Former Cross River State governor and presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Donald Duke, has declared that Nigeria’s economy will not benefit from a continuation of the economic policies of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, calling instead for imaginative and strategically designed policies to drive growth, develop the country’s natural resources and reduce poverty.

“The Nigerian economy will not benefit from the continuation of the Tinubu administration’s economic policies,” Duke declared.

He said Nigeria need’d a fundamental shift towards an economic model that would turn its vast natural and human resources into productive assets and make the livelihood of Nigerians the central objective of economic management.

“The strength of our economy will be reinforced by imaginative, strategically designed policies that address growth,” Duke said.

Duke said such policies must develop Nigeria’s natural assets while harnessing its human capital to build a productive economy capable of creating employment, raising incomes and improving living standards.

“Nigerians deserve an administration strategically designed [with] policies that address growth and alleviate the current crushing level of poverty,” he said.

The PRP candidate also rejected what he described as “pandering debates” over the economy, urging Nigerians to demand informed and growth-oriented policies capable of producing tangible improvements in their lives.

“The nation must move beyond pandering debates to adopting well-informed and growth-oriented policies,” Duke said.

He proposed a different yardstick for measuring the performance of the Nigerian economy, saying government revenue and foreign reserves should not be allowed to overshadow the economic condition of citizens.

“The yardstick of measuring the wellbeing of our economy shall not be based on the manipulated volume of our foreign reserves, but rather on employment indices and income per capita,” he said.

Duke’s position comes as the economy becomes one of the principal battlegrounds of the 2027 presidential contest, with the Tinubu administration defending its reforms while opposition candidates seek to make economic hardship and the cost of living central issues in the campaign. The race is increasingly being framed around competing assessments of the government’s economic reforms and their effect on households.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Anambra State governor Peter Obi have also mounted competing criticisms of the administration’s economic direction, offering alternative arguments on production, investment, public spending and citizens’ welfare.

But Duke’s intervention goes beyond the political exchanges over individual policies.He is arguing that the real test of economic management should be whether Nigeria’s resources are being converted into productive capacity and whether citizens are becoming better off.

Duke was particularly critical of the government’s handling of the fuel subsidy question, arguing that the subsidy arrangement that preceded Tinubu’s administration had been replaced by what he described as a poorly managed option that benefits government finances while worsening the economic burden on citizens.

“The fuel subsidy scam which preceded the Tinubu administration has been replaced by an even more poorly-managed option which makes more devalued money for the governments, impoverishes its citizens and depletes the economy,” he said.

His criticism comes as the Tinubu administration continues to defend its economic reforms as necessary measures to correct longstanding distortions and strengthen public finances, while opposition forces argue that the reforms have imposed excessive hardship on Nigerians.

Duke, however, said the country needed to move beyond the familiar arguments and subject economic policy to what he described as “scrutiny and enlightened growth-oriented policies.”

He said the PRP would place the productive use of Nigeria’s natural resources and human capital at the centre of its economic approach.

For Duke, the objective is ultimately straightforward: an economy that produces jobs, raises incomes, develops Nigerian assets and improves the quality of life of citizens.

“Quality of the livelihood of Nigerians shall remain our goal,” he said. (Nigerian Tribune)