In this interview with , governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Bayelsa State in the 2023 elections, Udengs Eradiri, bares his mind on the feud between suspended Rivers State Governor Siminilayi Fubara and the FCT minister, why Bayelsa State and the Ijaw nation are missing out

As leader of the Ijaws, as it was evident in the last few weeks when the issue of Governor Siminalaye Fubara and Nyesom Wike came on board, you could see that political differences that had nothing to do with the Ijaws, but because the Bayelsa State Governor got involved and, Sim being an Ijaw man, he got involved, and it became an Ijaw issue when ordinarily it was a PDP affair. I know how I was chastised when I raised my voice and said, look, the issue was a political issue that needed a political solution and not drumming up wars of ethnic sentiment. But, I was abused by everybody that I had sold out. But I said I’m an APC man, this matter is a PDP issue. At the end of the day, Sim listened to what I said and went back to beg his boss. So, I said okay, since Ijaw people feel that anything PDP, anything a governor does is Ijaw issue, even if he has personal enemies; so if the enemies of political leaders of Ijaw nation become Ijaw enemies then they should go and make friends so the gains of friendship can rub off on the Ijaw nation.

(Cuts in) If he does not beg Wike, what will he do? Who is Sim without Wike? Look, it is even disloyal on the part of an Ijaw man to bite the finger that fed him. That’s what Sim did nau. In three months, you begin to bite the hand that fed you. Don’t you see where it has led to? The only option is for him to go back and apologise to his leader. Me, I don’t tolerate it o! I don’t know those people who were fanning the embers of this. Wike may have whatever excesses that he has, but three months? Who is Sim? In your life, did you hear about Sim before? This guy brought you in, collapsed all interests to say you should take care of everybody. In fact, the worst part is that Bayelsa State Governor, who is supporting him to disrespect his boss, has the longest serving commissioners because of respect for agreement. Bayelsa State House of Assembly members who have four terms – they don’t do more than two terms in Bayelsa Assembly, but there are people with four terms because of the agreement. You know, all of us are supporting you, so you will give these people back their assembly seats. He said, ‘yes sir.’ He did not change one. About 90 per cent of the commissioners in Bayelsa were from the former governor. Go and find out. The Commissioner for Finance is the longest serving commissioner in Nigeria. Go and find out. It’s because he respects his boss. Why is he encouraging Sim to disrespect his own boss? That is my position. Was I not a commissioner in the last government? So, what I’m telling you, I’m not telling you what they told me. I’m telling you what I know. You respect your own, you will send a private jet to go and carry him, but you want your brother to disrespect his boss. And then when the heat comes, you say its Ijaw problem and then ban Wike. Wike should not come to Bayelsa, but you cannot sustain the airport in Bayelsa, you are going to fly plane from Wike’s Ikwerre land. What kind of people are these? And then you you create problem for the ethnic nationality whereas it is your political crisis. Wike PDP, Diri PDP, Sim PDP, George Turnah PDP, the state assembly PDP. It’s a simple party crisis, but for incompetence, they have turned it into Ijaw matter. Ijaw people should come and fight. That is not correct. So my brother, the only solution for him is to go and kneel to his boss and say, forgive me because this thing about political structure is very difficult to handle. If you don’t have capacity you cannot manage political interest, and a governor must be somebody who has capacity to manage both state resources and political interest. Sim does not have that capacity. That is why he can say ‘my spirit has left government.’ What about the people that supported you? What about those who have been standing with you? What about all the people who have died because they stood firm for you? All of a sudden your spirit has left. That is all and the supporters become enemies of the state because when the other people take over they will witch-hunt your people. But, as a leader, you stand and negotiate with them so that your followers – I didn’t want to become a commissioner because I was Ijaw youth leader. I was Ijaw youth president. I said no, why would I go back and begin to serve government?  But, I had supporters, I had followers. If I didn’t take it, how would they survive? How would some of them get appointments or get employed? These were the considerations that made me take that decision to accept government appointment. It was people who were supporting me. If I am an engineer who is getting my due where I am working, what about my supporters?

From what we see today, the appointments concerning the Niger Delta, how often do you have Ijaw leaders also on that sharing table? It’s between Akwa Ibom because the Senate President is there and Wike. All the appointees of Ijaw in the government came from Wike. But, you need your people to also seat on the table. When the president calls for a meeting today, and APC leaders are seated to discuss the progress of Nigeria, how many Ijaws are seated on that table? Check it out. But, if you have a governor, he will be seated on that table. You have a senator who was a former governor, Senator Dickson; he will be seated on that table. Douye Diri was a senator, he has friends across board in the APC, so on that table that they will be seated to discuss they can now bring Ijaw interest. So, at that point, the things that concern the sharing formula in Nigeria – we produce the oil, we sustain the country, but are we strategic enough to be seated on the table of sharing so that the political dividend that is distributed can also be given to us believing we have people there who can sit down there and also discuss? So, you can see that when they are discussing these things; we have a petroleum minister, he is not on the table. We have NDDC MD, he is not on the table. Former Governor Sylva who is a leader of the APC in Bayelsa has also lost favour in the system so he is not called to the table. So, we are totally absent. But, if we have a sitting governor in the party, if we have a former governor and senator in the party, don’t you think when the president says, the Nigeria Delta people, come and sit down they will also be seated? But now, when you call former governors to come and sit, and leaders, Wike will be seated as a former governor. He is representing the Ikwerre ethnic nationality. If you check the statistics, you will see that he has empowered his people because first thing is self-preservation. You preserve your people. When you call leaders, former Governor Akpabio will be seated as Senate President and former governor. So, he will first speak for his people. Go and check the statistics, you will see the number of Akwa Ibom people who have been empowered by this government, not because Tinubu does not like the Ijaw people, but it’s because on the table of discourse, as politics is done, if Niger Delta issues will be on the table, they are the leaders in that meeting. So, where are our own leaders in the meeting as Ijaw nation? So, my call is not to chastise any of them, but to highlight this position. I’m a man who always looks at things practically and objectively. If I need anything today, I’ll have to go and meet Wike or Akpabio. But we say we are the fourth largest ethnic nationality in Nigeria. When Wike said that we are a minority, is this not what he meant? We were ranting everywhere, oh Wike has insulted the Ijaw people. Did he insult the Ijaw people? He just told you that you are a minority in the affairs. And, indeed, we are not even a minority. We are absent. You know what I mean. So, we need to be on that table and to be on that table, our leaders who have attained that status must not be in the opposition doing those things, but we must be part and parcel. So, if the Ijaw enemies, even the governor’s enemies, the governor general’s enemies become the enemies of the Ijaw nation, let him also go and make friends so that his friends can be friends of the Ijaw nation.

If the Ijaws and Bayelsa State move to the APC, there is the fear of creating a one-party system in Nigeria. Don’t you think it will have implications for our growth, political growth?

I mean now Delta State has moved to APC, Akwa Ibom has endorsed Tinubu for 2027 and from every indication, the governor will move. Now, if all of them move, do you think we have the capacity to manage a one-party system in a country as diverse as Nigeria?

It’s not about a one-party system. You are mixing it up. The point is, is there an opposition? There’s none. The people that call themselves opposition are not serious. I was in the LP; I left because as a young person growing old, I can’t be wasting my time running around with people who are looking for which person’s money they will take.

So, is it the Ijaw people that will now be on the other side fighting the system? Do we have capacity? We don’t have it. Do we have the capacity to organise ourselves as a party or do we educate ourselves politically to be able to run an opposition? Do we have the economic strength? Have we been able to take over economically? Look at what APGA is doing. APGA is strong because they have an independent economic source of livelihood in their environment where individuals are richer than the state. So, if they agree and come together, they can successfully manage a party. That’s why they’ve been able to manage the APGA to this level. But, our people are too poor individually to be able to sustain an opposition. Yes, we are too poor. Before you say Jack Robinson, people are running here, running there. The leaders have not been able to build the economy, the very ingredient to sustain the opposition, the very ingredient to run a political party in economic strength.

Go and see the Republican Party, go and see the Democratic Party. They have economic strength. They have shared America into two, the blue and red. And, that blue and red is not about politics itself, it’s about economic power. Those are the economic forces that are at play in politics. Do we have those economic forces to be properly articulated in Nigeria where we can successfully run an opposition? We don’t have, my brother. Nigeria doesn’t have let alone the Ijaw nation, especially Bayelsa. And for Bayelsa, individually, people are so poor that you can’t even pick one person that can successfully put one billion on the table and say he wants to do an election. So first, deal with the economic issues and that’s why I have been very critical about the incompetence in leadership in my state. Deal with the economic revival of the people. You can now start having decent political engagements. And, that is the problem Nigeria faces. We don’t have an economic environment where people are surviving without any attachment to politics. Go and see all the businessmen; they have political affiliations left, right and centre, and most of their wealth are all traced back to politics. So, it’s difficult to have a formidable opposition that can withstand a government in power because what are they doing in government? It’s just the money, the resource they use to sustain the politics. So, if the economy does not have people who are deep pocket players that have no business with government, it will be difficult to have a virile opposition that can withstand the system. You can see that President Tinubu is one person who has been in business over the years both in and out of government. What he did was to mobilise businessmen together and they brought resources that they used to bring down the Goodluck administration. So, it was about the economic power that they were able to use to sustain that battle. Do we have it that we want to be doing one opposition in Bayelsa or in Ijaw land? It’s not possible.