Why Should I Invest $150m To Revive Tinapa Resort When I Can’t Pay Salaries?– Ayade Speaks On Project Abandonment

The Governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade has admitted abandoning the dilapidating TINAPA Resort and Free Zone in the state.

Ayade said when he assumed office, he almost ceded the resort to Asset Management Company of Nigeria over the conflict between AMCON and the state.

The outgoing governor said on Wednesday during an interview on Arise Tv that contractors whom he contacted asked for $150m to renovate TINAPA.

TINAPA was commissioned in April 2007 and gulped over $350m.

The project was developed in four phases under a Private Public Partnership (PPP), promoted by the Cross River State Government.

Ayade said, “I don’t have money to renovate it because people who are coming are asking me to bring $150m for the renovation of TINAPA. Where will Cross River State get $150m? I left it that way because the amount for the renovation is huge.

“If you decide to convert TINAPA to a university, I have thought of converting it into a commercial city centre with the African Continental Free Trade Centre for it to be used for the processing of export for the Gulf of Guinea processing but TINAPA doesn’t have a Jet-in. So, how do you bring in goods and services? It was structured dysfunctionally and engineered in a way that it cannot work except so many other indices come into play. How would you ask me to invest in TINAPA when I can’t pay salaries?

“When people can’t earn their salary, then you ask me to go and invest in a sophisticated edifice which could have been better located in a place like Lagos.”

On Obudu Cattle Ranch, the governor explained that he invested a lot of state resources to revive the ranch.

He identified some of the hindrances that have frustrated the ranch’s contribution to state revenue.

He said, “About Obudu cattle ranch, there is a sadness in my soul. I’m from Obudu. That ranch is our pride. Obudu cattle ranch when I came in, the cable car was not working. The ranch was not working. I never met it working but I invested in paying 36 months salary backlog.

“I fixed the cable car with N169m, I paid the company that installed the cable car and they fixed in my first 6 months and N5m on diesel. I earn N88,000 from the cable car. The cable car was sophisticated for people who are predominantly civil servants and nobody is willing to pay N1,000 for the cable car when they can ride a bike for N100.

“Secondly, I renovated the entire Obudu cattle ranch. I bought brand new generators and fixed the power. Imagine after investing so hugely to renovate the ranch and there is no month that money is realised because people come sparingly. If you have two or three guests in the hotel, the ranch is there but the challenge of the ranch is access.”

According to the governor, the distance between the state capital and the ranch is about seven hours which discourages tourists.

He added, “You have seven hours of travel time from Calabar to get up to the ranch. Who does that? That is why we are building an airport in Obudu because the airport is the only thing that can increase traffic to the ranch. If I renovate the ranch and put gold all over it, the fact that you travelled a perilous road of seven hours to get to the ranch can’t be enjoyable. I know that for the ranch to succeed, I need an airport.”