A political movement wrote an open letter calling out the Cross River State governor Ben Ayade over what it sees as a deliberate attempt to allow tourism sector assets in the state to rot. Below i the full text of the letter.

WHY TOURISM SECTOR ASSETS IN CROSS RIVER STATE MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO ROT AWAY.

It is saddening to see many assets acquired by previous governments of CRS during the heydays of the tourism drive apparently being deliberately neglected and allowed to gradually rot away costing the taxpayer hundreds of billions of Naira in losses.

Some of the assets worst affected include but are not limited to the Obudu Ranch Resort, Tinapa, Marina Resort and even the well maintained lawns that used to lie beside the clean streets of Calabar, the "largest flag in Africa" that used to be at the Millenium park, the eleven - eleven roundabout fountain (now a rest place for lunatics), our Water Board which used to be the best in West Africa, the State library. The list is endless.

Available statistics show that during the peak of the Donald Duke initiated tourism drive in CRS, these attractions such as the Obudu ranch resort (with its cable car, canopy walkway, mountain race etc), the Marina resort, Calabar carnival, Tinapa resort, etc attracted nearly 2.5 million visitors to the state by 2006 with its ripple effect to local businesses like hotels, shops, restaurants etc. Total investments in the sector was put at US$ 3.5 bn by the end of 2007.

For Governor Ben Ayade, his focus is on his "signature projects" like the Garment factory, Super highway, Deep seaport, Power plant, Calapharm etc. These projects if actualized, would undoubtedly boost the economy of the state. Although Generation X is thinking that they may not be achieved due to the number of projects being embarked upon all at once with projected cost that are far out of the current financial reach of the State.

Generation X is however of the view that while working towards the actualization of these "signature projects", the present government MUST live up to its responsibilty to ensure that assets and programmes that were put in place by its predecessors as regards the tourism sector are excellently maintained, upgraded and promoted to achieve their full potential.

The benefits envisaged from the signature projects should come in addition to that of a strong and vibrant tourism sector not as a replacement.