By Ojuri Adepuji
There is no disputing Mother Luck’s benevolence to Cross River State. For here is a state that has, since the inception of Nigeria’s democratic dispensation in May 1999, enjoyed an unbroken succession of visionary leadership. Sworn in only a year ago (on May 29), the current highly cerebral governor of the state, Professor Ben Ayade, has left no one in any doubt as to his passion for transforming the state.
No sooner had he stepped into his predecessor’s shoes than he was confronted by the state’s recurrent challenges. These challenges, which swirl mainly around unemployment and lack of industrialisation, prodded him into swinging into action. Thus, he is egged on by the belief that the human spirit can surmount all challenges if only he could rise above them.
Ayade knew that to tackle unemployment, he would need to fast-track the industrialisation of the state. And industrialisation translates to more revenue for the state and less dependence on the allocations from the Federation Account. Hence, he mooted the idea of the Calabar Garment Factory, which, being the biggest garment factory in Africa, has the capacity to generate about 3, 000 jobs for the state’s womenfolk, mainly widows. One year on, this fully automated factory is set for commissioning in a few days time by the wife of the President, Aisha Muhammadu Buhari.
Also, Governor Ayade’s establishment of a special marshal, called the Green Police, complements his other efforts to tackle youth unemployment. This special marshal, who operates under the newly created Ministry of Climate Change, will, among other things, ensure the protection of the state’s vast forest reserve and related environmental issues. Already, the Ministry has since interviewed and recruited 1, 500 able bodied young men and women into the Green Police.
Flip over to his promise a year ago of the construction of a 260km superhighway and a deep seaport. Today, the designs for the road and deep seaport are completed while the governor awaits the Federal Government’s necessary approvals to accelerate work on the projects.
Given his pledge to diversify the state’s economy through rapid industrialisation, the governor has, within the last 12 months, embarked on several trips to Europe, Asia and South America to woo potential investors. So far, he has attracted a team of Pakistani investors, who are currently constructing the Calabar Pharmaceutical Company and a team of investors from Thailand, called Thai Africa, who are overseeing the Thai Rice City project (which is expected to produce a species of highly vitaminised rice for local consumption and export), covering over 3000 hectares, along Goodluck Jonathan Bypass. Still on rice, the administration also signed agreements with the SANYA Rice Co. of China and Paul-B Nigeria Ltd. to commence production of irrigated rice within the year 2016.
One should, of course, not ignore the state’s trailblasing completion of the first monorail in the sub-Saharan Africa and the Calabar International Convention Centre (CICC). The completion of these two projects, inherited from the immediate preceding administration of Senator Liyel Imoke, attests to Professor Ayade’s earnestness about completing all projects begun by his predecessor. It, therefore, comes as no surprise that a first-time visitor to Calabar would be struck by the beehive ongoing constructions in the state capital.
Thanks to the governor’s quest to strike a healthy balance between the infrastructural and human capital development, he has also embarked on several other projects that place more emphasis on the workers’ welfare. Besides the prompt regular payment of workers’ salaries, which had become a front-burner issue in recent times in many states of the federation, Professor Ayade’s administration has embarked on massive renovations and equipping of primary healthcare centres all over the state.
Of course, one would expect that the governor would not ignore the educational sector given the fact that he is an academic. He indeed recognises the fact that education is the bedrock of societal development. Hence, his landmark achievements in this sector since he assumed office. Among the first people-oriented things he did was to restore the scholarship scheme to ensure that the indigent in the state have access to education. He had further breathed a new life into the sector with the construction and rehabilitation of several schools across the state, provision of furniture for teachers, capacity-building for teachers and improvement of the teaching environment among others.
The governor’s achievements in the power sector are equally laudable. Besides an embedded power plant in Obudu, there is the development of a hydro power generation plant in Ikom, a gas turbine in Tinapa Business Resort, 30KVA generators by skipper and Jumpaur across the state, 132 transmission lines from Calabar to Obudu and the purchase of over 200 transformers of various sizes to boost power supply in the state, among other ongoing projects.
• Adepuji wrote in from Calabar.