Gov. Bassey Otu briefing Journalists at the media parley.
By Anietie Akpan
The Governor of Cross River State, Senator Bassey Otu has declared that money for the $3.5 billion Bakassi Deep Sea Port will not come from the state.
He also stated clearly that the state government was not taking any loan for the project as the state does not even have the liberty or privilege for that.
However, some critics in the state had accused the government of taking on such a humongous projects, instead of the low hanging mangoes, put the right people in place and keeping Calabar clean.
One of such critics, Justice Charles Archibong (Rtd), took a swipe on the government saying, “we don’t have the atmosphere of change in this town. There is lack of presence we don’t feel the presence.
“When you are prioritizing projects that seem to be out of this world, deep seaport we can’t see it, rail tracks , and all those things, fair enough maybe they are going on then suddenly we are talking of Odukpani and God knows how many billions they have sunk into Odukpani (Odukpani-Ikoneto-Asiago road) which was started as a federal government project”.
Archibong condemned the monthly sanitation in the state saying, sanitation every last Saturday is lack of ideas returning to darker days . Why can’t we have an environment that works? Tell us to buy bins we will buy than in sanitation you pack things and heap by the road side then it goes back to the gutters does not make sense”
In all these, he said the government should “start by making this town clean on a permanent basis then talk of rehabilitating schools…these are our concerns. There is enough and I am sure on the table in the kitchen where the problems are but when you don’t hear action, it’s like there is no decisiveness. It is not a situation of one being malicious but I am telling you what people feel, You are not quoting people, you are going to quote me and I have to take whatever comes with that. There is no malice in my bone except honest observation of the way people are feeling”.
When asked if he was trying to say there is a misplaced priority in government, Archibong who was a one time chairman of Calabar Sourh Local Government Area, said, “I am just saying that we are not feeling the man we know and that could be for whatever reasons. Sometimes things come up when you are least able to do them yourself unfortunately but there is no position that is bigger than a man of any age if he knows how to delegate to the best people around and have focus on what he is trying to do”.
But when asked if he is away of the state’s lean resources, he retorted, “but lean resources have not prevented people from pursuing their personal projects, hope you are aware of that? If there are no available resources fine that means there are no available resources but people will always feel bad when nothing is happening about the problem around them”
But fielding questions from Journalists on Monday at his third media parley since assumption of office on May 29, 2023, Governor Otu said all monies for the Bakassi Deep SeaPort and other mega projects are going to come from investors.
He said, “you talked about projects and then the humongous projects. You see, this state, I don’t want anybody to look down on our capacity. I don’t want anybody to think that we cannot be Lagos state.
“This state was the capital of Nigeria before things were moved on. And because we find ourselves in this situation, does not mean that timidity must be the order of the day. Nobody can say those projects are humongous.
“When we talk about the deep sea port, it’s a $3.5 billion project. You cannot go to EximBank and get a $10,000 project if it’s not bankable. So for us to get such credibility, which others have gone and cannot even make $500 million, should make you understand that this is a serious government, both in terms of financial prudency and future projections. Just go and look at almost, what I would say, all assessment institutions… these are in-depth grading institutions, they graded Cross River as the next best position in the industry and even that, I would argue, that we are the best. The time is yet to come”.
A cross section of Journalists during the media parley on Monday.
Otu added, “so as far as I am concerned, you can complain about humongous projects when we are not doing things in other thematic areas. We are tending to water, we are tending to make sure that there is drinking water, we are tending to health, we are renovating over 100 health facilities, we have repaired primary blocks and so on, so forth. And even this year, we have voted much to see that those blocks and chairs and so on, sorted out. We are moving in every area. Education, we are launching our scholarship in a fortnight. We are moving in every area.
“So there is no need for anybody to feel depressed or timid and say we cannot go for a big projects. It’s only big projects that will change our situation. We had oil and it was taken away because of all these timidity rubbish. We cannot continue to be the same people. We are proud people. We were created by God like any other place. And what is rightfully ours is rightfully ours”.
He said, “money we are going to spend is not government money. It is the investors money and they must believe in you before they bring out these funds to come and invest. And if they have confidence on the part of government and say look, we are ready to invest and somebody is saying it is a humongous project it is unfortunate. Deep Seaport alone will turn around the economy of this state. I don’t want to talk about other value-added projects”.
“Already work is ongoing there”, the governor said adding, “we have well over six naval vessels that are doing the geotechnical and everything is being done to the book to make sure that very soon we are going to have a ground-breaking and that project is coming to reality.
“That project, the vision was Governor (Ben) Ayade. He tried during his period, well it did not come into fruition. There is time for everything and a season for everything.
“But we have come to sit down and say look, this project has to be completed. And it’s in line with what we believe in.
“We will not leave anything which our predecessors have started, provided government money has been spent on it, we must realize value from it. We must get it sorted out. And Bakassi Deep Seaport happens to there. Not just that, Obudu Cargo Airport happens to be another. Many factories around, we are activating almost all of them. None are we going to accept to lie waste because public funds are in those things”.
He stated, “if we walk away from them, then they will delapidate and at some point, money will be wasted. No, we don’t stand for money wasted. We make sure that we are accountable, both in terms of all the things we come to see and all those things that will come in the future. It is not humongous please.
“Tell whoever that attempts to say that to please get their facts straight. Government is not putting money there. The people that are putting money are there, it’s not like I am taking loan to go and invest there. No, for people that know me, know that I don’t take loan. I don’t engage in taking loans and the ceiling for our loan, the margin is so small that we don’t have that kind of liberty or privilege to take loan.
“When they talk about (loan) mostly in the papers that government has gone to borrow N35 billion, it’s going to kill government. Nobody even as an individual goes to the bank to borrow even N2 million and see what he will pass through not to talk of to come and give you $3.5 billion, it will be very difficult and tasking.
“But all I will need from these people because all the elementary things they want us to do we are doing it. We are not saying it is an opportunity cost were we are taking investment that we should put in education, investment we should put in power or one of those sectors or Agriculture to go and put in those projects, that will be chasing white elephants which we don’t.
Otu confirmed that everything for the deep seaport project is in place.
“The bank able documents, everything has been put in place , approvals have been made clear and we have had stakeholders meetings of everybody involved in the house in one room, the banks, the shippers, the regulators, the ambusman everybody in that project we had them in one room and signed the documents that this project must be going, so nothing can stop us. I believe when it comes to reality such comments will seize”, he said.
