Udengs Eradiri from Agudama Ekpetiama in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State is the Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate for the November 11 governorship election. As a former student union activist and a dye-in-the wool Ijaw activist, Eradiri who had been a two-time Commissioner and recently a Special Assistant to the MD of NDDC on Youths and Sports Matters believes he has what it takes to lead Bayelsa.

Why are you running for governor?

I have decided to partake in the forthcoming Bayelsa November 11 governorship election because I have seen the nakedness of neglect of politicians and leaders towards the governed. And having gone through the process of learning and exposing myself politically and otherwise, I think I am mature enough to take leadership in my state; I am 47 years old. I was born March 22, 1976. And if you look at it, I am not too young, I am at the prime time when I should be at the saddle of leadership. If you look at the world today, it is people of my age bracket that are presidents and governors and those who make decisions in the world.Having gone through the needed exposure, I have decided to participate in this process so we can give direction to Bayelsa state.

Bayelsa State as we speak is going through a lot and all our problems are saddled on the shoulders of leadership. We lack competent leadership in Bayelsa, if you compare Bayelsa to every other state in the country, you will discover that we are backward in every index and yet we are supposed to be the richest state.We have had trillions of naira over the years.You want to compare Bayelsa with states like Ebonyi and Gombe; these states don’t receive one- tenth of what we take home every month. But go to Ebonyi and come back to Bayelsa, you will be shocked.In fact, you will be wondering whether you are on this planet earth. We are light years behind. All this is as a result of leadership and I think I will no longer be part of those who will complain but would not take actions and it is that action that has brought us to this point.

What are your priority areas?

The issues that bedevil our state are education, economy, infrastructure.Our educational institutions are in a sorry state. There are no teachers in primary schools in Bayelsa. Those who are even teachers, their welfare is next to nothing.Businesses are closing down in Bayelsa, people are leaving this town, don’t let anyone deceive you, people are being targeted and kidnapped. These things just happen and people have come to the point that nobody cares anymore.I have come up with a very precise agenda to deal with the issues that bedevil our state.I called it the PEAP agenda.The first P is the people, I believe that if we get Bayelsans back on track, if we can re- energise the people, the state will get back on track.So, working with the people running a participatory leadership, once the people realize that it is their contribution that will lead to a better society, then you will see all Bayelsans waking up and bringing their best to support the government. No government will succeed without the people and that’s why the most priority agenda in our leadership is the people.

We are going to be looking at health care, the people need to be happy. Go and look at the hospitals in Bayelsa. It is in a mess, in a very sorry state.Several people are dying daily in our medical institutions because they lack the basic amenities to deal with health care.

Look at the sanitation and water situation in our state. There are no proper drainages, the sewage system is something else, people are left to fend for themselves whereas we should have a proper living environment designed deliberately by the leadership in the state and so we are going to be dealing with water and sanitation.How can we have a state surrounded with water and yet there is no water to drink in Yenagoa. We are going to deal with the water challenge and how we are going to do it, we are going to get water from a natural source, purify it and pump it to the streets and houses in Yenagoa.We are going to set up meters so that we can create an economy by providing water for the people.

We are going to be looking at the educational sector and that’s why the next E in that PEAP agenda is Education. There are no teachers in primary school in Bayelsa, so we are going to employ teachers, train and ensure that their welfare package is one that is enviable by other sectors. We will upgrade the educational facilities in our schools. It is only in Bayelsa that they still use slates, chalks and blackboards to teach children. In every other place, it is electronic displays that are used to teach.We will upgrade the facilities and we are going to build the university village where there will be accommodation for lecturers, students. We are going to run a special scholarship scheme where all you need to do is to sign a bond with the state, a bond that will serve for 5 years or as the case maybe and take you anyway in the world especially for those special skills where our state is lacking, so that when you come back, you will be able to serve the state , when serving the state, your children will attend public schools because our public schools will be one of the best in our country. Nobody builds six classrooms anymore, people build edifices, interesting environment for young people to be able to learn and so the educational facilities will be upgraded; we will look at the curriculum, so that we can bring in skills development, the world all over, people are talking about skills and technical knowledge that is the type of education we are going to be bringing to our state.

As I speak to you, the Epie school in Kpansia, the secondary school and primary are sharingthe same facilities so the primary will start in the morning and the secondary in the afternoon in a state where we have received over a trillion, you can’t even imagine. Any day there is a burial, there is no school. So, the children of the poor have no hope as far as they are in Bayelsans, that must stop.

The second A is agriculture, it is through agriculture we are going to stimulate the economy in Bayelsa.Sugar cane is growing untamed in Southern Ijaw, we are going to produce sugar in Bayelsa. I have seen what is done in Brazil and Argentina. In Rwanda recently, I was given sugarcane as sugar and I told him, I am going to produce sugar in Bayelsa.If I gather Southern Ijaw women and ask them to give me 1 litre of sugarcane, I will give you one million naira, you can imagine the quantum of sugarcane that will be harvested. There is no woman in Bayelsa that does not have sugarcane in the backyard. So, if we decide to use sugarcane to create wealth, we are going to reap the fruit of these benefits quickly.We are going to have the Bayelsa Microfinance bank which we would fund with N500 million every month to support small scale businesses in Bayelsa.After one year, everything we will eat, we will produce it. Pepper, tomato, onions, we are going to produce them in Bayelsa.You remember how I turned the water sector in Bayelsa. Before every water, bread, fish, eggs used to come from outside Bayelsa and I did a proper engagement while I was the IYC president by reaching out to the stakeholders and public and we stopped those items from entering Bayelsa. Today, we have created 10,000 jobs. Go and see the water factories and the number of people employed in that sector. Over 75 percent of eggs today are produced in Yenagoa. Cat Fish is produced in Bayelsa. It was not like this before. People left banks to open bakeries. So if I can do it as a youth president, imagine me being a governor and working with the Labour Party, that is the people’s party, we are going to turn around his state.

In agriculture, it is not the rice farm that they will go to Sampou and Peremabiri, can’t you see that over the years, no significant progress has been made in those areas, because the people are not rice growers. The original rice growers are the Otuokpoti peoples in Bayelsa State, when we were young, everybody used to come down to buy rice in Otuokpoti .

A simple analogy is that Lagos which is not a rice growing state went to Kebbi and invested in Kebbi State because Kebbi people are rice growers, today the largest rice mill has been built in Lagos from that partnership. So why should I be doing Sampou and Peremabiri rice programmes without any progress with all the money invested. If you take the money to Otuokpoti and you talk to the women and the people, the successes will attract other people to copy from them to other communities, we are going to feed the nation from Bayelsa.

It is possible , look at the environment, we are going to build a rice processing storage facility in Bayelsa airport; the airport itself is a cargo airport so we must take action to make that airport useful to our people. It means every banana, plantain,fish, crayfish that we can find to be excess we can channel to the airport to the processing storage and export and if our government working with the people , educate the people about the benefit of the food processing facilities in the airport, we will get our people to begin to change their mindset and get the economy that Bayelsa State badly require to get back on its feet. We are going to reboot Bayelsa State.

We have a 60,000-ton cassava processing facility in Ebedebiri; we have built a road to Ekeremor, very wonderful road but are the people actually taking advantage of the road to create wealth in the economy and bring agricultural produce to the market or to bring cassava to the cassava processing facility; no is the answer. There is a lot of value chain attached to cassava processing that we can use to change our economy in Bayelsa but the people are disconnected with the government and so they are not taking advantage of such an expensive investment that the state has made. When we take the leadership in November, we are going to educate the community people, put the women together and get the Microfinance bank and get the right institutions that would give our people cassava stems and support the communities to grow Cassava for the purpose of export and creating economy and jobs for our young people.

We have the Bayelsa Palm, that is moribund, that is a place that can employ and create a robust economy for this state.We are going to invest in that place and build more farms. These are low hanging fruits for our government to create an economy for our government to create jobs and make this place less hostile for people to live in.

We have 1500 fish ponds in Igbogene that have been taken over by weeds. In that facility, fish drying oven, hatchery, fish mill processing machines. In that facility, if we have two youths by pond, we will be talking about 3,000 people out of the street.There is another one in Ayama that has been overtaken by weeds, when we take over government, these are low hanging fruits to stimulate the economy and create jobs in Bayelsa, the blue economy from the Brass Ocean is also very key. This is the reason why the Brass Road is important and should not be used for politics.It is important we get a road to Brass, the biggest and largest economies are ocean based nations. So, it is important we ensure the road gets to Brass so that we can tap from the ocean and reduce the pressure on Yenagoa.

The last P is power, thank God former President Muhammadu Buhari while leaving signed into law the current administration is making a priority that every state can produce power. If NCDMB, an institution of government can buy 11 megawatts power plant and power Bayelsa State Government House, their facility and surrounding houses and other infrastructure around there, is it 11 megawatts that Bayelsa state cannot buy, we are going to buy 22 megawatts dedicating 11 megawatts to industrial area because we are going to set up industrial area where we can grow the economy.

How would your government handle security?

The Labour Party government that would be in charge of Bayelsa would be proactive with security. We shall ensure that every business, every household shall install a security camera. I went to a friend I bought drinks from in Kpansia and asked him what happened to his legs and he narrated to me how some boys came to kidnap him and how they were shooting guns and nobody came to his aide. This is another failure of leadership. When we take over, we are going to create the needed awareness and revive the morale of our people such that everybody is his brother’s keepers. We shall provide inspirational leadership to the people. As a government, we are going to have eyes everywhere. Once criminals know that it is difficult to get away, crimes will reduce.

What does governance mean to you?

As leaders and custodians of resources of the people, why should I be celebrated for building roads, what then is my responsibility. What is the job description of a governor? The governor’s position has certain duties, so why should I be involved in the payment of salaries? If the Commissioner for Finance does not ensure salaries are paid as at when due, then he has no business being Commissioner. The allocation we get is enough to take care of salaries. The economy is so bad that parents cannot pay the school fees of their children. We will revive the economy of our state and that is why we are using this medium to introduce to Bayelsans a people- centered government.

There are talks that you are a proxy for another candidate

There are different stories flying that Eradiri is a placeholder.I don’t know why people will believe such talks of who bought me my form, I am 47years, it is my generation that should be in leadership and when you are 60years, you are supposed to be retired.

This election is for the young people. I am only belling the cat.It is left for the young to decide whether we would continue in this manner. There are no jobs, 13 – 14 years old girls have moved into prostitution in Bayelsa.Ritualists are on the rise in our state. They said it is Yahoo- Yahoo, it is just to embellish it but they have turned our youths into ritualists. Our youths no longer have hope in the country. People are graduating but there are no jobs. I am not unemployed. I have been able to build and develop myself to a point that I would be useful to society. But if all of us leave and face our businesses, who are going to bell this cat; who is to ensure our economy is revived, to create jobs for the young people, we are not even up to 600,000. The government should be deceiving itself.

Is it true that you have a personal vendetta with Governor Douye Diri?

Well, the issues I have raised have nothing to do with personalities. I have talked about the lack of teachers in our primary schools, it is nothing personal. I think that my generation is well prepared and can take on the challenges of Bayelsa State. It does not have to do with who is governor whether it is Senator Douye Diri or not. I am from Bayelsa Central and with the type of politics we play, we do rotational politics. In Bayelsa Central, we have Southern Ijaw, Yenagoa and Kolokuma/ Opokuma Local Governments Areas. Southern Ijaw has produced a governor, Kolokuma/ Opokuma has taken the first four years that have been squandered, we want a balance and that is why I am here.In any case, the governor seat is not a private seat to the incumbent governor. Government resources have not been properly channeled for the benefit of myself and children and I think I can do better. That is why I am here. Yes, we served in the same state executive council and we may have had our own differences but this has nothing to do with election. I believe I am qualified for the governor’s seat. And if I take the seat, I would be able to do better. Yenagoa has not felt anything from the state leadership.I just told you about a school that shares shifts in this 21st century and we have a government that money is given to solve these challenges and it is not done. I don’t have the money that they have but I believe I have the capacity to make Bayelsa decent and livable for everybody.

I can tell you that the Labour Party is going to win this election. We are going to win this election because the poverty in the state is massive.(Daily Sun)