Bayelsa guber poll: I will wipe away your tears’ – LP candidate promises teachers

Udengs Eradiri, the Labour Party, LP’s candidate for governor in Bayelsa State, has expressed empathy toward the state’s educators for the difficulties they’ve through under Governor Douye Diri’s tenure.

Eradiri, in a statement supplied to the media for 2023 Teachers Day, promised to end teachers’ tears if he were elected on November 11.

The LP candidate promised teachers a prominent role in his administration, calling them “the pillar and backbone of all the sectors in the state” as part of his People, Education, Agriculture, and Power (PEAP) Agenda.

Bayelsa teachers, Eradiri argued, had no right to complain about issues such as the lack of payment of promotional arrears, the minimum wage, the paltry salary scale, the failure to implement an increase in the retirement age, and the absence of adequate training and retraining.

He pointed out that whereas other states had raised the retirement age from 60 to 65 years and from 35 to 40 years as permitted by the Federal Government, the current Bayelsa government had refused to do so.

In the rural areas, where some students are still taught under the trees and market squares, the LP candidate noted that many instructors were working in bad environmental conditions due to crumbling infrastructures, a lack of teaching supplies, and low welfare.

This isn’t enough for our teachers. They should be the happiest people in the country because of all the money that is pouring into their state. Teachers have been “denied their pride of place in the state by this clueless, incompetent government, by this selfish government,” he lamented.

Eradiri went on to say that Diri does not have a well-thought-out policy paper for the improvement of the state’s educational system, and that Bayelsa desperately needs a strategic plan to advance the state’s educational infrastructure and enhance the working conditions of its teachers.

The LP candidate has urged the educators not to be fooled by the government’s apparent efforts to win over their votes in the run-up to the election.

To the educators, he urged, “Don’t believe a word they’re promising you right now. That’s why: so they can trick you into voting for them again. You begged them to help you, but they turned a blind eye to your problems. They appear out of nowhere to give you empty assurances.

Don’t give them another chance to trick you. Another election is coming up, and if they made promises to you that they couldn’t keep three years ago, it’s because they want your vote.

They will leave you again if you return them by accident.

But what I propose is much better; it’s a chance for us to start our schooling out on the right foot.

I have promised to put your needs first, to meet any issue head-on, and to ensure that you always work in accordance with the highest international standards. I’m asking educators to trust me and the LP with their vote so that our students have a brighter future.