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Implicit in contesting in 1999 and 2003 on the PDP platform.

Duke was elected in 1999, re-elected in 2003, and served two full terms to 29 May 2007, handing over to Liyel Imoke.

To reposition a low-oil state around tourism, hospitality and clean urban management rather than allocation dependence.

The administration redeveloped the Obudu Mountain Resort and launched the Obudu Ranch International Mountain Race, started the Calabar Carnival in 2004, made Calabar a byword for the cleanest city in Nigeria, and built the Tinapa Business Resort, on which over US$350 million was spent before phase one opened in April 2007. Tinapa struggled commercially after Duke left office, so the strategy's long-run payoff is contested, but the tourism brand endured.

To manage state money transparently and plan for lean years.

In September 2006 the BBC reported Duke as the only governor specifically named as not being under EFCC investigation. In 2005 he set up a special state reserve fund to hedge against economic downturn. No corruption case followed his tenure.

To protect the state's interests as the Bakassi Peninsula dispute with Cameroon was resolved.

The International Court of Justice awarded Bakassi to Cameroon in 2002 and Nigeria completed the handover in 2006. Cross River lost its coastline and, in a later boundary adjustment, the 76 oil wells that had been attributed to it were reassigned to Akwa Ibom — sharply cutting the state's derivation revenue. This was driven by federal policy and an international ruling rather than by the governor, but the loss fell on his state.