Eradiri warns Diri against Bayelsa zoning remarks

Nathan Tamarapreye

Former Bayelsa governorship candidate and ex-President of the Ijaw Youths Council, Udengs Eradiri, has cautioned Governor Douye Diri against making statements that could inflame political tension over the zoning of the state’s governorship seat.

Eradiri warned on Friday that Diri’s alleged suggestion that the next governor could emerge from either the Eastern Senatorial District or the West risked creating confusion and reopening a debate many political stakeholders considered settled.

Speaking on the zoning arrangement, the former Bayelsa Commissioner for Youths and later Environment maintained that the governorship should naturally rotate to the Eastern Senatorial District, in line with the state’s established political understanding.

He noted that the Central Senatorial District currently holds the governorship through Diri, while the West had previously produced a governor who served for eight years.

According to him, although the East had produced two governors in the past, the district had not collectively completed eight years in office, making it the rightful zone to produce the next governor.

Eradiri, who is from the Central Senatorial District, questioned the basis for including the West in the succession debate.

He argued that while some advocates of the West relied on the local government structure to justify their position, Yenagoa, as the state capital, would have a stronger claim if such considerations were applied.

He lamented that Yenagoa had not received the political recognition and development it deserved, having never produced a governor since Bayelsa’s creation.

The former IYC leader said many political actors had already accepted that power should shift to the East, warning that reopening the debate could generate avoidable political tension.

“The West has produced the governor for eight years and the deputy governor for another eight years. So it is naturally the East that the pendulum is swinging to,” he said.

“So, when the governor, who is our political leader, begins to sit in the middle, then it becomes a recipe for chaos.”

Eradiri stressed that comments from Governor Diri, as the state’s political leader, would carry significant weight in Bayelsa’s already sensitive political climate.

He added that any attempt to alter the zoning arrangement could force politicians who had aligned with the East’s turn to reconsider their political calculations ahead of the next governorship election.