By Jonathan Ugbal
The Chairman of the Cross River Ports Authority, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa says the strides made by Cross River Governor, Senator Ben Ayade in infrastructure will transform the state economically.
Giwa stated this in an interview last weekend while on an inspection tour of several projects in Calabar, the Cross River State capital where she also commended Ayade for his foresight and wondered how he had achieved such with just meagre resources available to the state.
“Every Nigerian prays to have light. The power sector will please the elite and positively impact on the common man, entrepreneurs and generation yet unborn. I think it is the best thing that any leader can do for the citizenry,” Giwa said at the 31 MW Power Plant which was supposed to be delivered in February.
Continuing, she said she is excited at the prospects that; “we are not going to do carnival in darkness anymore and for those engaged in sewing costumes at night, they will have light to aid them in their job.”
On Ayade, she said that; “Cross River has always been first, the state prided itself in the past as industrialized with companies ranging from match, paper mills, among others. Ayade has come to bring back that position and take away the recent tag of poverty from the state.”
The former Special Adviser on National Assembly matters to President Olusegun Obasanjo lauded the ‘magical’ pace of work and advised him to “make more noise about the projects”.
Commenting, Governor Ayade disclosed that the power project in the state was targeted at the common man, considering the vistas of opportunities it will open while transforming the economy.”
“We need to take Cross River State out of the knowledge that it is only a tourism state, a poor state where you only go to have fun and leave,” adding that “because the brain can always take over from money, we are introducing intellectualism to governance,” Ayade said.
The governor also reiterated his administration’s resolve to ensuring that Cross River State takes back its position as an industrial hub, epicenter of maritime transaction and a hub for manufacturing and export, pointing that “a state that stretches from the Atlantic coastline to northern Nigeria cannot be said to be poor.”
He added that “the rice mill, cocoa processing zone are all ongoing and this is the only state that is not owing salaries. We have a politically stable state were all hands are on deck, all feet on fire and legs on the paddle to bring value to the state.”
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