donald Duke has said Nigerians were better off economically in 1999 than they are today, despite more than two decades of uninterrupted constitutional democracy.

Duke, a former governor of Cross River State, made the remarks during an interview on the Policy Without Politics podcast. Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999 after years of military government, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo succeeded then military Head of State Abdulsalami Abubakar.

Duke argued that the country had failed to achieve meaningful economic progress despite population growth and increases in budgetary figures over the years. “We’re really not in a democracy. It’s a facade. And with each cycle, we get poorer,” he said.

“I can say to you very clearly that in 1999, the people were better off than they are today, in 2026. They were much better off. The country was more affordable.” Duke compared Nigeria’s current fiscal position with that of the administration of the late former President Shehu Shagari in the early 1980s.

According to him, Nigeria’s annual budget during the period averaged about $25 billion when the country’s population was roughly 70 million. “Today, our population is anywhere between 200 and 250 million. We don’t know. But our budget is still hovering around $25 billion,” he said.

“We call it trillions because of the devaluation and all that. At that time, the naira was N1 to $1. Today, it’s around N1,400 to a dollar. So, we have not grown.” The PRP presidential candidate also linked Nigeria’s security challenges to economic hardship, arguing that insurgency, banditry and kidnapping were driven substantially by economic conditions.

“Boko Haram, they are not religious fanatics. They’re just economic banditry. Then you have the bandits and the kidnappers,” Duke said. He maintained that the central responsibility of government should be to create conditions that allow citizens to become productive.

“The essence of having a government in place is to ensure the optimal productivity of citizens within a safe and orderly environment,” he said. Duke also criticised the use of foreign reserves as a major measure of economic performance, arguing that employment and productivity provide a more meaningful indication of progress.

“Let’s stop measuring the progress of our economy by the amount of dollars or foreign currency we have in our reserves because that only means that you want to import more things all the time,” he said. “Let’s measure the value of our economy by the number of people who are working.”

He said government policies, including those relating to education, should ultimately be designed to improve citizens’ productivity. “Everything, whether it’s schooling, education or whatever you are doing, should be geared towards the productivity of our citizens. I think that is the kernel of government,” Duke said.