By Davies Iheamnachor
PORT HARCOURT: The Media Director of the Tinubu Support Group, TSG, in Bayelsa State, Engr Udengs Eradiri, has stated that President Bola Tinubu has enough political will to develop Niger Delta inspite of the region’s terrain.
Eradiri spoke while reponding to a remark by a former Governor of Cross River State, Donald Duke, on the challenges posed by the Niger Delta’s terrain to development, stating that he (Duke) lacked the knowledge and only playing politics with the region’s future.
He described Duke’s position as reckless and misleading, stating the former governor lacked an adequate understanding of the Niger Delta’s geographical realities and had failed to appreciate how engineering, political will and sustained investment could overcome the region’s geographical challenges.
Eradiri, an erstwhile President of the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) Worldwide, pointed out the coastal road project being undertaken by the Tinubu administration as evidence of the President’s determination to confront challenges of infrastructure development in the region.
He said: “All over the world, engineering backed with serious governance has conquered terrains worse than the ones in the Niger Delta to build critical infrastructure. We cannot see why the Niger Delta case should be different.”
He faulted Duke’s position with what he described as Tinubu’s willingness to undertake ambitious infrastructure projects, noting that political will is required to put the best in the region.
Eradiri said the Bodo-Bonny road and the coastal road project were examples of Tinubu’s determination to pursue infrastructure development despite geographical challenges.
He said: “How did Tinubu complete a road to Bonny? He did it because of political will. How is Tinubu building the coastal road? He is doing it because he has the political will; the will that the likes of Donald Duke do not have, yet they want people to vote for them.
“Tinubu has demonstrated the political will to do the most difficult things that others shy away from. These are the things required to lay a solid foundation for the development and prosperity of this country.”
Eradiri insisted that the President’s approach to infrastructure development distinguished him from other political leaders who, according to him, noting that the region needed leaders capable of mobilising resources, deploying modern engineering and sustaining infrastructure investment.
He noted that Duke’s position has exposed that he failed to relate with his colleagues in the region while serving as governor, adding that Bayelsa State and Niger Delta terrains are developable.
“It is obvious that while sitting as the governor of one of the Niger Delta states, Donald Duke failed to relate properly with his colleagues to this point where he went on national television to embarrass himself about how his colleagues were tackling the terrain to develop their states.
“Bayelsa State can be developed. Right now, if you see what is happening in the state as a result of the increase in allocations to states under President Bola Tinubu’s government because of his courage to remove fuel subsidy, you will understand that the terrain is not an excuse for underdevelopment,” he said.
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