Barely one week after President Muhammadu Buhari called off a much-hyped visit
to Lagos State, he equally dashed the hopes of Cross Riverians as he shunned the
commissioning of the much-publicized Monorail and Garment factory projects in
the state.
And as in the Lagos instance, no reasons were given for suspending the
president's
visit to commission the two legacy projects alongside his wife, thereby causing
some embarrassment to the government and people of the state.
Had the number one citizen honoured the invitation, it would have been
his second
visit since he came into office, because on October 10, 2015 the
president honoured
Governor Ben Ayade's request on him to visit and perform the ground breaking and
flagging-off of construction of the controversial Calabar super highway project.
Preparations were in top gear to ensure a successful commissioning as work on
the projects continued round the clock in the past few weeks till
yesterday, when it
became obvious that the event would no longer hold.
Last Thursday, the State Commissioner of Information, Mrs. Rosemary Archibong,
while presenting a paper titled, "The Future of Tourism in Africa: A
Case Study of
Cross River State", at the just concluded conference of Africa Public Relations
Association (APRA) at the Calabar International Centre (CICC),
announced that the
president and his wife were no longer coming to commission the projects.
APRA members had earlier frowned at the poor facilities at Lakeside
hotel, Tinapa,
and the wrong use of the picture of former governor, Senator Liyel
Imoke, in a brief
documentary branding the state's tourism potentials at the conference,
instead of
that of the incumbent, Senator Ayade.
They also queried why participants were not allowed to use the monorail, which
was touted as one of the tourism brands that influenced most
participants to lodge
at the Lakeside hotel, Tinapa.
While apologising for all lapses noticed, the commissioner noted that
"Cross River
State gets very little in terms of allocation, whereas, other states
have over N9b or
more", saying that that affects a lot of things that ought to have been done.
On the Monorail, Mrs. Archibong explained that it was not yet open to
the public,
adding that only a test run was carried out in preparation for
commissioning last
Friday, by the president, who she said sent a message that he was no longer
coming due to some unforeseen circumstances.
The monorail project was conceived by the previous administration of former
Governor Donald Duke to run from the Margaret Ekpo International Airport to
Tinapa and the rails were procured, but the Senator Liyel Imoke regime changed
the plan given the huge financial outlay, thus rerouting it to run
from the CICC to
Tinapa.
Imoke had commenced the actual construction of the 1.5km rail and procured the
trains, but Ayade came in and completed it, while the Cross River
Garment Factory
reputed to be the biggest single floor garment factory in the world
with a floor size
of 5,000sqm has employed 3000 Cross Riverians, mostly women to start work in
three shifts.
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