Joseph Odok
As Nigeria marks 66 years of independence, the anniversary offers more than an occasion for patriotic speeches. It is also an opportunity to ask a practical question at the sub-national level: what has government actually done with the resources and opportunities available to it?
In Cross River State, Governor Bassey Edet Otu’s administration has now crossed the three-year mark. Its record should neither be reduced to government publicity nor dismissed through opposition rhetoric. The more useful test is evidence: projects completed, institutions recovered, policies implemented, measurable outputs and, equally important, unresolved problems.
That evidence presents a more complicated but substantially more substantive picture than the familiar claim that the administration has “done nothing”. The first evidence is infrastructure.
The core of Governor Otu’s administrative drive has been recovery. This has been independently affirmed by all CRS former governors in the persons of Chief Clement Ebri, Donald Duke, Liyel Imoke except for Benedict Ayade whose body language tells one sponsoring blackmail against the Otu’s government because of a failed government as a former governor and also failing in his last APC Northern Senatorial ticket. Ayade’s bitter pills remains inconsequential and cannot distract CRS. Governor Otu’s commitment to recovery of CRS oil wells with CRS now declared a litoral state is well documented. The Liyel Imoke statement of Otu’s recovery, consolidation and development exonerates the Governor Otu’s administration as more serious than the opposition’s narrative that Otu has nothing to show. Former Governor Imoke sufficiently connected Governor Otu’s government to all past administration in his bid to reposition CRS to its developmental trajectory
Road construction has become one of the most visible components of the Otu administration’s programme. In June, Premium Times reported the governor’s claim that 127 kilometres of roads had been completed without formal commissioning ceremonies. A broader account published by The Guardian reported the state government’s claim of more than 608 kilometres of road projects since May 2023, comprising new roads, rehabilitation, dual carriageways, network roads and security/institutional roads. Because the figures describe different categories and stages of work, they should not simply be presented as 608 kilometres of completed roads. There is, however, tangible evidence of continuing work across the state. In Ogoja, government inspected the Ndok-Abakpa-Igoli-Monaya rehabilitation project, including the Abakpa Bridge and the 10-kilometre Ndok Junction-Mbube road. In Boki, Phase II of the 17-kilometre Boki East-West Road was flagged off in January 2026. The 2026 budget reinforces the infrastructure emphasis. It provides N671.27 billion for capital expenditure, against total expenditure of N961.62 billion. Major listed projects include road rehabilitation, the Boki East-West Road, Calabar road networks, rural access roads and the Obudu airport. The fair conclusion is therefore not that every announced road has been completed. It is that road infrastructure is demonstrably one of the central policy priorities of the administration, with completed, ongoing and newly approved projects at different stages.
Healthcare may be the administration’s strongest reform story. The health sector provides perhaps the clearest example of why government performance should be assessed through systems rather than ribbon-cutting alone. According to the state’s detailed sectoral report, 196 primary healthcare centres were upgraded under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, while another 96 were revitalised and awaiting inauguration. The administration also reports completed oxygen plants at General Hospital Calabar and General Hospital Ogoja, with another at Ikom awaiting inauguration. The same report records the recruitment of more than 2,200 healthcare workers, implementation of CONMESS for doctors, training of more than 2,500 health workers, and upgrading of Schools of Nursing in Calabar, Itigidi, Ogoja and Obudu into Colleges of Nursing Sciences
The figures on immunisation and maternal health are also significant. The state reports that more than 832,000 children received Vitamin A supplementation between 2023 and 2026, while more than 706,000 benefited from deworming. It further reports a fall in severe acute malnutrition from 20.5 per cent in 2023 to 1.6 per cent in 2024. These are government-reported figures and should continue to be independently monitored, but they constitute measurable claims rather than mere political slogans. There has also been an institutional dimension. Cross River has expanded health-insurance enrolment and implemented drone-supported vaccine delivery to hard-to-reach communities. The state says zero-dose children fell from 70,913 in 2024 to 18,205 in 2025.
In July 2026, the government additionally approved an increase in the retirement age of frontline health workers from 60 to 65 years or 40 years of pensionable service, excluding administrative personnel. These are not arguments that Cross River’s health system is perfect. They establish something more modest and verifiable: there has been substantial investment in health infrastructure, manpower and institutional reform.
Agriculture is moving from distribution towards markets. Agriculture is another area where the administration deserves assessment beyond the traditional distribution of fertiliser and seedlings. The Project GROW programme reportedly trained 5,300 farmers and facilitated an offtake agreement with Flour Mills of Nigeria for 2,000 tonnes of soybean and 20,000 tonnes of maize, with an estimated value of N18 billion. The programme also supported approximately 450 hectares of maize and soybean cultivation during the 2025 season and generated reported direct jobs through 28 agribusinesses and service providers. According to the Nation newspaper, the 2026 wet-season programme subsequently distributed improved seed yam and other inputs to farmers across the state’s 18 local government areas.
The important issue here is sustainability. If agriculture is to become a serious economic pillar, Cross River must move from input distribution to production, aggregation, processing, storage and guaranteed markets. Project GROW’s reported offtake agreement is therefore potentially more important than the symbolic value of another input-distribution ceremony.
MSMEs and the question of ordinary people’s economic power. The administration also launched a N500 million MSME loan facility in March 2026. BusinessDay reported the commencement of disbursement as part of the state’s enterprise-development strategy. In June, the Presidency reportedly honoured Otu with the Most MSME-Friendly Governor award at the National MSME Awards. The award is evidence that the Federal Government recognised the administration’s MSME initiatives; it should not, by itself, be treated as independent proof that every enterprise beneficiary has succeeded. The proper test will be whether these interventions produce businesses that survive beyond government funding, create jobs, increase household incomes and expand the state’s internally generated revenue.
Education presents some measurable gains, but the work is unfinished. The administration has paid WASSCE registration fees for students in public secondary schools, with the state education authorities reporting an increase in the pass rate from 65.2 per cent to more than 78 per cent. That figure is government-reported and requires continued examination against examination-board data, but it provides a measurable indicator for assessing the intervention. Cross River was placed second in the 2026 national Girls in ICT competition involving more than 3,700 participants, with Federal Government Girls’ College Cross River taking the runner-up position.
Education nevertheless remains an area where infrastructure, teacher quality, learning outcomes and employability require continuous attention. A single examination statistic cannot substitute for a complete education-sector assessment.
Tourism: recovering assets is only the beginning. For a state whose development history has been closely associated with tourism, Otu’s effort to recover and reposition major tourism assets is consequential.
The return of Tinapa to state control in 2025 marked the recovery of an important public asset. Government subsequently deepened discussions with NEPZA on its revitalisation and possible repositioning as an economic and export-oriented hub.
The proposed concession of Obudu Ranch Resort is another major development. Government says the concession involves rehabilitation and modernisation, including the cable car, accommodation facilities, recreational infrastructure and Bebi Airstrip, while the state retains ownership of the assets.
The Obudu International Passenger and Cargo Airport project is also progressing, according to state officials. But here a necessary caution is important: recovering Tinapa or rebuilding Obudu is not the same as making either asset economically successful. The real test is occupancy, investment, jobs, revenue, visitor numbers and private-sector activity.
Security is an important but difficult achievement to quantify. Cross River’s traditional reputation as one of Nigeria’s more peaceful states has economic significance. The administration has invested in community-based security structures and reported that 171 suspected criminals surrendered following security operations in 2026. Premium Times reported the claim while noting the government’s broader security narrative. The state has also expanded the Homeland Safety and Security Agency’s grassroots presence. Security outcomes, however, should be measured through independently verifiable crime, kidnapping and violent-crime data rather than political declarations alone.
Workers’ welfare shows genuine progress, but an unfinished obligation. The administration has made progress on inherited gratuity liabilities. In May, Governor Otu said gratuities owed up to 2015 had been settled after an earlier N10 billion intervention, while liabilities from 2015 to 2023 remained to be addressed. This is an important distinction. It would be inaccurate to say that all inherited pension and gratuity liabilities have been cleared.
Indeed, in September, Cross River retirees publicly appealed for pension adjustments. That claim deserves attention because clearing historical liabilities does not automatically resolve the adequacy of current pension payments. The recent payment of five months’ salary arrears to Obudu Ranch workers following a protest also illustrates the same complexity: government has addressed a liability, but the existence of such arrears means the welfare story cannot honestly be presented as completely resolved.
Fiscal recovery: here the numbers matter
One of the most significant pieces of independent evidence concerns domestic debt. The Debt Management Office records Cross River’s domestic debt at N220.20 billion as of December 31, 2023. The latest DMO report available as of September 2026 places Cross River’s domestic debt at N130.01 billion as of June 30, 2026. That represents a reduction of approximately 41 per cent in reported domestic debt stock over the period. This is one of the strongest independently verifiable fiscal indicators available for evaluating the administration. It is important, however, not to turn this into an assertion that the state’s entire debt burden has disappeared. Domestic debt is only one component of public liabilities, and debt reduction must be assessed alongside pension, gratuity, contractual and other obligations. The state’s 2026 budget itself allocates N53.24 billion to debt service, demonstrating that debt remains a significant fiscal responsibility.
The LG recruitment controversy also deserves mention. A serious assessment must include uncomfortable facts. In September, the government cancelled the 2024/2025 local-government recruitment exercise after a panel found it fundamentally flawed. It retained 821 personnel and approved 4,000 new positions. CrossRiverWatch reported that the panel cited allegations including job racketeering, commercialisation of employment slots and breaches of public-service ethics.
This episode is important because good governance cannot be defined only by projects completed. The integrity of recruitment, procurement, public finance and institutions is itself a measure of governance. The administration’s decision to cancel the exercise and restart the process is therefore both a corrective action and an acknowledgement that institutional problems remain.
So what does Nigeria @66 tell Cross River?
The most defensible conclusion is neither triumphalism nor blanket condemnation.
Governor Otu’s administration has produced verifiable activity across infrastructure, healthcare, agriculture, MSME development, education, tourism, security and fiscal management. Some of the strongest evidence is independent of political speeches: DMO debt figures, reported road construction, publicly documented health interventions, business-sector reporting and national recognition of specific initiatives.
The 2026 Cross River budget allocates more than N671 billion to capital expenditure, a substantial development commitment. The challenge now is to ensure that the spending produces durable infrastructure, jobs, productive enterprises and measurable improvements in living standards.
Nigeria’s 66th Independence anniversary therefore provides Cross River with a useful civic test. The question is no longer simply whether Governor Otu has projects to show. The evidence demonstrates that he does. The more demanding question is whether the recovery agenda can be converted into a durable economic transformation that ordinary Cross Riverians can feel in their homes, farms, businesses, schools and hospitals.
That is where the next phase of the Otu administration should be judged. And perhaps that is the proper meaning of People First: not merely putting the people at the centre of government speeches, but making measurable improvements in the conditions under which people live.
* Odok (Ph.D), a Lecturer, Public Affairs Commentator, writes from Abuja