CROSS RIVER STATE CONSULTATIVE FORUM, CRSCF
36/57 Nelson Mandela Road, Calabar
08037242431, 08022219773
Email: legapol@yahoo.com
PRESS STATEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 15, 2025
CROSS RIVER’S ASCENDANT PATH: ILLUMINATING FACTS IN REPLY TO HILLIARD ETA’S MISGUIDED UTTERANCES
Beloved Cross Riverians,
As custodians of collective wisdom and forward momentum, the Cross River State Consultative Forum (CRSCF) emerges from the heart of our shared heritage to clarify the canvas of our state’s journey. Mr. Hilliard Eta’s recent echoes from afar in Abuja—painting portraits of frailty, entrepreneurial voids, and revenues adrift in uncharted waters—deserve a brushstroke of reality, not retort. In the tapestry of time, Governor Senator Bassey Edet Otu’s tenure of two and a half years weaves threads of resilience and renewal, turning whispers of want into choruses of capability. If doubt dances like shadows at dusk, let facts flood the dawn, revealing a state not stumbling, but striding with purpose under the “People First” banner.
Mr. Eta, consider the fallacy of fragility: Our state stands robust, fortified by a 106% leap in Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), escalating from N20.5 billion in 2022 to N36 billion by mid-2024, courtesy of streamlined digital collections, sealed fiscal gaps, and incentivized performance. This surge, harmonizing with federal allocations, fuels a N538 billion 2025 budget—elevated 17% from its predecessor—with 66% dedicated to capital endeavors that pulse with public need.
Sarcasm aside, those proclaiming stasis might have missed the memo on Tinapa’s triumphant return from AMCON’s grasp in November 2025, now magnetizing investors and infusing N14 billion through a Calabar Carnival that enchanted 300,000 souls, or the N18 billion tourism infusion repositioning us as West Africa’s leisure luminary.
Mr. Eta, the dirge of entrepreneurial dearth dissolves in the deluge of Otu’s initiatives, where innovation isn’t an illusion but an irrigated field yielding bounties. The N30 billion Project Grow fund nurtures mechanized marvels in maize, rice, cassava, and fisheries, birthing over 100,000 jobs and N50 billion in revenues.
Pioneering the South-South’s first digital soil fertility map, we’ve dispersed 625,000 oil palm nuts, fertilizers aplenty, and seeds galore, spawning 286 agribusinesses that generate N4.74 billion and 2,158 opportunities for youth and women.
For tomorrow’s trailblazers, September 2025’s N800 million grants empowered 400 youths—distilled from 5,000 trainees at CSS Farms at Nasarawa community—to cultivate agribusiness empires, especially in Calabar Municipality’s dynamic Nasarawa enclave.
Complementing this, the Retirees Entrepreneurship Development Initiative (REDI) allocates N250 million to 500 elders for business births, while N1.2 billion in MSME loans via MEDA equips 8,000 in nano-enterprises.
One might wryly wonder: If enterprise is extinct, how explain the 50,000-hectare rice expanse in Ogoja and Bekwarra, or Odukpani’s 2,000-hectare maize mosaic, both fortresses of food security and employment fortitude?
Mr. Eta, to the specter of squandered surpluses, behold the symphony of stewardship: Over 200 kilometers of roads reborn across realms, from Calabar South’s urban veins to Yala’s Akhreha-Okpoku span; 270 solar sentinels lighting Yakurr and Ogoja; and CallyAir’s fleet fortified, soaring Calabar skies and knitting connections.
Education enlightens with WAEC sponsorships for 31,000+ scholars, boasting a 72.1% triumph; 26 fresh classroom citadels; and new bastions like the University of Education and Entrepreneurship, plus ITM-Ugep’s federal ascension.
Health heals through 204 new professionals, Ikom’s revamped General Hospital, gratis care for the fragile in 1,034 havens, and child stunting curtailed from 25% to below 2%.
Gratuities of N10 billion restore retiree repose, the World Bank maritime venture unleashes blue economy waves, and environmental ethos reforests Obanliku and Akamkpa, curbing deforestation by 20%.
In employment’s embrace, 19,800 souls now thrive in state and public civil services, augmenting the 7,000 already enlisted by the local government services—a cascade of opportunities that mocks murmurs of missed moments.
Mr. Eta, amid this progress, one cannot overlook the prevailing peace and security that has enveloped Cross River like a gentle dawn mist over our hills—a serenity that has endured unbroken throughout Governor Otu’s two and a half years. Gone are the shadows of cult violence, rampant kidnappings, armed robbery, petty theft and farmer-herder tensions that once dimmed our horizon; today, farmers till their fields without fear, traders ply markets in harmony, and families sleep under stars unmarred by unrest. This tranquil canvas, painted through proactive community policing, distribution of security vehicles to 177 wards, inter-ethnic/inter religious dialogues, and youth empowerment that channels energies into productivity, has fostered an environment where investment flows freely and development thrives unhindered—a quiet miracle that speaks louder than any rhetoric of weakness.
In this maritime renaissance, the recent federal endorsement shines as a beacon of bold vision. Just days ago, on December 12, 2025, the Federal Executive Council approved the Bakassi Deep Seaport as a flagship Public-Private Partnership project, poised to attract $2.27 billion in private investment.
This greenfield marvel—fully financed by private sector dynamism—will accommodate colossal vessels, integrate an industrial cluster and Free Trade Zone, and emerge as a vital gateway for Nigeria’s North-Central and North-East regions, while serving as a premier hub for West and Central Africa.
Thousands of jobs will cascade from its docks, decongesting national ports and elevating our blue economy to global tides. One cannot help but smile at the timing: Claims of weakness arrive precisely as this monumental approval anchors our future, a testament to Governor Otu’s relentless advocacy that transformed long-held dreams into federally sealed destiny. Yet, the waves of progress extend deeper, with the Nigerian Navy’s Hydrographic Office, under Rear Admiral Ayo Olugbode—the Hydrographer of the Federation—delivering updated navigational charts that remap our coastal expanses to cutting-edge S-100 international standards.
This hydrographic symphony, flagged off in December 2024 and culminating in a grand presentation to Governor Otu in August 2025, integrates geophysical and geotechnical data, affirming Cross River’s littoral stature and silencing outdated debates on our seaward sovereignty.
In tandem, the inter-agency chorus—featuring the Surveyor General of the Federation, the National Boundary Commission, and state cartographic expertise—has charted fresh coordinates, revealing that 67 of the 76 long-lost oil wells nestle firmly within our maritime embrace, as etched in Nigeria’s 11th Edition Administrative Map and the 2004 Well Dichotomy Study.
Through Governor Otu’s petition in March 2024 and unwavering pursuit of justice, these revelations—once veiled by 2012 judicial shadows—now buoy our claim, reclaiming resources from neighboring grasps without the need for stormy confrontations, all while bolstering derivation revenues and economic harmony.
How poetic, that remapping the sea not only paves paths for ports but restores wellsprings of prosperity, turning tides of loss into currents of gain. While some, ensconced in external echoes, may cling to outdated optics—perhaps from a “last visit” that overlooked these tides of transformation—we urge a return to roots: Behold the subsidized tractors trundling to tillers, agro-hubs humming with harvest, digital deeds securing lands for legions, and now, the Bakassi horizon beckoning billions in investment. Cross River rises, its story scripted in sweat and strategy, holding helm-holders to high standards through deeds, not discord. As 2027’s horizon gleams, rally round Otu’s odyssey of opportunity, where every citizen claims a stake in this era of earnest elevation.
In solidarity for sustenance and synergy.
Signed:
Barr. Eyo Nsa Ekpo
Chairman, Cross River State Consultative Forum (CRSCF)
Dr. Ochim Julius Okputu
Secretary, Cross River State Consultative Forum (CRSCF)
