By Omolola Pedro BACKGROUND Mr. Udengs Eradiri is the gubernatorial candidate of Labour Party in Bayelsa state. He made some claims regarding the population and poverty condition of the state. He made the claims while speaking in an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday, 18th of October 2023. He is one of the front runners
By Omolola Pedro
BACKGROUND
Mr. Udengs Eradiri is the gubernatorial candidate of Labour Party in Bayelsa state. He made some claims regarding the population and poverty condition of the state.
He made the claims while speaking in an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday, 18th of October 2023. He is one of the front runners in the November 11 gubernatorial election in Bayelsa State.
The incumbent governor of the state, Duoye Diri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Timipre Sylva of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Udengs Eradiri of the Labour Party and 13 other candidates are in the race for who becomes the next governor of the state.
The interview video which has now gathered over 29,000 views on YouTube and over 11,000 views on Instagram, has sparked controversies about the claims made by the governorship hopeful.
This prompted iVerify to subject these claims to verification.
CLAIM 1: Mr. Udengs Eradiri said Bayelsa state’s population is not up to 500,000 people
VERIFICATION: iVerify checked this claim and found it to be false.
A 2022 report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the body responsible for keeping statistics and data record of the country shows that Bayelsa state has over 2 million population as at 2019. The website of the National Population Commission (NPC) does not show population of the different states of Nigeria.
However, the NBS report, which is the most recent reveals that Bayelsa state harbours two million, fifty-nine thousand, one hundred and seven (2,059,107) people.
A screenshot of the NBS data portal
CONCLUSION: Claim that Bayelsa state has less than 500,000 total population is FALSE.
CLAIM 2: Bayelsa state is the second poorest state in the country.
VERIFICATION: iVerify checks this claim to be true.
According to the NBS National Multidimensional Poverty Index report, Sokoto is the poorest state in the country, with 90.05% of the people in Sokoto living in multidimensional poverty. The report also shows that 88.5% of the total population in Bayelsa state are multidimensionally poor which is measured in terms of the proportion of poor people and the intensity of their poverty.
The NBS report implies that 9 out of 10 people in Bayelsa experience over one quarter of all possible deprivations. The indicators used by the NBS to determine this are Health, Education, Living standards, Employment and Security.
Other states in the top 5 poorest states category are Gombe, Jigawa, and Plateau.
A snapshot of the Nigeria Poverty Map (NPM) page
Similarly, a June 2023 report by PUNCH Newspaper shows the poverty rate of each state as announced by the NBS. It further reveals that nationwide, Bayelsa state has the highest foreign debt of $60.39m and is followed by Ebonyi state with $58.57m foreign debt.
CONCLUSION: Claim that Bayelsa is the second poorest state in the country is TRUE, as 88.5% of its total population are multidimensionally poor.
