It was supposed to be a one hell of a weekend. I had looked forward to this particular trip to Tinapa; a world-class integrated Business and Leisure Resort in Calabar. As the plane’s tyres screeched on the tar marks of Margaret Ekpo International Airport Calabar, all of a sudden I had this foreboding to manage my expectation and not expect too much. Not because I can’t see anything good about Nigeria but because we have a terrible history of not sustaining projects and infrastructure decay. A new government assumes office and all of a sudden old projects are jettisoned and new ones are commissioned to be abandoned or discontinued by the next administration. It’s a never ending cycle.

As the bus pulled into Tinapa, I was tranquilized by the serenity of the resort, with the well aligned trees lining the roads and deafening silence only matched by the hums of the few cars that sped past us; it was perfect. And then it hit me; where are the tourists? Where are the buyers? Where is everyone? I retired to my room at the Lakeview hotel that evening wondering what happened to Tinapa but hoping to see everyone the next day.

The following day I began my tour. My first port of call was the conference centres overlooking the artificial lake which in itself was looked like a stream in the middle of a remote forest. The conference centres were under lock and key, a peep inside showed that the halls have not been put to use for a long period of time as dusts visibly settled on the seats and tables. The inter-locking blocks in the surroundings had slimy brown moulds growing on them; the paints on the wall were all wearing off. Can't help but ask what happened to Tinapa?
what happened to Tinapa

I traced my way from there to the Sea World Arcade where I met a few kids playing various games and the state wasn’t quite different from that in around the conference centre.

I got to the Emporiums passing the locked casino on the way, and found that all of the shops were vacated, except for the few that were either packing out or had few inventories for sale. I spoke to the few shop owners I met, and they all seem to agree that the supply of customers have somehow dried up. Reasons like government not doing enough to customs insistent on collecting duty on shipments were thrown at me.
I even saw two well wrapped up monorail coaches and I guess they would never be unwrapped but would be left to rot away. It was really a show of shame.

What happened to Tinapa?

First of all I just don’t understand the essence of building the 5000 multi-purpose Calabar International Conference Center (CICC) close to Tinapa when the latter has not been fully utilised. Built by Liyel Imoke led government to encourage the patronage of Tinapa Business Resort, it has obviously not done that.

Secondly, the curious case of custom duties, it’s meant to be a trade free zone, which it obviously isn’t from the complaints one hears from the business owners located there.

Then the fact that Calabar ports can’t berth ships bringing goods to Tinapa, as they have to be taken to Onne in Port Harcourt and transported to calabar on road.

There are several other reasons guys, but we really need to start questioning our governments as millions of dollars are rotting away in Tinapa.

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http://lightednation.com/2015/07/what-happened-to-tinapa/

Monumental waste. Why cant some things work in my 9ja? So painful seeing this just waste away when some countries sustain themselves via tourism.