Former Cross River State Governor and Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) presidential candidate Donald Duke has said that ordinary Nigerians lived better under military rule than they do today under democracy.
Duke made the comment in a recent interview. He said 27 years of civilian government since 1999 have not made life better for most people. Instead, he argued that problems have grown worse while the cost of running a government has become very high.
“The people today were better off under the military. At least governance was not that expensive,” Duke said.
Duke asked whether Nigeria is better off in 2026 than it was in 1999. His answer was clear: “Hardly so.”
He also said Nigeria’s democracy is not working properly. According to him, the opposition is weak and focused on self-interest. Many citizens no longer believe their votes count because election results often do not match what people want.
Duke described the current system as a “facade” that makes the country poorer with each election cycle. He noted that the country’s budget has stayed around the same level in real terms for decades, even though the population has grown much larger.