As part of the then Eastern Nigeria, South-east state was created in May 1967 and renamed Cross River State (CRS) in 1976. While the current Cross River State was reconfigured in 1987 when Akwa-Ibom State was carved out of the former Cross River State Structure.
With a population of about 3 million persons, the state shares common boundaries with the Republic of Cameroon in the east, Benue state in the north, Ebonyi and Abia state in the west, Akwa-Ibom state in the south-west and Atlantic Ocean in the south.
Having a land mass of 23,074SqKm, Cross River is home to rich stock of arable land, forest and mineral resources inclusive of but not confined to Limestone, Natural Gas, Clay, Salt, Tin, Granite, Kaolin, Lead, Zinc, Barite, Uranium among others.Thus sitting on this biodiversity hotspot, one at once imagine that Cross Riverians of every extraction would tap into their pass to examine where they are coming from to enable them access the present just as they figure out how to shape the future against the backdrop of their institutional education, religious and cultural orientation. For many years until recently was oriented to contain with unemployment.
At least a flicker of light can be glim now that the bar placed under employment has been raised by the governor of Prof. Ben Ayade with the distribution of forms to qualified persons in the state after several years of miss-match between retirement and employment which may render the state Civil Service almost comatose from irregular replacement, fatigue or from lethargy of inexperience army of newly recruited persons or both. In this regard, those to be recruited must be competent and of good character.
These goes far beyond paper qualifications as character and competence are of course necessary and there are also neutrally and individually inclusive to function or lead in the 21st century.
Cross River State is endowed by God with various natural and mineral resources located within the tropical rainforest belt of Nigeria with largely and agrarian economy of rich arable land. Its mineral deposit of limestone, natural gas, clay, salt, tin, granite, lead, zinc, barite, uranium among others make the newly created Ministry of Solid Minerals in the state dream come through. The chronicle of the lethargy of the state mineral blessing without whose is of little or no avail.
The pioneer spirit of the Gov Ayade led administration that made wide the birth of this ministry and other new ones in the state has a positive trajectory that has placed the state in the lead of manufacturers or industrialist when driven to it logical conclusion. The growth and development of the economy of any geopolitical entity depends largely on manufacturing but less or less on handout from the federation account.
More so, when the recent global oil drop sadly witness the free fall of prices of over $120 per barrel to a ridiculous low of less than $50 currently. There is going to say the fact that the 2015/2016 Calabar Festival Theme “Climate Change” drives this awareness more than anything else in the state just as more than 150 world leaders gathered in Paris last under the austerity of the United Nations (UN) in their to hammer their commitment into a responsible agreement to reduce carbon emission or to decarbonise energy use or switch from fossil fuel to renewable energy in the world, the first of its kind in the millennium. Thus with the influx of investors into the state, it is expected that the guarantee of the investors confidence is assured in an atmosphere of neutral trust amidst an environment of congenial bureaucracy and less restrict as a com poise to explore these minerals.
As businessmen navigate their way to the state known for her hospitality, Cross Riverians would cease to be hospitable if we allow our differences in politics, religion, culture,traditional, and primordial interest or impulses to deface the pace and take the better part of us. The state is in urgent need of political, social, economic, cultural and intellectual regeneration. At all times, a combination of strategy, patience, commitment, trust, education, character and above all love is key to all successful political and economic business.
21st century Cross River under Gov Ayade needs nothing less. This is the legacy we all owe the state.