Nigerian politicians weaponise poverty – Eradiri

Udengs Eradiri was the candidate of the Labour Party in Bayelsa State in the 2023 governorship election. In this interview with SAMUEL ESE, the former Bayelsa Commissioner for Youth Development shares his thoughts on the challenges confronting the state and proffers solutions

You have been in the politics of Bayelsa State for quite some time and you have had your experiences. Looking at the state, do you think Bayelsa can be better than this?

Bayelsa can be better than this if we have a leadership that is serious about taking the right actions. In agriculture, education, power, economy, we can be better. It’s just a response from leadership. Bayelsa can truly be great if we have people who understand, if we have leaders and they do their job.

Talking about leaders who can do their job, do you see the present administration as meeting the yearnings and aspirations of the people?

They don’t and can’t meet the yearnings of our people. That is the reason I contested, seeing what they did in the first four years – lack of direction, lack of understanding of the issues. What we had were leadership incompetence and misfits in position. They didn’t understand what they were doing and that is the reason why I decided to challenge it. Having been deceived, I thought that the anger expressed by the people during the campaign would translate into good. Unfortunately, it was the money they were looking for. So, on Election Day, those who graduated many years ago, without jobs, left a better alternative and took money. Now, those same people are complaining. Who are they complaining to? They have been paid. The people must go through what they sold for a few thousands of naira.

Don’t you think the issue revolves around the type of politics played in Nigeria?

Nigerian politics is about weaponising poverty. That is what every governor is doing. They take the power; they don’t do what is necessary so that when the crumbs come, people will jump at it. Gradually, the country has snowballed to a point where people are desperate for money, no matter how little. People are looking for what to eat now. They even embellished it with what they call stomach infrastructure. That is the danger. So, you can’t have a leadership that will be elected because there is a manifesto and people have been able to assess the conduct of individuals over the years – because your conduct from five, 10, 15, 20 years ago will tell what you will be tomorrow. So, if I want to contest an election, my conduct should show people if I can do this job or not, because I would have been involved years back – in business, in government, in public space, to be assessed by the people whether I am fit for a certain category of office that I seek for.

In Bayelsa State, there has always been this complaint about food insecurity, and the government has always said that it is rolling out some programmes in agriculture to ensure that the issue of food security is addressed, but up till today, the state is still bedevilled by the issue of food security. What do you think can be done to address the issue of food security? The leaders are not prepared. Where are the budgets of the last four years, and the appropriation for agriculture in the last four years? Igbogene fish farm was talked about in agriculture. I saw the new commissioner going to inspect a dilapidated facility on TV, in social space. So, what happened to the four years? The cassava processing facility that by now should have been processing cassava is not functional. The Bayelsa Palm that is producing oil that can be used to turn our economy around has been mortgaged to some elders in the state who are not using the place to add any value to the state. Rather, they are just selling the palm and putting the money in their pockets. Where are the Bayelsa trawlers and the fish? Bayelsa has a 45,000-bird poultry farm at Ebedebiri. Grass is now growing there.  Because nobody is held accountable, everybody is doing what they like. If you talk, they will bribe the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Where are the taxis to deal with the transportation crisis? They removed subsidies and talked about taxis. Where is the Igbogene facility – the transport logistics base? It was the talk of the campaign. It’s overtaken by weeds. Nobody is held accountable.

How would you rate Governor Douye Diri’s administration?

They just started the second tenure. The first four years were a failure. I can’t rate them now. I’ve just counted all the issues. They say the state is secure but security in an environment attracts development. How come the so-called ‘security’ is repelling development? All the wealthy ones in the state are buying houses in Abuja and Lagos, relocating their families. The indices are saying otherwise. They are taking a road to Brass. I don’t know if it’s still on, but it’s a good one for them to maintain it because it didn’t start now. Even before I was born, they started dreaming of that road. The Ekeremor Road is headed to Agge, but they stopped it at Ekeremor, the same way ex-Governor Seriake Dickson left it. It has not gone to its destination – Agge; so you set up a blue economy ministry but the access to the ocean is not there yet. So what will the ministry be doing? I was behind the Government House at New Yenagoa City; the wonderful roads they’ve done there. I give the government kudos for it. They did well in the area of roads. So, you can say you are going to Otuan, Oporoma. By the time he finishes and another person takes over, the next thing we are at the ocean. Authority not used is authority lost. When Dickson was in office, he touted the idea of the Agge Deep Seaport project, but unfortunately, the project has yet to take off. The road is beautifully done to Ekeremor, but the destination is Agge. While going to Agge, all those communities, Aghoro, Egbema-Angalabiri, become open to the hinterland. The agriculture in that area has expanded because the land there is not too flooded. Serious agricultural activities can begin there because the land does not get flooded because of the terrain. The raffia palm in that axis can now be used for distillery. So, you can’t talk about Agge Deep Seaport without the road that will move materials for the construction of the seaport to make it cheaper. If I were him and resources were limited, I would quickly hit Brass. Then we can start tapping into the ocean economy while focusing on Agge Deep Seaport. So, you can’t jump the gun and start a blue economy in Agge when the first thing to activate the economy is the road.

Some people have looked at the idea of concession for such projects because of lack of funds. Should this be applied?

If you were a businessman, would you bring your money to Agge when there is no road? Some dots must be connected. There was a time they said they were bringing some Chinese firms. The last time I checked, Bayelsa had no five-star rating on booking.com. That alone is a turn-off for investors. There is no three-star. So, these infrastructural dots must be connected. Let me cite an example. The South is very fertile, but if an investor comes for agriculture, they prefer to go to the North. Over the years, the Minister for Agriculture has always been from the North. They have used that for foreign interventions to prepare the northern land. They clear it and prepare irrigation canals to move water over the hot desert and land. There are silos in the North to store grains. The investors know that in the South, they will spend too much on agriculture when they have not started clearing, but if he goes to the North he will go straight to planting and start harvesting. What the governor needs to do is to clear the land so you can sit here and see Agge. You can’t do a Public-Private Partnership without the enabling environment that would support the PPP and the money that will be invested. The governors have been travelling over the years, going abroad to woo investors. I can assure you that no investor will come. It’s a waste of resources, time, and lack of understanding of the environment where you are a leader, to go abroad to call investors. When I was the Commissioner for Environment and I was looking to attend the climate change conference, the first three things I did was to set up an ICT department in the Ministry of Environment and a team that would set up a website and input our environmental pictures and activities. It’s because when you go to such a platform, people can enter the internet and ask the AI to tell them about Bayelsa. You don’t sit down and call people to dinner; meanwhile, when they check your state, it is a forest. Investors put money where they can yield profit in the fastest possible time. For return on investment to be quick, infrastructure must be prepared on the ground. If one wants to come to Yenagoa, he can’t because only United Nigeria Airlines flies once a week (Monday morning). It’s a turn-off because they can’t access your state.

Do you mean that from all indications, Bayelsa is not ready?

Bayelsa is not prepared. As a governor, you need to look at what to do quickly. You should figure out how to get Air Peace and other airlines to be flying into Bayelsa. At a time we had two flights from Lagos – Ibom Air and United Nigeria. Can’t you see that local content has left Bayelsa? The building is just here, but all major activities are outside Bayelsa because people can’t come here. They’ve just set up liaison offices in Lagos and Abuja. So, Lagos customers will go to their office in Lagos when in the real sense they should come to Yenagoa. Now, local content is trying to build a hotel because they know the hotel will serve the oil companies that will come here. The government has not seen that the institution is on the verge of pulling out, especially with an unfriendly Federal Government. They’ll use these excuses to pull the institution out. We should be building estates around that area to support the workers. Over a thousand workers are supposed to be in that place.

Finally, do you see any hope for Bayelsa?

The current governor seems to have lost his track. He says he wants to buy aeroplanes. It’s not a bad idea. But, you see, when Ibom Air was to buy aircraft, they didn’t start with the airline. They had Dana and Arik running that place to establish a route. Then Ibom Air started building a terminal that would accommodate the influx of people. They built hangars where the planes would be parked and repaired; minor repairs could be done, so it was like a plane garage. And then the airline put the necessary roads around the environment so that when they were ready to get the airline, they set up Ibom Air, not the airport management as we have here.

Once the aforementioned is done, you can now move for the licence. Get the licence then they can bring in their planes and start operations.  But where is the Bayelsa Air or Izon Air?  Do they have a licence? Where is the terminal that will handle the cargo?

If you are running your cargo airport, other planes will be coming naturally and will be struggling for the Yenagoa route because of the delivery you have created on Yenagoa. If you build a teen park and a zoo, people will want to spend the weekend in Bayelsa. Planes will be struggling when they see that everyone is coming to Bayelsa.