General
Real Reasons for my 2019 Senatorial Ambition—Uduaghan
By Dipo Olowookere
Former Governor of Delta State, Dr Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan, has explained why he wants to be at the upper chamber of the National Assembly next year.
According to him, he wants to represent Delta South Senatorial District at the Senate in 2019 because of his desire to pursue quality legislation that will lead to the end of the crisis in the Niger Delta region.
The medical doctor, who left indelible marks in the state after his eight-year rule as a governor, said in a media chat recently that he would soon officially declare his intention to contest the senatorial seat.
In his words, “I have not declared but I have decided to run. The official declaration is going to be very soon.”
Dr Uduaghan, who was instrumental to the emergence of the incumbent senator representing Delta South, Mr James Manager 15 years ago, also said he withdrew from the race in 2015 to ensure that peace reigned in the state as he has always maintained that peace was more important than electoral victories.
He, however, noted that the coast was now clear for him to serve his people.
“Despite the pressure from the good people of Delta South in 2015, I decided to step down, but looking at the horizon now, the issues that caused the security challenges that made me to shelve my ambition in 2015 are no longer there,” the soft-spoken politician said.
Uduaghan, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), gave more reasons why he wants to go to the upper chamber of the National Assembly and spoke of his plans for his constituency, the Niger Delta and the entire country.
According to him, without being boastful and in terms of capacity, he had the capacity to do the work of a senator in Delta South Senatorial District, and the experience he garnered over the years as commissioner, Secretary to the state government, governor, among others, had prepared him to serve at the national level.
“I was commissioner for four years under Chief James Ibori and I was close to him. I knew what he was doing in terms of peace issues. I was the first state government official to enter into creeks to meet ex-militant chief, Government Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo in the heart of the Niger Delta as SSG to start negotiating peace with him. I did it severally when I was the governor of Delta State. At one of the outings, it was even the soldiers that pointed AK-47 at me when I was coming back.
“Sometimes, I would come back at night from negotiating peace, so I know the place in and out. I have been there in the day and at night, in fact, at one of them, I was sitting on a chair with about 20 of the boys with their guns, they were drinking, and we were there for three hours negotiating peace. I know the challenges; let me just say this, what we did and what the government has been doing is having what I call two boxes in managing the problems,” he explained.
The former governor said the first was that of engagement, as he used his influence then to mobilize religious leaders, traditional rulers and the youths to engage the boys in the creek in dialogue.
“We had the other box of enforcement; that is, using the military, the army, the police, navy, etc. One will think that with the two boxes, that would be enough to deal with the problems, but they are still there and re-occurring in different forms, some criminality and some genuine agitation; we still have the Niger Delta Avengers bursting pipelines; sometimes, we have those hijacking boats and sometimes ethnic quarrels,” he said.
According to Uduaghan, from his experience, the military, as an enforcement body was not a permanent solution to the problems in the Niger Delta as they were not very familiar with the terrain, “so, when the thing is really happening, it requires mobilizing the young people to show them the terrain or to prevent the crisis.
“For us to move forward, we must have an enforcement body that includes the community; especially the youths in the community, since they know the terrain. It is easier for people in that area to try and carry out enforcement or execute security challenges; it is easier for people in that area to know those who are involved in illegal bunkering. There are two parts to it, there is the part of genuine agitation, which has now been mixed with criminality and the criminality seems to have overshadowed the genuine agitation.
“To deal with it, we need the local people to be involved in the security arrangement and that will require legislation. The Waterway Security Committee I put up for instance, there is no law backing it up, so we need to put up laws that will help us in moving forward in solving the Niger Delta crisis.”
The Itsekiri-born politician added that there were lots of projects abandoned in the Niger Delta, and specific laws were needed to revamp these projects. If there were previous laws, he said, there was the need to bring them out and tailor them to meet what is happening in the Niger Delta.
“All these engagements we are doing, we need to promulgate laws backing the engagements, there is a lot of environmental damages going on. There are laws backing the environment, but we need to tidy them up. What I have done is to get a team of lawyers, they have looked at the laws and brought them out as it affects issues in the Niger Delta,” he said.
He lamented that since the crises in the Niger Delta, nobody has been prosecuted or brought to book.
“Nobody has been prosecuted so far. First of all, you cannot catch them and the people that are supposed to catch them don’t know how to catch them. I am going there to put up an enforcement body of people who know them and can get them and take them to court. If we are not serious of law and order in the Niger Delta, we will continue to have crisis.
“Right now, there is no law and order in the Niger Delta and we need to come out with and remind ourselves of the existing laws and tailor them towards the issues in the Niger Delta so that we can have permanent peace. A lawmaker is to make law and that will be my cardinal point. Also, there is the issue of attracting things to your area. There are very few people in the National Assembly that I don’t know. I have the capacity to attract things to my area more than anybody on the field today.
“Also, Nigeria has invested in me. Being in government for 16 years is a lot of investment. I think I should pay back by going to serve at the national level,” he explained.
The former number one citizen of Delta State, an exponent of modular refineries and development of the non-oil sector, promised not to collect his pension as a former governor while in senate if given the mandate by his people.
He also pledged to carry his constituents along by involving them in the lawmaking process and holding town hall meetings every six months.
“I am going to sign a contract with my people; the Senator-Citizens Contract. I have a group of lawyers who are already working on it,” he disclosed.
Asked his chances of picking the PDP ticket and eventually winning the senatorial election, Uduaghan, 63, sounded upbeat, noting that he is a grassroots politician well known and trusted by the people. He promised to justify the confidence reposed in him by ensuring them the very best representation if they give him the mandate to represent them in the Senate in 2019.
Already, various groups and individuals in the Delta South Senatorial District are waiting with bated breath to see their amiable son of the soil in the race as they believe he will replicate in their constituency his magic that turned around entire Delta State.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Mr Martin Amaewhule, has defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
At the plenary on Friday, Mr Amaewhule joined the ruling party from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), along with 15 other members of the state parliament.
This development comes some months after they had earlier declared their support for the APC in the wake of a crisis with the state governor, Mr Sim Fubura.
The lawmakers had an issue with Mr Fubura, which led to a state of emergency declared on the oil-rich state by President Bola Tinubu in March 2025.
This embargo was only lift in September 2025 after the duration of the six-month emergency rule in the state.
A few days ago, members of the Rivers Assembly passed a vote of confidence on President Tinubu, backing him to remain in office till 2031, when he would have spent eight years in office if re-elected in 2027.
Announcing their defection today, the lawmakers pinned their decision on the crisis rocking the PDP at the national level.
It is not certain if their political godfather, Mr Nyesom Wike, who is the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), will join them in APC.
Mr Wike, who governed Rivers State from 2015 to 2023, has been accused of instigating the crisis in the opposition PDP. He was expelled from the party last month at a national convention held in Ibadan, Oyo State.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has warned that Nigeria risks massive brain drain in the oil and gas sector due to poor remuneration.
The president of PENGASSAN, Mr Festus Osifo, said at the end of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the union on Thursday in Abuja that the industry was facing challenges arising from Naira devaluation and inflation, noting that, oil and gas skills remained globally competitive.
Painting an example, he said, “A drilling engineer in Nigeria does the same job as one in the US or Abu Dhabi,” noting that the union must take steps to bridge the wage gap to prevent members from leaving the country for better opportunities abroad.
“If we don’t act, the brain drain seen in other sectors will be child’s play,” he said.
According to him, PENGASSAN has recorded significant gains through collective bargaining across oil and gas branches.
“We signed numerous agreements across government agencies, IOCs, service and marketing sectors,” he said.
He said the agreements brought relief to members facing rising costs of living, adding that, the association’s duty is to protect members’ jobs and enhance their pay.
Mr Osifo urged companies delaying salary reviews and those foot-dragging as a result of the prevailing economic realities, to do the needful.
He said the industry employed some of the nation’s best talents, making competitive pay critical to retaining skilled workers.
“This industry recruits the best. Companies must provide the best conditions,” he said.
On insecurity, Mr Osifo urged government to take decisive action against terrorism and kidnappings across the country.
“We are tired of condemnations. government must expose sponsors and protect citizens,” he said.
He urged government at all levels to prioritise tackling insecurity through better funding and equipment for security agencies.
Mr Osifo said PENGASSAN supported calls for state police to improve local security response, adding that decentralising policing will protect citizens better than rhetoric.
He also said economic indicators meant little, if food prices remained high and farmers could not return to farms due to insecurity.
“Nigerians want to see food on the table, not macroeconomic figures,” he said, urging the government to coordinate fiscal and monetary policies to ensure economic gains reach households.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria’s crisis-response bill seeking to establish a single, toll-free, three-digit emergency number for nationwide use passed for second reading in the Senate this week.
Sponsored by Mr Abdulaziz Musa Yar’adua, the proposed legislation aims to replace the country’s chaotic patchwork of emergency lines with a unified code—112—that citizens can dial for police, fire, medical, rescue and other life-threatening situations.
Lawmakers said the reform is urgently needed to address delays, miscommunication and avoidable deaths linked to Nigeria’s fragmented response system amid rising insecurity.
Leading debate, Mr Yar’adua said Nigeria has outgrown the “operational disorder” caused by multiple emergency numbers in Lagos, Abuja, Ogun and other states for ambulance services, police intervention, fire incidents, domestic violence, child abuse and other crises.
He said, “This bill seeks to provide for a nationwide toll-free emergency number that will aid the implementation of a national system of reporting emergencies.
“The presence of multiple emergency numbers in Nigeria has been identified as an impediment to getting accelerated emergency response.”
Mr Yar’adua noted that the reform would bring Nigeria in line with global best practices, citing the United States, United Kingdom and India, countries where a single emergency line has improved coordination, enhanced location tracking and strengthened first responders’ efficiency.
With an estimated 90 per cent of Nigerians owning mobile phones, he said the unified number would significantly widen public access to emergency services.
Under the bill, all calls and text messages would be routed to the nearest public safety answering point or control room.
He urged the Senate to fast-track the bill’s passage, stressing the need for close collaboration with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), relevant agencies and telecom operators to ensure nationwide coverage.
Senator Ali Ndume described the reform as “timely and very, very important,” warning that the absence of a reliable reporting channel has worsened Nigeria’s security vulnerabilities.
“One of the challenges we are having during this heightened insecurity is lack of proper or effective communication with the affected agencies,” Ndume said.
“If we do this, we are enhancing and contributing to solving the security challenges and other related criminalities we are facing,” he added.
Also speaking in support, Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno said a centralised emergency number would remove barriers to citizen reporting and strengthen public involvement in security management.
He said, “Our security community is always calling on the general public to report what they see.
“There is a need for government to create an avenue where the public can report what they see without any hindrance. The bill would give strength and muscular expression to national calls for vigilance.”
The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Communications for further legislative work and is expected to be returned for final consideration within four weeks.
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