Calabar is not just another Nigerian city. Calabar is a brand.
For over 20 years, Cross River State has spent billions selling Calabar to the world as Nigeria’s cleanest, safest, most peaceful, most welcoming city. Carnival Calabar. Tinapa. Marina Resort. Obudu Cattle Ranch. The Christmas Festival. The “Come and Live and Be at Rest” slogan.
Today, November 4, 2026, some stupid people decided to throw all of that away for a few thousand naira and a few stones.
At about 2:20pm, at Watt Market Roundabout, the convoy of Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, was attacked on his way from the palace of the Obong of Calabar to Metropolitan Hotel for a town hall meeting.
According to Citizens’ Observatory, hoodlums armed with machetes, sticks, stones and bottles emerged from Calabar Road and Clerks Alley axis and smashed windscreens and side mirrors of campaign buses. Traders ran. Passersby ran. One person was reportedly hit by a stray bullet in the leg. Obi and his running mate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, escaped unhurt.
Police arrested one suspect, 27-year-old Victor Edet Yellow-Duke. Investigation is ongoing.
Let us call this what it is: *Stupidity.*
1. Stupid because it doesn’t work.
Obi still held his town hall. He still spoke. The video of the attack has now gone viral nationally and internationally — giving him more sympathy and free publicity than any rally in Calabar would have given him. Whoever sponsored this just campaigned for Obi.
2. Stupid because it exposes the sponsors.
You cannot hire thugs in Watt Market in broad daylight, with phones everywhere, and think nobody will know who paid. The police already have one boy. That boy will talk. In 2026 Nigeria, thugs should be in prison not on the street causing mayhem albeit cowardly. And when things as disgraceful as this, the least we expect is that the sponsors will own up to this disgrace and fave the full wrath of the law.
3. Stupid because it kills the brand.
This is the real danger.
The Cross River government is currently marketing Calabar as a tourism destination for December. Carnival is coming. Hotels are booking. Airlines are scheduling extra flights. Investors are watching.
What investor, what tourist, what Diaspora Nigerian will now watch a video of machete-wielding boys attacking a presidential candidate in the centre of Calabar — in Watt Market, the most popular market in the city — and still feel safe to bring their family for Christmas?
No sensible soul can market “Peaceful Calabar” in Abuja and Lagos while sponsoring “Violent Calabar” at home. The world does not separate state government from street thugs. To the world, Calabar is Calabar.
If Benue happened two months ago, and Enugu happened two days ago, and now Calabar — the pattern is becoming a national story: Nigeria cannot guarantee safety for opposition candidates. That is not just a Cross River problem. That is a Nigeria problem.
And for Cross River, it is worse. Other states have booming oil industry, some have active ports. Cross River has its _reputation_. It has tourism. It has hospitality. It has peace. When you destroy peace, you destroy the only product we as a people have.
The people behind this attack think they are protecting power. They are actually destroying livelihoods. The woman selling akara in Watt Market who had to run today lost her day’s income. The hotel that would have hosted tourists in December may lose bookings. The young graduate who would have gotten a Carnival ushering job may lose it.
All because someone could not tolerate an opposition candidate holding a town hall in a hotel.
Calabar elders, the Obong’s palace, the state government, and the police must act fast and publicly. Not just arrest Yellow-Duke. Find the sponsors. Prosecute them. Let the world see that Calabar does not tolerate this.
Otherwise, the message sent today is clear: Come to Calabar at your own risk.
And no tourism advert can wash that away.
At this point, let me categorically condemn this outright stupidity and call on all relevant institutions to ensure that those behind this senseless act are not only brought to book but to ensure that never again should this stupidity take space in the ancient city.
Thanks,
Richard Friday Inoyo, is the Country Director of Citizens’ Solution Network and writes from Calabar, Cross River State.
NB: Opinions expressed in this article are strictly attributable to the author, Richard Inoyo and do not represent the opinion of CrossRiverWatch or any other organization the author works for/with.
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