The Old Residency Museum, Calabar, Cross River State, seat of power of Amalgamated Nigeria in 1914 and residence of Governor-General Lord Lugard, was also the seat of the Southern Protectorate of Nigeria beforehand and was built in 1884. Perfectly restored and maintained by the Donald Duke Administration in 1999.

Starting with its 1999 "Budget of Maintenance" which saw the restoration of all State owned facilities and property, a new cost-effective maintenance culture was enacted and implemented, resulting in, amongst others, ridding offices of televisions, fridges, and carpeting,along with their wasteful recurrent costs.

In an 8-year tenure that realised a paltry N90b income, this administration implemented exemplary commonwealth public value with the highest Public-Private Value Ratios in Independent Nigeria's history.
The critical realisation of the fundamental role of effective drainage systems, with the execution of two Julius Berger macro-drainage projects to last the next few centuries, saw the kind of public works cost reduction effect on property, healthcare, waste management, water provision, transport, civil works, and other physical planning related areas which helped achieve public projects execution not possible in any other State. Calabar is also the only place in Nigeria you can drink the tap water due to the exemplary execution of its World Bank Assisted Water projects by the Cross River State Water Board.

Legislation to limit noise pollution, protect the fauna, along with the Calabar, later CRS, Clean & Green project, by the Ministry of Environment, and the creation of the Office of the Public Defender and the Citizens Advice Bureau at the Ministry of Justice were other notable public value enhancing features.

This set the State up with a public value foundation with which to quickly move into the next year's Budget and the vision of the business and leisure tourism with which to use the public value to catapult the State out of its paltry income status typical of more than 20 States.

The only monorail in Nigeria crossing the Cross River from Tinapa to the New Calabar City Development Area (Summit Hills), with the only state-of-the-art 2500 capacity Calabar International Conference Center in the background.

Summit Hills, the Beverly Hills of Nigeria, is built, similar to Tinapa across the river, with by far the best public civil infrastructure in Cross River State, hence in Nigeria by light years.
Real Estate features began with a 400-unit housing estate, a 300-bed hotel, a 110-bed private hospital, a couple of golfing-estates and of course much more planned to make it the most enjoyable place to live in Nigeria. That was the original plan of an Administration that delivered Tinapa for opening in the last year of its tenure in 2007.

The lethargy and unwillingness to carry on with this project critical to the strategy to catapult the State from fiscal obscurity to the second largest income generating , was one of the great wonders of the world in 2007. The 8-years of the next Administration were pitiful, and a site to lament upon, even for little children who could tell the difference.

Halting the flagship projects of its predecessor, as well as many others, the embarking upon its own projects alone, such as the $250m GE invested in its second-of-it's-kind factory in Calabar, only buttressed the folly of the inexplicable actions of the successor Administration ... especially when one looks at how the core business aspect of Tinapa would have impacted upon the $750m of Supply-Chain Management infrastructure invested by GE to support its factory, as well as its planned expansions.

One of the clearest examples of the effect of a lack of ideological basis of a party such as the PDP, was demonstrated by the inability of the Party to identify State Administration's policy implementations meeting the KPIs set on such ideology and ensuring that successive Administrstions have to continue on the set path of success.
But a party without ideology is nothing if not unable to give what it doesn't have.
11 years later, the PDP hasn't learnt this simple lesson. None of its candidates have any idea of the others' ideology.

Typical Obudu Ranch Chalet buildings. Obudu Cattle Ranch, Obudu, Northern Cross River State.

7-9 hours drive (depending on the condition of the Federal highway) to the north of the State from Calabar, Obudu is the 5th largest town in the State, behind Calabar, Ogoja, Ikom, and Ugep, and sits towards the foot of the Nigerian side of the Obudu/Cameroon Mountain Range, and we'll below the Obudu Cattle Ranch sitting on a plateau at 1800 metres above sea level.
The Ranch had approximately 40-odd cabins when the Duke Administration decided to augment such an idyllic tourist attraction by building over 200 more cabins and upgrading all the existing facilities and imputing new ones such as the Canopy Walkway, the Bebi Airstrip to remove the incredibly long road trips to get there and the Cable Car to provide an alternative to the hour-long risque-ish drive up the winding road from Obudu town to the Ranch plateau.

A certain wonder of the world, at a height in the tropics where one literally walks through cloudburst in the early morning, with a summer-rainfall terrain that produces the juiciest of vegetables and the most succulent beef, I can't think of anywhere else in the world apart from possibly New Guinea where one can enjoy the almost majestic luxury of sitting on a park bench to observe fresh water forming above, and falling through, clouds. The taste of the natural water defies the imagination ... simply divine!

During the Duke Administration the anticipated cost of a trip to the Ranch quickly quadrupled as it became impossible to book a cabin anytime after six months in advance. The government made an arrangement with Aerocontractors to subsidise the shortfall below 70% occupancy of the seats of 3 flights a week each from Lagos and Abuja to Bebi Airstrip. The Cable Car, being the only one in the continental sub-region if not the entire continent, became a special draw for the feeling of breathtaking quiet explosion it offers riders in awe of the views it provides of the majestic mountain range.

Again, quite inexplicably, the succeeding Administration cancelled this arrangement with Aero and one of the largest income earners of the State declined rapidly.

The only one in Nigeria, and the longest single-chain Cable Car ride in the world when it was built, going up the Obudu Mountain Range to the Ranch Resort.

Built by Julius Berger Construction and Trevi Foundation, this is without doubt the most challenging non-oil & gas related public civil engineering construction project in the history of this country, second only in engineering complexity, perhaps, to the long bridge on peat sand at the Lagos end of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.

Having lost the photographic documentation of the construction of that long-bridge half a century ago, I am happy to paste the following documentary of the construction of the cable car at Obudu and the pride it brings of the Nigerian and other engineers that executed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEstuFytabk

The effect on this ride, and the entire resort, of the cancellation, of the 6 flights a week from Abuja and Lagos via the Aero arrangement with Cross River State, in the first week of the successor Administration, is best left out of mind, most especially when the same Administration then approached Aero 5 years later in 2012 seeking to lease propeller planes with which to recommence weekly trips to Bebi from Lagos and Abuja.

The term "Niggargerian", meaning, ' to be mean, and wicked, even to ones self', has never been, and may never be, more appropriate than in description of the Liyel Imoke Administration of 2007-2015 in Cross River State.

It is little wonder that such a small-minded person was picked by Atiku as the Head of the Atiku/Obi Campaign in the South-Southern Zone.

Birds of the same feather ... crash into airplane engines together!

The swimming pool at Tinapa, at the only Water Parks in Nigeria, complete with Wave Pool and water slides.

The veritable improvement in the psyche, of ordinary Nigerians form Cross River and surrounding States, that this leisure activity, only previously seen on television, had brought, is phenomenal. What N1000 per person and N500 for children achieves in the eyes, hearts, and minds, of ordinary Nigerians for whom this basic pleasure was once an impossible luxury, is an experience worth every penny for my witnessing it, and testament to the simple yet superior vision of the Duke Administration and its appreciation of the natural economic and psychological consequences of superior public commonwealth value implementation.

Of course the rapid expansion of the Maldives-style stilted pagoda huts over the artificial lakes next-door and other breathtaking aspects of the domestic leisure side of the back-end of Tinapa also got killed by the deliberate actions of 2007.

Anyway, millions of leisure man-hours have been enjoyed that had never ever been by ordinary Nigerians who can't afford to travel outside the country, in the wave pool and on the water slides, first, and only one, of its kind in Nigeria, even to date!!!!!!! When I designed the 42 kilometers of the Calabar Marathon, the most incredibly scenic professional marathon route in the country, complete with plans for a year-round continuum of sponsors' improvements on private and commercial properties along the entire route as the mainstay of the Marathon Committee, it started and ended around here, close to the gates of the Water Parks and by the proposed entrance to the lake area, within the hundreds of acres of the Tinapa complex.

It would be truly amazing if some people sleep well at night!

A walk through Tortuga Island at the Marina Resort in Calabar, with its beautiful Carribbean-style pagoda bars, sit-out areas, live music, the only Slave Museum in Nigeria, Carousel, Cinema House, lounges and Quayside sit-out by the Calabar Marina.

There's something about the serenity and civility one experiences on every visit to Tortuga Island, (which at the very heart of Calabar with its excellent traffic management, lights and one-way systems designed by the Duke Administration, is not more than a 15-20 minute drive away from anywhere in Calabar) that offers even residents the feeling of a holiday away from daily routines.

The welcoming staff at the 3 Caribbean styled pagoda bars make one feel home away from a home only minutes away, in my case. The sight of UniCalabar students chatting romantically over a bottle of white wine and BBQ Croaker fish, quite uncommon in Nigeria, and the design of the entire resort area to accommodate all-comers from children on the Carousel to the aged strolling and then chatting on a quayside table listening to the waves lapping against the quay. The walk approaching (I prefer it to driving) from the top of the hill with the magical scenic beauty with which it calms one down in preparation for the simple delights of the quiet rhythms of nature's waters, leaves, birds, fresh air, and happy chatter over culinary delights to ones palette, never cease to amaze me as a masterpiece of Donald Dukes ability to create public value that improves upon the Nigerian capacity to think, socialise, and vision, in civility. A far cry from Abuja style "park joints" even in the evening, noisy and chaotic as Oshodi on a hot afternoon. I love the place.

The long walk to the far end of the Marina, with quayside on the left and a daunting natural wall of 60ft centuries-old trees all along the right like a scene out of a Harry Potter movie, ends in an idyllic opening into a calm green area where those with the heart to go all the way (trust me, grown men have been known to turn back halfway even in broad daylight) can sit down as if they are hundreds of miles away from the chatter a couple hundred yards away and from the town.

Brilliant!!!

The tallest Nigerian Flag in the world, at Millennium Park, aka 11-11, one of several pristine public parks with a Memorial to fallen heroes, Calabar.

The biggest stage not in an indoor venue is always set up in this mainstay of Festival life ... Millennium Park!! Bank Chairmen, EU and World Bank Heads, sit on the grass alongside ordinary Calabarians and enjoy the show. This is the metaphorical and almost physical, center of Calabar.

This iconic Calabar landmark is sentimentally and jealously held close to Calabarian hearts.

11-11 is loved ... dearly ... by all!

View of the Obudu Mountain Range from the Ranch Resort.

A breakfast of toast, eggs, sausages, bacon, juice, a hot cup of coffee, a lovely conversation and a ciggy ... or, dinner of roast potatoes and steak with luscious veggies and wine sauce,a glass of wine, romance in the air at sunset over the mountains ... I prefer a monkeytail aperitif, followed by seafood pepper soup with pounded yam and afang with snails and cow leg, washed down with fresh palm wine.

The thin air does the rest ... Nuff said!

Entrance to the Obudu Cattle Ranch.

This sight always tells a non-first-timer that he or she is about to experience sheer magic.

What a getaway from Nigeria's chaos.
Grapes grown here to test its potential to produce top quality wine only suffered from the 9-month rainy season to make them slightly wet-of-center and requiring artificial counteractants to stop the end-product being too sweet. Golfing resorts with a handful of 5-star hotels can be built here to accommodate the Japanese for whom golfing at home is a millionaires pastime only ... they often go to Europe to play because it's cheaper than Japanese club membership. It's also perfect for Conference Hotels with which to attract African American professional Associations to have their annual conferences and seminars as a way to start reconnecting with the continent.
The climate is ideal ... you have heaters and fire places not air conditioners.
The native Becheve people, tall and light skinned, are cattle readers like the Fulani, and beekeepers too. Becheve honey is one of the numerous successful privatisation projects of the Duke Administration and is sold in hotels and super markets all over the country ... ask for it at Eko Hotel in V/I.
They even built our very own equivalent of Camp David, a magnificent presidential retreat, complete with an Air Force Base, both on a plateau slightly higher than the one on which the Ranch resort sits.

A truly majestic place to visit ... Obudu Ranch Resort and its magical surrounds never let one down!

Emporium B at Tinapa Business Park the largest non-religious indoor venue (25,000 capacity) in Nigeria.

Once, the Nigerian Bar Association conducted its annual Bar Conference here, with over 18,000 in single sittings. It often holds the annual meeting of the State Association of Local Govt. Chairpersons and Councillors, an occasion that never ceased to amaze me for the rare civility and decorum of its proceedings, based on the vision with which PDP Cross River State in 1999 ensured that as many graduates and other similarly educated candidates entered into the races for Local Govt. Councillorship and Chairmanship posts. Emporium B came to be used only for such conference sittings and for entertainment events with a capacity larger than the Cultural Center could take.

This was not what its surrounding Business Park was created in essence, and totality, however, to achieve. It was created as the veritable soul of the strategy with which to escape the State's paltry fiscal character, by being the hub of the retention of approximately 10-15% of our colossal wholesale and retail trade imports from the Middle East and the Far East, in a simple, yet genius, bid to become the second largest income generating State behind Lagos within 5 years of Tinapas 2007 opening. Agreements were already signed with scores of global traders such as Macy's, M&S, J. C. Penney, and Walmart as well as many lesser known brands, one or two of whom had opened shop.
Again, the horrific events permitted in the first week of the successor Administration in 2007, whereby Customs officials physically and brutally evicted staff and management of those early global traders, in lieu of a simple-to-resolve technical error regarding the use of foreign exchange critical to the trade arrangement, was the calculated death knell of this crucial aspect of Tinapa existence and the States destiny for greatness for which its far superior public value was implemented.

The success strategy was no better buttressed by the fact that even after ruining this colossal aspect, and the States fiscal opportunity to exit obscurity, the Bar Conference spent approx 12m Euros in Calabar in a week.

New Calabar City Development Area at night.

My darling Atekong Drive, a typical Calabar street scene, beneficiary if the Calabar, later. Cross River, Clean & Green project, which involved the five largest towns of Calabar, Ikom, Ugep, Akpabuyo, and Ogoja, saw legislation in place to protect fauna and also noise pollution and disturbing the peace, by religious organizations and private parties, which was considered pollution too.

It also involved the central business district infrastructure projects expanded to these major towns.

Giant Feet artwork in one of Calabars many pristine public parks.

Giant Hands artwork in another one of Calabars pristine public parks.

Tinapa Film Studios, original site of Ebony Life Television.

In a country suffering from the peculiar effects of a characteristic cultural dearth of physical public infrastructure, and the development-economic cost consequences of the logistics deficits such entails, only a rare visionary like Donald Duke realises the essential, crucial, and INEVITABLE role of Technology, Media, & Telecommunications (TMT) as are being converged into one sector by the internet, in the future turnaround of society.

Lacking in such physical infrastructure, and being largely a mutant state in which such deficits are economically almost impossible to surmount, this area, with its dependence on invisible, thereby impossible to touch, infrastructure, is the veritable easiest way out of our economic woes.

Media entertainment, its professional-intellectual quality productions that is, is our most probable and most possible major seller to the developed mind of our contemporaries all over the world. There are few things we can produce to any quality close to theirs and for their consumption, as intellectual content ... and the internet is continuing to explode new galaxies of opportunities with which we may do so and earn thousands of times more than we can from more than the oil and gas we possess, if we can only have leaders, unlike in the PDP and APC, who understand this fact and invest in its potentialities accordingly as Donald Duke had.

I spent two and a half years in the State during the tenure of his successor Administration, and this entire, basic, development-economic concept, was, is, and forever will be, impossible for their leadership to grasp.

Instead of housing a vibrant professional media-entertainments industrial sub-sector as it was envisaged to begin with, and then expanding to spurn media villages next door and to grow out of an obvious natural connection, through the Tinapa Business Park, to Dubai Media City, this brilliant economic potential ended up merely housing the production studios of Ebony Life TV.

A British carpenter, built Ebony Life studios and the sets of movies like Pirates of the Carribbean, trained many locals, and reared to grow.

What a waste!

Entrance into Millennium Park, 11-11, with the Old Masonic Lodge at the top of the picture across the road.

Sights of Calabar like this with the evident green set backs all over the town supported by the people increased, and are a symbol of, the pride for Crossriverians.

We also took pride in the legislation to save N50m per month by the government for a rainy day, which saw his administration leave N4.8b in this Savings Account at the end of the Administration in 2007.

ProjectNaija:
Entrance into Millennium Park, 11-11, with the Old Masonic Lodge at the top of the picture across the road.

Sights of Calabar like this with the evident green set backs all over the town supported by the people increased, and are a symbol of, the pride for Crossriverians.

We also took pride in the legislation to save N50m per month by the government for a rainy day, which saw his administration leave N4.8b in this Savings Account at the end of the Administration in 2007.

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