Chukwuma Ereke
The governorship candidate for the Labour Party in Bayelsa State, Engr. Udengs Eradiri, has expressed deep concern about Bayelsa’s ranking as the second-poorest state, following Sokoto, in the multidimensional poverty index.
Eradiri, during an interview with SpringNews in Yenagoa, lamented that Bayelsa’s poor performance in various economic and developmental aspects was clear evidence of the failure of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Governor Douye Diri’s administration.
He noted that the PDP and Diri lacked a solid campaign foundation and could not comprehend the extent of poverty in the state, despite Bayelsa’s relatively small population and substantial revenue from multiple sources.
Eradiri attributed Bayelsa’s challenges to years of poor governance, incompetence, greed, extravagance, and policies that did not benefit the people. He insisted that the current government had no effective strategy to address these issues.
He questioned why Governor Douye Diri and the PDP were seeking reelection, citing a recent report from the National Bureau of Statistics and data technology company StatiSense, which highlighted the extent of multidimensional poverty in Bayelsa.
The report revealed that a significant number of people in the oil-rich Niger Delta states lived in poverty. Eradiri expressed his disappointment with the situation, emphasizing the failure of PDP leadership in Bayelsa since 1999.
Eradiri stated, “Bayelsa has the red flag in all developmental indices. It will shock you to know that 2.61 million people out of the 2.9 million people are languishing in abject poverty. This is to say that 88 per cent of our population are extremely poor despite the humongous resources and revenue coming into this state.”
He went on to point out the irony of Bayelsa, an oil-rich state, being ranked second after Sokoto, a desert, in terms of poverty. Eradiri concluded that the upcoming election offered the people an opportunity to replace Governor Diri and the PDP, emphasizing that they had not acted in the best interests of the state and its citizens.
Eradiri firmly stated, “Diri and his party have no business seeking reelection.”