Nigeria was created by God Almighty, to be a giant on all spheres but the reality of the docility of the Nigerian citizens, which has unfortunately enabled the political class to treat the business of leadership with levity, is one of the major reasons why a state as blessed and endowed by nature as Cross River State, is not actively being mentioned in the league of extraordinarily rich state with a massive and prosperous population.
During the course of last year, sometime towards the ember months, I was privileged to embark on a trip by road from Nnewi, Anambra State through Oron in Akwaibom State through the river to Calabar in Cross River State. Cross River is a state sitting on a land mass of 20,156 Km2 with its current population staggering between 4,000,000 – 4,500,000 at the moment.
The population of people who are resident in the State provides a great opportunity to drive commerce and as such attract more people to come over to the State to live and do their businesses thereby spreading prosperity to all. The land mass typically means that there is so much land to cultivate, build upon and establish a lot of industries upon.
For a State that has Benue State on its Northern border, Abia State and Ebonyi States on its Western border, Akwaibom State on its Southern border and Cameroon on its Eastern border, it is very clear that a State strategically located like Cross River State should be a corridor through which prosperity and wealth creation is made possible for the country at large.
The irony which hurts the most is that despite the rich resources which the State is blessed with, the political class which have ruled the State over the years with a very few exceptions, seem exceedingly confused, that they seem to not know how to harness the great resources the State is blessed with, both in terms of mineral resources, agriculture/ forestry and sea resources with which to offer the Cross Riverians, residents based in the State and the nation at large, prosperity which would inadvertently rub off on the continent at large.
The worst of the political office holders with respect to the Governors that have held sway since 1999 till date from what the masses expressed when I interacted with them, remains Prof. Ben Ayade whom so many Cross Riverians believed that he was outrightly overwhelmed with the responsibility of leading such an economically rich State, which made him have such an abysmal outing as a two term Governor of the State.
Driving through Calabar town which is replete with colonial architecture, down to Akamkpa, which I was informed reliably, that most part, have not had electricity for the past three (3) years despite the huge mineral deposits and agricultural resources that are routinely explored from the local government area, then through Ugep which was most visibly developed with respect to its architecture and finally down to Obubra, I kept on screaming in my soul, as that corridor remains one of the richest and also busiest Nigerian road corridors I have ever seen in my entire life.
While travelling by road on the above mentioned corridor and seeing the endless numbers of heavy-duty vehicles that were all fully loaded, a lot of thoughts were roaring in my spirit and one of them was that I could not understand why there was no established railway path on that axis, as that would enhance the quality of commerce along that corridor while also making sure that goods and services are moved safely and in real time to their destinations with the least of violent attacks and accidents, as these goods are conveyed to their destinations.
Beyond the displeasure of not having a railway line along that path which if done, would have a tremendous impact on the quality of commerce along that route, I could not afford not to notice the vast rubber plantations owned by private individuals and some other ones which I was told were owned by the Forestry department of the State by the road sides, there was also vast palm plantations seen along the path that made me imagine, how rich the entire axis that we drove through would have been, if these resources are harnessed and processed within this axis of the State. The absence of a rubber processing factory where these raw materials are used was visibly prominent. It was also challenging that while on that route, I did not see for myself, an ultra-modern palm processing oil mill where the palm products are processes and value addition incorporated in other to make the most out of the many palm plantations on that route.
For a State like Cross River with diverse mineral resources like limestone which it has the purest and largest deposit in Nigeria, llmenite which is used in making paints, barytes, Manganese, graphite, clay, natural gas, petroleum jelly, marble, brine there is supposed to be no end to wealth projections, the State can be associated with, assuming they have had deliberate leadership that has been poised to serve the masses over these years.
Looking into the agricultural products potentials of the State like periwinkle, wood, clams, rubber, shrimps, yam, palm oil, plantain, rice, maize and a lot of other agro – fishery resources which are obviously not optimally exploited, your heart would bleed the most because despite being blessed with all these, there does not seem to be a deliberate effort by the successive governments of the State to sincerely harness all these resources in the interest of the citizens, which would in turn provide so much wealth and prosperity for the people.
The tourism potentials of the State from all I saw, can be said to have not even been scratched. The potentials of that sector, clearly is one of the major reasons why the then Governor Mr. Donald Duke embarked on the Tinapa City project which unfortunately has not had the best of support from successive governments after former Governor Donald Duke left office.
The inability of subsequent governments to continue with worthy projects in our Nigerian society, is one of the reasons the Nigerian State is still classified as a developing nation. The political gladiators who have access to power, in a bid to steal from the government overtime and also with the aim of having a project to lay ownership to have consistently abandoned worthy projects which was initiated by their predecessors, to start off entirely new projects.
Finally to end this piece of intellectual discourse, it is my wish to let you my dear reader come to terms with the fact that the major reason why the mineral resources, agricultural products, aqua products, tourism and educational sectors are yet to be maximally harnessed in the interest of the State and its citizens is because the citizens who are supposed to rise and demand for the best of deliverables from their leaders are unfortunately pitched along clannish lines which has caused the State so much on the long run. The resources that are locked up in its water bodies, forestry, agricultural lands, tourism sector that are yet to be efficiently harnessed, can only be imagined. The day a vastly endowed and blessed State like Cross River lives up to its capacity, then that would be an unimaginable boost to the development of the Nigerian State.