Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Donald Duke has lamented that Nigeria has become so desolate that bandits and kidnappers now collect taxes.
“The fault is of the political class for the country’s predicament. It is time the common man took reins of power,” he said.
Duke spoke in Abuja while presenting Certificates of Return and party flags to the PRP candidates for the 2027 elections.
“Our land has become so desolate that bandits, gangsters and kidnappers collect taxes while the government collects excuses,” he said. In 2025 alone, a report by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics revealed that about ₦2tn was paid as ransom to kidnappers, an amount that is equivalent to about 10 per cent of the entire federal budget.
All this because our leaders have failed to do the right thing, when it was the right thing and for whom it was the right thing. At the end of the day, the best politics is and always will be doing the right thing, not the expedient thing. And he who does not know what is right has no right to lead others.”
He vowed to create a nation where “farmers return safely from their fields and where every child has a desk and chair in a decent learning environment.”
The mission of the PRP is to empower ordinary Nigerians and not political elites, Duke said, explaining that the elite has had their turn in leadership.
“The scavengers are finished. It is now the turn of the common man, the true Nigerian, market woman, farmer and the unemployed graduate. And I, Donald Duke, want to champion them.
“This fight is going to be hard and bitter, because they will fight back. But we are tougher, more resilient, and our cause is both right and righteous. “We stood together to win our independence from an empire, together we can redeem Nigeria from these scavengers,” he said
