The multi-billion naira industrial park about to be launched by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) in Odukpani, Cross River State, faces a threat of not achieving its purpose unless the poor state of Calabar – Itu road that leads to the park is fixed quickly.
This is one of the discoveries by a team of online publishers drawn from the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) that was on a guided tour of the project on Thursday, May 11.
Investigations revealed that the over 100 kilometres of road that stretches from Calabar in Cross River State to Itu in Akwa-Ibom State has been a victim of neglect by successive governments for over 20 years.
According to a who motorist, interviewed on the state of the road, who pleaded anonymity, the sad state of the road was a huge source of pain and regret for those who ply the road regularly.
Meanwhile, he claimed that the road has attracted budgetary approvals for repairs and reconstruction by four successive administrations, yet developments on the road has nothing to show for it.
He said the first budget to fix the road was passed during the former President Olusegun Obasanjo regime. “But it was unattended to in spite of the budget”, he revealed.
He added that: “When nothing came out of the Obasanjo regime’s budget proposal, the former President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration came and also captured it in some of their annual budgets. This also did not achieve anything.
“This ritual moved to the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. President Buhari included the road in two annual budgets during his first term in office between 2015 and 2019; but the road remain in a sorry state. “The same administration”, he revealed, “captured the road in the budgets of 2020, 2021, and 2023. This is 2023, you can see that the road is still a nightmare for motorists”.
He expressed regret that the road, which he said, serves the economic needs of the people of both Akwa-Ibom and Cross River States, could pose a major threat to the NCDMD’s industrial park under construction as “it’s not likely that serious investors would take up any space there with the road as presently is”.
The NCDMB Industrial Park Park is a masterpiece that was well-thought-out by the to ramp up the manufacturing capacity of indigenous Nigerian companies and professionals with the aim of kick-starting manufacturing of inputs for real industrialisation of Nigeria especially in the oil and gas sector.
