Former Cross River State Governor Donald Duke has opened up about one of the more unusual rumours that followed him during the build-up to the 2007 presidential election — a claim that he was an operative of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency.
Duke shared the story while recounting the political calculations and behind-the-scenes events that shaped his relationship with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his own bid to play a bigger role in the 2007 presidential race.
According to him, the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua had approached him before the election about the possibility of forming a presidential ticket.
Duke said Yar’Adua told him that if he emerged as the presidential candidate, he would be willing to serve as his running mate. And if Yar’Adua secured the ticket, he wanted Duke as his deputy.
But before the arrangement could go anywhere, Duke and Yar’Adua agreed to meet Obasanjo at the Presidential Villa to seek his support.
That meeting, however, never happened.
Duke recalled arriving at the Villa only to be told that Obasanjo was not receiving visitors. For him, the situation was particularly strange because of how close he had been to the former President.
“I could walk into Obasanjo’s bedroom, and sometimes he could be like, ‘Come upstairs and see me.’ We are that close even till today,” Duke recalled.
After waiting for some time, Duke eventually left without seeing Obasanjo.
Later that day, he ran into Yar’Adua and former Rivers State Governor Peter Odili at Eagle Square. The encounter left him wondering whether discussions about the presidential ticket were already taking place without him.
Then came something even more unexpected.
Duke said he discovered that rumours were being circulated about him, including one alleging that he was connected to Mossad.
“It was Nasir El-Rufai who started the rumours about me being Mossad, and I confronted him about it,” Duke said.
The allegation, he explained, was particularly damaging because some northern political figures had viewed him favourably, partly because of his upbringing in Zaria and Sokoto.
But Duke believed the bigger issue was his perceived independence.
He suggested that Obasanjo, after failing to secure a third term in office, was looking for someone he could still influence after leaving power.
“Because Obasanjo wasn’t going to get a third term, he wanted a surrogate government,” Duke said.
Ultimately, Yar’Adua went ahead with Goodluck Jonathan as his running mate, bringing an end to the possibility of a Yar’Adua-Duke ticket.
Duke’s account offers a revealing look at the politics behind the 2007 presidential election — a period when alliances, personal relationships, rumours and political calculations could determine who got a seat at the table.
And the Mossad allegation was just one of several remarkable stories Duke said unfolded behind the scenes during that period.
