BY EHIGIMETOR IGBAUGBA
When the ground-breaking ceremony of the Calabar-Obudu railway line project was performed in August 2024, the people of Cross River savoured the venture with excitement.
Cross Riverians and insightful stakeholders relished the prospects of the project in connecting the state’s major cities and enhancing transportation and trade.
One year afterwards, observers are raising concerns. They say there is no equipment on the ground to show that the project will commence anytime soon
.In January, Reinhooke Investment, the firm backing the project, said it had achieved significant milestone with the presentation of the topographical mapping of railway.
The company said that the mapping was for the first 104 km Calabar-Ugep route of the 365km railway line meant to connect five economic zones of the state.
The zones are Calabar, Ugep, Ikom, Ogoja, and Obudu, with expected widening of trade links with neighboring states.
The railway project will have its main terminals in Calabar and Obudu, while three substations will be located at Ugep, Ikom, and Ogoja.
The 350 million dollars Public-Private Partnership funded project is driven by Reinhoke in partnership with the state government.
At the groundbreaking ceremony, Gov. Bassey Otu had said that the railway project was one of the fruits yielded by the Investment Summit held in August 2023 at the Calabar International Convention Centre.
He said the state government had a robust engagement with financial, infrastructure, and social investment players, seeking buy-in in the growth trajectory of the state’s economy.
“Today therefore marks an important milestone in our quest to expand and diversify the stock of our infrastructure by partnering Messers Reinhoke LLC for the construction of the Grandlito Railway Project.”
He said that the public-private partnership in the provision of the infrastructure was based on funds from equity investments and debt financing from financial institutions with significant backing from the state government.
Otu said that the importance of the rail project to the economic growth of the state was premised on the strategic location of the state among other sub-nationals.
“Cross River is frontier to Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, and Sao Tome and Principe; it is also home to the largest export processing zone in Nigeria-the Calabar Free Trade Zone (CFTZ).
“The railway line will not only facilitate the easy intra-state movement but will serve as evacuation corridor for goods and services within international borders,” he said.
Otu said that the expected boost in international trade and its ripple effect would drill down the entrepreneurial spirit of Cross Riverians and trigger the state Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He tasked the company handling the railway project, Reinhooke Investment LLC, to attach the desired seriousness in order to meet the stipulated timeline for completion.
The governor also charged communities, which areas the rail project would cut through to give maximum cooperation to the construction company.
He told indigenes of the communities to take the railway project as their own because.
According to the governor, in line with local content, indigenes of the communities will apply for and get sub-jobs from the firm based on their capacities and set-skills.
Mr Stanley Orji, the representative of Rinehooke Investments LLC, said the project would attract investments and stimulate job creation.
He added that it would encourage the establishment of new businesses such as hi-tech, tourism, manufacturing, and agriculture, as well as bolster the ease of doing business in the state.
However, residents and critical stakeholders in the state have described the Calabar-Obudu railway as another smokescreen project.
They say the government should embark on projects that have direct bearing on the people and not another white elephant project that was never meant to be completed within the life span of the administration.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state cast doubts on the governor’s intentions on the project.
The state chairman of the party, Mr Venatius Ikem, said it appeared that successive government in Cross River considered only white elephant project that was designed to rake in money for them without a trace and without execution.
“The track record is becoming evident; it is terrible that successive administrations have gotten away with it so everyone will emulate the other.
“It would appear Otu is thinking up similar projects for himself.
“The state suffers for it as development is arrested; we keep turning around in circles without any visible developments to show for the humongous resources accruing from the federation account, and all the young men are looking for is Personal Assistant to this and that.
“Yesterday, it was Ben Ayade with a Superhighway to eldorado; today it is a railway.’’
Ikem said that the former governor Ayade got away with so much in bogus projects and was never held accountable for any.
“My suspicion is that it has emboldened this administration to try to do the same; we will resist and mobilise protests across the state against such misleading projects; enough is enough.
“We are even hearing of plans for a new Airport in Calabar. “Just like the Superhighway has disappeared from our memory with all the billions down the drain; all the much vaunted industries have been shown to be a total scam. “How do we expect to make progress in terms of job and wealth creation?”
The PDP chairman expressed regret that a state that was the leader in infrastructure development twenty years ago could no longer boast of access across.
“We are witnessing total development reversals, and nobody is talking.
“If Cross Riverians do not stand up and hold their governors accountable, we will soon become a haven for thieves and hopelessness.
“Our young men can barely see a future for themselves in our state’s environment. It is sad and unfortunate,” he said.
Etta Bassey, a businessman, said the immediate past administration embarked on such projects which led to the huge debt owed by the state.
“The former governor did a groundbreaking ceremony for a hotel project he tagged seven-star with much funfair, and as we speak, that project never did take off; so many others like that,” he said.
Another businessman, Ndoma Lyord, said the project was covered in secrecy as it had so many questions begging for answer.
According to him, it is not specified if the rail line is narrow or double gauge.
“For me, I just hope this does not turn out to be another Yahoo Yahoo project like we experienced in the last administration.
“For one, was there an Environmental Impact Assessment on the project before the ground breaking, who are the contractors and what are their pedigrees, was there an open bidding for the contract and when and where was it done?,” he queried.
Nonetheless, the state government has assured that the project is alive and will not be an abandoned one.
The Commissioner for Information, Dr Erasmus Ekpang, while not denying the fact that the project had actually not taken off, said a lot of contractual procedures were required for the project to commence.
“Nothing has been abandoned and do not forget also forget that the government has an obligation to pay a token into the project which is being carried out under PPP arrangement,” he said.
While many Cross Riverians are increasingly growing askance over the project, analysts say the state government and the contractor should set aside the doubts by commencing work and bringing the project to fruition.
