Former Cross River State Governor and presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Donald Duke, has said President Bola Tinubu’s governance has exposed weaknesses in the political structure behind him.

The former Cross River State governor spoke on Monday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

Asked whether Tinubu is politically stronger now than he was in 2023, Duke said he did not think so, arguing that the President no longer enjoys the level of sympathy he had during the last election.

“I don’t think so, I think his governance has exposed the weakness of the contraption called APC. I don’t think he has the sympathies he had in 2023,” Duke said.

He said the economic hardship facing Nigerians had left many people disillusioned with Tinubu’s style of governance, with hope giving way to despair.

“Things have gone harder for people, a lot of people are disillusioned by his style of governance, hope has turned into despair. Yes, you talk about structures and all that but I think on the election day they will be fighting for their own survival,” he said.

‘Tinubu Weak On Governance’

While acknowledging that Tinubu is a formidable politician, the PRP presidential candidate said his major concern with the former Lagos State governor was his style of governance.

“Give it to him, he is a formidable politician, my issue with him is governance not politics. He is weak on governance, from what we have seen over the last three years he is very weak on governance,” Duke said.

Duke said Tinubu did not deserve another four years in office, arguing that the country was already in a state of disaster as a result of what he described as poor governance.

He warned that allowing Tinubu to continue in office while poverty increases year after year would take the country further in the wrong direction.

The PRP presidential candidate said he would put in place a better governance structure than Tinubu’s if elected president in 2027.

‘Divided Opposition Will Lose To Tinubu’

Despite his belief that President Bola Tinubu can be defeated in the 2027 election, Duke admitted that a divided opposition would struggle to achieve that.

According to him, Tinubu would win the election if the opposition remains divided, although he would still emerge as a minority president because he would not secure a majority of the votes cast.

Duke said the opposition must find a way to unite and prepare for possible challenges that could affect the outcome of the presidential election.

“The reality is that things are bound to happen on that (election) day, how to mitigate those things should be the major concern of the opposition. I don’t like people who cry wolf after it has happened and all that. We have done this several times over, we should anticipate it, and united we stand if we do it, if we don’t, then we will only have ourselves to blame because it has repeated itself,” he said.

Willing To Step Down

Duke also expressed his willingness to step down from the 2027 presidential race for any candidate agreed upon by the opposition to challenge Tinubu.

Asked whether he would be willing to step down for another candidate, Duke replied: “Absolutely. First of all, once we have commonality in objective, the next question is who is best suited for this? You need some voice of reason amongst the lot of them.” (Channels TV)