BEFORE Donald Duke became governor of Cross River State in 1999, it was not a place really talked about or where people wanted to go to. Tucked away in one corner in the southernmost part of the country and not a thoroughfare to any other part of the country, anyone who visited the state had something very important that could bring him there. It was largely regarded as a slow and dull civil service state, where everything moved in a lull.
But when Duke came in, with drive, energy and style, he managed to pull the state from the doldrums to a place where everybody talked about and wanted to visit. The state, despite its geographical location, suddenly became a destination for visitors within and outside the country. Duke introduced programmes and projects to sustain the tempo of the hub the state was suddenly turning into. An example of such programme is the famous Carnival Calabar, which has continued till present day, though many feel, with falling standards. Also among several projects embarked on by the then governor for this aim, Tinapa was the flagship. The aim of Tinapa was to make Cross River State the business and leisure hub of West Africa. Duke’s vision was to divert traffic that constantly left the shores of the country and even neighbouring countries, to places like Dubai, to the state, and thereby boost its economy and that of the country at large. It was to be a place where people could shop, do business and have fun in a pristine and serene environment.
Presently, the project, which is said to have cost about $600 million, leaves so much to be desired as not only has it failed to achieve its aim, but it also appears to be dying a very slow and painful death. At the moment it lies desolate and wasted with weed growing wildly everywhere.
The massive project has variously been described as a white elephant project, but many feel the subsequent administration was not as committed to the vision of the project, hence hampering the level of development it should have achieved by now. However, others feel the subsequent administration of Liyel Imoke did its best to get the place working, but had to contend with forces like the Customs and other business and political interests, which stifled the growth of the resort and left it fallow the way it is today. It was during Imoke’s tenure that the resort was gazetted. The former governor tried to breathe life into the resort by coming up with another mega project known as the Summit Hills, which consisted of a world class International Convention Centre and other cluster projects, housing estates, a golf course, a hospital, among others to draw traffic to the resort. He also linked up the Summit Hills to Tinapa by a monorail to increase the appeal of the project. Of all these however, the only functional ones today is the convention centre and the about one kilometre monorail, which is rarely in use.
In a recent interview Duke was quoted as describing as “childish” the way subsequent governments in the state have handled the project, instead of building on the blocks already prepared that would eventually lead to the development and benefit of the populace. Many believe he was expressing his displeasure at how subsequent administrations had abandoned the vision that brought the state out from the abyss of nothingness to the new status it enjoyed.
The groundbreaking for the Tinapa project was performed in Adiabo on the outskirts of Calabar in 2005.
The project site, measuring approximately 265 hectares of land, was on the 15th of August, 2006, declared a Free Trade Zone by the President in pursuant to the provisions of Section 1(1) of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Act No. 63 of 1992.
Facilities available at the Tinapa Resort include a pre-built retail and wholesale accommodation amounting to an excess of 65,000m2 lettable area composed of Four Emporia of 10,000m2 each, several Line Shops, Warehouses, and so on; an Open Exhibition Area for Trade Exhibitions and other events; an entertainment strip that comprise spaces for a Casino, an Eight-Screen digital Cinema, vintage international standard restaurants, a night club and pubs; an entertainment Centre with a functional Games Arcade and a mini amphitheatre.
Others include an artificial tidal lake that feeds from the Calabar River which itself flows into the Atlantic Ocean, where water sport activities, including fishing, can be undertaken on the Tinapa Lake; a man-made beach where leisure events can be held, a two hundred and forty two rooms international three star hotel; a movie production studio known as “Studio Tinapa”.
Also, there is a Water Park/Leisure Land comprising a collection of children and adult size pools, water slides, a wave pool-surfers delight, a lazy river as well as a bar and restaurant; a parking space for about four thousand cars; a truck terminal; a Helipad; an independent power plant that ensures adequate and uninterrupted power supply to the zone; over six kilometres of perimeter fencing with a good security network; over 15 kilometres of underground piping for sewage and storm water; a sewage treatment plant; and a dedicated Police post that provides security for the zone along with a team of private security organisations, among others.
On April 2, 2007, the resort was commissioned amidst high hopes of rapidly transforming the economic fortunes of the state by an expected explosion of activities.
This was not to be as in the first couple of years the resort lay fallow. Acerbic criticism trailed investment. Proponents of the project attributed the lull to the lack of a gazette on the operational regulations, policy and guidelines of the zone. The gazette through the efforts of the then Managing Director, Bassey Ndem, was ratified by the National Assembly after so much political horse-trading in 2009. Then, after a brief lull things began to pick up for the resort.
Investors’ presence in the zone started to swell in the zone. Leisure activities there also witnessed an explosion, with the water park; arcade and others getting an unprecedented number of customers.
The resort was even generating revenue for the state as the management then said the hotel alone was generating up to a N100 million monthly for the government.
Although it was still a far cry from its potentials, at least things got better until sometime in 2013 when a spanner was thrown in the works, following the alleged deliberate delay of goods meant for the resort by some customs officials at the Onne Port in Rivers State.
Some of the tenants in the zone, who have been using the Onne Port for transportation of their goods to Tinapa and the Calabar Free Trade Zone (CFTZ) complained that they have been experiencing unnecessary delays in the clearing of their containers. Findings revealed that Customs insisted that duty must be paid for Tinapa bound goods, a development which did not go down well with the investors as they said that since they were operating in a Free Trade Zone, they were not bound to pay such duties. The situation worsened until it squeezed the life out of the resort as investors left and turned the place to a ghost town. This, coupled with what has been perceived to be the lack of proper attention and political will by the government, has left the resort in the state it is today.
Like Tinapa, it appears the vision of Duke to make the state a hub is also plummeting, as there has been a considerable drop of visitors and activities, thereby tightening up the economy more.
However, optimists believe there is still light at the end of the tunnel for the dying giant as there are talks of the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) taking over the management of the resort.
“AMCON is coming in to reboot the place. From that standpoint, there is hope. AMCON as a Federal Government agency would be able to deal more seamlessly with bottlenecks that may arise with conflicts with other Federal Government agencies as the Customs, with NEPZA in the middle. There would be better synergy. Hopefully by 2018, AMCON would have concluded arrangements to take over and the place would come back to life. The entire idea of getting the place to make Cross River State a hub is just the first phase of a three-phased project. Fortunately the infrastructure is still intact because they were done to world class standard. So all hope is not lost,” a source said.
