The poor state of Calabar – Itu road that leads to the multi-billion naira Industrial park constructed by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) in Odukpami, Cross River State, has turned out as major challenge for smooth operations of the park.
Penpushing reports that investigation conducted by Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) revealed that over 100 kilometres of road that stretches from Calabar in Cross River State to Itu in Akwa-Ibom State, has been neglected by successive governments for over 20 years.
This ugly development was affirmed by number of motorists and residents of the axis during an interview expressing regret that the road, which has attracted budgetary approvals for repairs by four successive administrations, has remained unattended to.
Penpushing further reports that one of the motorists emphasized that, he recalled that the first budget to fix the road was passed during the former President Olusegun Obasanjo administration, stating that it was unattended to.
“When nothing came out of the Obasanjo regime’s budget proposal, the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration came and also captured it in one of their annual budgets. This also did not achieve anything’.
“This ritual moved to the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. President Buhari included the road in two annual budgets during his first term in office between 2015 and 2019; but no work was done. The same administration captured the road in the budgets of 2020, 2021, and 2023. This is 2023, you can see that the road is still a nightmare for motorists”.
Penpushing also reports that he expressed pain that the road, which he said, serves the economic needs of the people of both Akwa-Ibom and Cross River States, could pose a major threat to the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB industrial park under construction as it’s not likely that serious investors would take up any space there with the road as presently is”.
The Park is a masterpiece that was well-thought out by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB to ramp up the manufacturing capacity of indigenous hands with the aim of kick-starting manufacturing of inputs for real industrialisation of Nigeria.
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