By Onwa Ekor
The saying, ‘seeing is believing,’ could be the reason why amidst the laudable projects embarked across the three senatorial districts and their tremendous impacts to the citizenry, Cross River government insisted on taking journalists in the state, through a guided media tour of its projects.
Led by the State Commissioner for Information, Dr. Erasmus Ekpang, Cross River government took media practitioners across some project sites in the Southern senatorial district, to see the extent of interventions, remediation and remodeling, carried out in the various facilities.
Among the sites visited was the reconstruction and remodeling of the Cultural Center Complex which has 18 months duration for completion, with an already achieved milestone of 30 percent and handled by Ashbury Sunderland Infrastructure Development limited.
Also made public to newsmen in the state were, a total of 108 numbers of 30 horsepower tractors presently domiciled in the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation Development premises, estimated at over N1 billion which will lead to food sufficiency and speedy evacuation of farm produce to markets.
The projects tour took journalists to the building which houses SEMA warehouse and the State media outfit, (Cross River Newspaper Corporation), which was reduced to a ghost town during the October 23, 2020 EndSars protest where also a comprehensive renovation is ongoing. 
Still in the premises, a total of 200 pieces of electric motorcycles procured by the Ministry of Transport and Marine services were displayed before journalists. Acquired from Spiro Mobility Nigeria Limited at the cost of N474m, the noiseless motorcycle does not use engine oil or fuel, rather uses batteries and can do 120kms, while helping to crash prices of commodities through speedy evacuation and delivery of products.
Other areas Ekpang led journalists to were, the State Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS where renovation work have been completed, as well as the General Hospital where the Cross River government acquired electronic medical record to track all activities in the health facility as well as slashing patients waiting time.
The completed Nyong Edem concrete pavement with cement technology, the Yellow Duke long spam culvert and the revitalized Primary HealthCare Centre, Anantigha were not left out as all have been put into use.
The completed state-of-the-art library fitted with 128kva solar panel and the Governor’s office, looked elegantly furnished, even as the 5km Adiabo – DSS training school road and the Adiabo – Ikoneto road abandoned for over 30 years have achieved 50 percent completion as swamp viewed as major challenge have been tackled.
Speaking to newsmen shortly after the tour of projects, the Commissioner for Information, Dr Erasmus Ekpang said, “The governor actually came to rebuild Cross River, a lot of buildings were down and out, you saw the infrastructure in the Governor’s office, library, our agricultural programs and policies, we are actually in a revolutionary stage.”
According to the Information Boss, “a lot of confidence have been reposed by CrossRiverians and whenever we travel out, people believe in us and that is because we have a visionary leader who has actually opened Cross River to the world, who actually started with the economic summit, introducing and selling the state to the world, who actually started with the soil mapping to understand and see that the soil would be good for cocoa, oil palms, coffee or other crops.”
Applauding Otu for his benevolence and humane nature, the Commissioner pointed out that as a ministry, “I am actually leaving a legacy project at the Chronicle that has been abandoned for almost 20 years,” admitting that, “even if I am out of here tomorrow, people will talk well about me that I tried to upscale CRBC, tried to be more media friendly and at the same time build a new Chronicle.”
Continuing, Ekpang who gave kudos to the governor for improved security network and strategies, assured that, “Cross River is going back to Switzerland of our time where investors are safe and secured, even as residents sleep with their eyes closed.”
For Special Adviser, General Duties, Barr Ekpenyong Akiba, “in two years, Otu has covered the field and the people are happy having demonstrated himself as an enigma of pragmatic leadership, a governor that is responsibly responsive and progressively productive when it comes to projects and people interest.”
Akiba who argued that the governor has always been breaking new grounds with state-of-the-art facilities maintained that the State is on international map presently as it is excelling in sports, tourism, education, health and conducive environment, among others.
