Duke says his cabinet may have no politicians if elected in 2027
- PRP presidential candidate Donald Duke said competence, not political reward, would guide his appointments.
- The former Cross River governor spoke in an Abuja interview on Tuesday about his 2027 plans.
- He also called for a suitability test for candidates beyond the constitution's eligibility rules.
Donald Duke, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), has said his cabinet may contain no politicians at all if he is elected in 2027.
Duke, a former governor of Cross River State, said in an interview in Abuja on Tuesday that the country's problems are too deep for a government built on political patronage.
"If I am going to pick a cabinet, you may not find any politician in that cabinet," he said.
He argued that filling a cabinet with politicians means a president is already thinking about the next election rather than about results. "If you perform, the people will support you," he said.
What he wants voters to weigh
Duke said the 2027 race should be about what each candidate will do about the economy, insecurity, unemployment, education, healthcare and the justice system, not about personalities or party structures.
He pointed to his time as Cross River governor from 1999 to 2007, saying his first election was hard because he was introducing himself, but by his second term his record did much of the campaigning. He said incumbents who still spend their time explaining their achievements after years in office should be judged on their work.
The PRP candidate also said Nigeria's constitution sets out who is eligible to contest but says little about who is suitable. He called for a "suitability matrix" so that leadership is not "a free-for-all where everybody enters and the most popular person wins."
He compared choosing a president to a football manager picking a team for a big match: "If you want to win a Premier League match, you put out your best eleven."
Duke said he could not claim to be the best candidate, saying voters would decide, but that he wanted to offer an option because past choices had been too narrow.
He named education, health, justice and security as areas where a president cannot afford mediocrity, saying the job of government is to make Nigerians more productive.
He also criticised the country's elite, saying wealthy Nigerians who move around with sirens and security guards are not as safe as they think while many around them remain poor.
"Enlightened self-interest should make us look beyond ourselves and consider the wider community," he said.
What happens next
The 2027 general election is still ahead, and Duke's comments signal the kind of campaign he intends to run. For ordinary Nigerians, the test will be whether his promises on jobs, security and the cost of living turn into clear plans they can weigh against other candidates.
