Why Continuity Under Gov Otu is Essential Against External Capture – THISDAYLIVE

Joseph Abang Odok

Cross River State stands at a decisive political and financial juncture. For years it has carried the scars of the Bakassi Peninsula cession to Cameroon after the 2002 ICJ ruling and the following lack of key oil wells, largely to Akwa Ibom following the 2012 Supreme Court choice. That loss stripped the state of littoral standing and the related 13 per cent derivation revenues, contributing to persistent fiscal stress and better poverty indicators relative to better-resourced neighbours. Successive administrations left heavy home money owed, underutilised public property and a path of bold tasks that always existed extra on billboards than on the bottom.

Governor Bassey Otu assumed workplace in May 2023 going through an inherited home debt exceeding N204 billion, demoralised public establishments, deserted property comparable to Tinapa and infrastructure deficits. His administration’s first time period has prioritised restoration, fiscal stabilisation and consolidation moderately than spectacle. Official figures present home debt decreased by greater than N70 billion with out contemporary borrowing, bringing the inventory to roughly N132.3 billion by March 2026. Internally generated income rose from N21.1 billion in 2022 to N46.3 billion in 2024 via improved mobilisation and self-discipline. Strategic property have been reclaimed, together with Tinapa from AMCON and almost N1 billion from Etung Cocoa Estates. Efforts proceed to revive oil-producing standing and defend pursuits round Bakassi and the proposed Deep Seaport.

Infrastructure and human-capital investments have been tangible. Hundreds of kilometres of roads have been reconstructed or rehabilitated throughout the three senatorial districts. Education interventions embody cost of WAEC charges for tens of 1000’s of scholars, development and rehabilitation of lecture rooms, and the institution of establishments such because the University of Education and Entrepreneurship in Akamkpa. Health upgrades cowl major healthcare centres, oxygen crops and recruitment of well being staff. Tourism property, together with components of Obudu Ranch and the Calabar Carnival, have seen revived exercise and better customer numbers. Agriculture programmes have distributed seedlings, tractors and assist to farmers, whereas digital fibre deployment and ICT coaching sign modernisation. Social funding funds focusing on susceptible residents have begun reaching tens of 1000’s.

These positive aspects occurred below constrained circumstances. The state has operated with out the oil derivation windfall loved by neighbours and in opposition to a backdrop of nationwide financial pressures. Independent commentary and stakeholder statements from former governors (with the notable exception of Benedict Ayade perceived to be preventing Gov Otu) have acknowledged the restoration focus. The Cross River State House of Assembly has formally endorsed Otu for a second time period, citing legislative productiveness and coverage supply. Northern senatorial stakeholders, youth teams and market girls have equally mobilised assist, linking continuity to each state progress and alignment with federal priorities such because the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.

There is overwhelming ignorance in CRS right now with claims that CRS now has extra money below Governor Otu. This is true solely in naira worth, not in greenback equivalence. Tinubu’s “more money to governors” declare is empty in actual phrases. Nominal FAAC allocations surged after subsidy removing and naira float. Pre-Tinubu (2022): N9–12tn ≈ $22–29bn (₦400-450/$). Under Tinubu: N21–35tn+ nominally, however solely $14–23bn at  N1,400-1,500/$. One comparability: six months pre-reform (~N6.36tn ≈ $13.8bn) vs put up (~N13.5tn ≈ $9.2bn). States get thicker naira bundles that purchase far fewer {dollars} for imports and tasks. Devaluation and inflation erased the actual improve. “Triple allocation” rhetoric ignores the foreign money collapse the identical reforms brought on. Rufai Oseni has persistently demonstrated these details of no actual worth added to governors for individuals who observe him on Arise News 

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The political risk is actual and illustrated by the Rivers expertise. Nyesom Wike brings disaster wherever he turns into . Rivers and the PDP supply clear examples. As Rivers governor he expanded borrowing regardless of substantial assets, channeling leverage into celebration constructions. In Rivers, intervals of relative autonomy below Governor Siminalayi Fubara noticed accelerated improvement that later stalled amid crises and a state of emergency. Within the PDP, his interventions repeatedly produced factional warfare, suspensions and institutional paralysis. Elevation to the FCT portfolio, with reported preferential entry to funds exterior normal Treasury Single Account constraints, enlarged the struggle chest for affect operations that now embody judicial and political outreach. The Rainbow Coalition (a cross-party platform championed by Wike) goals to consolidate votes for President Bola Tinubu whereas positioning most well-liked candidates throughout events for different workplaces. Analysts describe it as an instrument of continued political management moderately than pure ideological alliance.

Cross River is too peaceable for Wike’s fashion of politics. Similar dynamics, mixed with monetary muscle from neighbouring pursuits, danger turning the state into an extension of exterior agendas. Buying affect amongst National Assembly members or native elite to dam a second time period bide of Governor Otu would develop that footprint and subordinate CRS priorities. Once a state is subordinated to exterior political machines whose major loyalty lies elsewhere, native improvement priorities turn into secondary. Cross River, already poorer and fiscally scarred by the Bakassi cession and the 2012 oil-well losses to Akwa Ibom, can not take up a comparable interruption. Its poverty indicators stay elevated exactly as a result of structural income losses have been by no means absolutely offset; any halt within the present restoration trajectory would deepen deprivation moderately than merely pause progress.

Governor Otu has navigated these pressures whereas preventing to reclaim property and restore fiscal area amid competing claims from better-resourced neighbours like Rivers and Akwa Ibom. With their warchest they’ve allegedly used cash to purchase many appointments initially meant for CRS or eliminated already appointed folks from CRS to swell their kitty. Reports of monetary inducements directed at National Assembly members and native influencers kind a part of a broader sample geared toward blocking continuity in order that the Rainbow Coalition’s footprint can develop into Cross River. Under Otu the emphasis has been on inner restoration and measured federal engagement moderately than subordination. A second time period is framed by the governor himself because the shift from “clearing the bush and laying the foundation” to “building the house and filling it with prosperity”: industrial parks throughout the three districts, completion of the Obudu Cargo Airport and associated logistics corridors, expanded youth and agricultural enterprise, digital civil service reforms, and conversion of recovered property into productive ventures.

Critics will notice that not each undertaking is full, that oil standing restoration stays contested and never but translating into derivation receipts, and that poverty discount is a multi-year process. These are truthful observations. Recovery from structural losses and inherited liabilities can’t be instantaneous. What distinguishes the present file is measurable debt discount with out new loans, income development, asset reclamation, and a coherent second-term agenda grounded in these foundations moderately than contemporary bulletins indifferent from supply.

For Cross Riverians at residence and within the diaspora, the selection is between consolidating hard-won stabilisation below a governor who has prioritised the state’s personal stability sheet and establishments, or risking seize by bigger political and monetary machines whose major loyalty lies elsewhere. The Rivers and PDP precedents present how shortly improvement momentum might be interrupted when native management is subordinated. Continuity below Otu affords the very best prospect of defending Cross River’s residual sovereignty, finishing the restoration section, and changing it into shared prosperity. Stakeholders throughout the state have already signalled that choice. The 2027 election will decide whether or not that sign is heeded.

* Dr Odok, a Senior Lecturer, social change agent, lawyer and thinker, writes from Abuja