Follow as we bring to an end, the explosive interview in which former Governor Liyel Imoke blew the lid on how his profligate predecessor, Donald Duke, plunged Cross River State into an ocean of debt with a “white elephant” Tinapa Resort project and many more.
At some point, Aero Contractors was flying to the Bebi Airstrip on the Ranch, but Mr. Duke alleges that you stopped the airline from going there. Did you really do that, and why?
The truth is that we were subsidising the cost of Aero Contractors flying to the Ranch; we were paying for empty seats. We had inherited a debt of over N80 million owed Aero Contractors for flying empty to the Ranch. I had to take a decision on whether to continue with the subsidy or to do things differently. We had to make sure that people of Cross River State were served, not just the leaders and/or the elite class. Aero Contractors stopped flying to the Ranch as a result of the debt burden that we had inherited. But in spite of that, you will recall that there were two air crashes at the Bebi Airstrip that discouraged flights to the facility. But at the same time, I still went on to invest in the Bebi Airstrip, in the Instrument Landing Systems and other landing facilities to improve the airstrip itself and make it possible for flights to land on the Ranch. We hosted President (Goodluck) Jonathan, and others, flying into the Ranch and spending some holiday time; there was also a former president of Senegal and a host of others, who flew into the Ranch when I was governor.
There was the issue of the Reserved Fund, which he alleged you squandered on ‘useless projects’. Can you please also throw light on this?
We need to relate the Reserve Fund to the debt burden. How much was in the Reserved Fund when he left office and how much was the state’s debt? We had a Reserved Fund into which the state contributed N50 million monthly, and the 18 local governments each contributed N1million monthly. These contributions were sustained and invested. The challenge was that we had a huge debt burden. So you have a Reserved Fund with maybe a billion naira, but a debt burden of over N100 billion. So, why has Donald never made any reference to the debt burden that he left? Why is it just the Reserved Fund?
Let me add that the Reserved Fund was not exclusively owned by the state government. It belonged to all the parties (investors); and its utilisation for projects as it were, was in compliance with the law, as amended. The state government and local governments who were investors in the fund approved the utilisation of those funds for projects like the Institute of Technology and Management (ITM) in Ugep, a necessary and practical intervention for the development of middle-level skilled manpower direly needed in the state. It is visible and functional today. The Fund was valued at close to N5 billion when I left office. Donald’s estimated value of N190 billion is clearly a fiction.
But Mr. Duke says you are a serial failure. To quote him, he said you “failed as a minister and as governor of Cross River State.” Is that correct?
Well, the only thing I have to say is that his only political success was when I drafted him to run for governor and managed both his campaigns – at primaries and at election proper. He has been a serial failure since we parted ways and after he did everything within his powers to undermine me and to make sure I didn’t succeed him as governor. He failed to obtain a nomination as the presidential candidate and every candidate he has supported for elections in the state to date has been unsuccessful. I have no doubt that he will continue in the same vein particularly as he has not done anything tangible since he left office as governor. You can’t become president on a deceitful distorted foundation. He failed in Cross River State, and as such, can only look for whom to blame. I would like to let him know that Cross River State did not die in 2007 when I took office; maybe somebody’s spirit died, but Cross River State did not die in 2007!
Throughout my political career, I have provided purposeful, selfless leadership and enjoyed popular support that led to Donald’s success at the polls against all odds. For a governor, who left a few hundred million naira in the Reserved Fund and a debt of over N100 billion; and outlandish but unsustainable projects all over the place, he certainly didn’t have the best interest of the people at heart.
We established a Debt Management Office to manage the huge debt overhang. The state DMO negotiated the restructuring of those debts, lengthening the repayment period and found ways to manage the debt, pay salaries and still invest in projects and programs in the state. The state DMO worked in collaboration with the Debt Management Office of the Federation, and I can tell you that as of today, Cross River State is still paying Tinapa’s debts. We must all agree that when a state carries such a huge debt burden the people suffer because their future has been mortgaged.
I have reliably been informed that he is even trying again to put the state in further debt by endearing himself to the current Governor, Ben Ayade, and getting Ben Ayade to guarantee another loan for Tinapa even as we all are still reeling from the debt burden which he left for us. However, I know that Ayade is smarter than that; he will not further mortgage the state to satisfy Donald’s over-inflated ego.
Mr. Duke has questioned the rationale for the International Convention Centre because Tinapa was already there. Why did you go ahead to build the Convention Centre and the monorail?
As an eternal optimist, I made a last ditch effort to save the white elephant called Tinapa by siting the award-winning Calabar International Convention Centre (CICC) within the precincts of Tinapa and linking the Tinapa Hotel in particular and mall to the Convention Centre. Cross River State has become a destination for meetings and conferences and needed a facility to attract top-notch events. Again, it was a last ditch effort to create a tourism hub around Tinapa. I think most people appreciate that, but I’m sure Donald will never appreciate that.
In his so-called interview, he also mentioned the monorail. You will recall that the monorail was another outlandish and unsustainable project of Donald’s which the banks refused to finance because of the faulty feasibility studies. Donald’s feasibility studies were based on the presumption that 3000 people will ride on the monorail daily going directly from the airport to Tinapa. This meant a minimum of 60 full flights daily would land and take off in and from Calabar Airport with every passenger going directly to Tinapa on the monorail.
Donald has approached the African Export-Import Bank(Afreximbank) and several other banks to finance the monorail project in addition to the state’s huge debt burden. All the banks rejected his request for financing for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, I was stuck with the project since billions of naira had already been invested in faulty feasibility studies and procurements.
We tried making it viable by proposing alternative traffic routes connecting Watt Market, UNICAL and other heavily populated parts of the city unsuccessfully. Rather than let it all waste away, I thought to use the tracks that had already been ordered by Donald but paid for by my own administration, to link Tinapa to the Calabar International Convention Centre, and by so doing, to bring Tinapa closer to the city. A recurrent complaint by the few prospective investors was that Tinapa was too far out from the city. So, I tried to use the monorail to link those facilities, create a hub and of course, make the best use of what I was already stuck with, which was the tracks for the monorail. I recall that in my dilemma, I took a former president to the CICC project site when we started construction; and I told him what my thoughts were on the project. And after my effort at explaining it to him, he looked at me and took a deep breath; he looked across to Tinapa and said to me ‘Liyel, I understand what you are trying to do; you’re trying to paint a white elephant black.’ Need I say more?
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Mr. Duke’s criticism didn’t stop at the state level. He criticised your service at the federal level as minister of power and steel. What can you say to that?
Hmmm! What a pity! But that’s Donald. We achieved the fastest growth in power generation during my tenure. And of course, we embarked on the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP), which is still under construction and which is sustaining power supply to Nigerians till today; not to mention the reforms in the power sector. However, I left a few months into the commencement of the NIPP project. But it will be irresponsible of me to blame Babatunde Fashola or ministers that succeeded me for all that might have happened in the power sector after I left. I would have hoped that Donald was intelligent and enlightened enough to know that nothing near $3 billion was spent on NIPP as at the time I left office, so his reference to 16 billion was calculated. He had to take a swipe. Of course, it must hurt him to his marrows every time he drives past the 560 megawatts Odukpani Power Station which was constructed when I was in office. It must hurt him to his marrows every time he is driving to Tinapa and sees the huge transmission sub-station bringing power from the Odukpani Power Station, which was constructed when I was in office as minister; not to talk of distribution projects in every local government area of Cross River State. It must be painful to Donald that I succeeded in delivering roads in Boki and all local government areas in the state when he said ‘it would take the entire state budget to do a few kilometres of roads in Boki’. A thousand kilometres of rural roads with bridges were constructed during my tenure as governor. It must hurt him that I embarked on the construction of Calabar South roads, the ancestral land of the Efiks, and transformed Calabar South from its previous derelict and decrepit look to how it now looks; not to mention the huge Channel 2 Drain that was constructed during my tenure, which stopped their homes from being flooded during the rains. It is a pity that he cannot acknowledge that when I was sworn in, only Marian Road had street lights. But that by the time I left, the whole of Calabar South, Calabar Municipality, State and Federal Housing Estates, Summit Hills, and all the major highways had streetlights; specifically 134 kilometres of streetlights were constructed. Donald must never have driven down the Goodluck Jonathan Bypass or the link bridge; I’m sure he hasn’t crossed the new Idundun Bridge either.
We transformed the Calabar Carnival, which he started, into an outstanding spectacular international event in the eight years I managed it. We branded it, expanded it and put it on the global tourism calendar. How painful that must be to him. It must be painful to Donald that we did Obudu urban roads, we did Ogoja urban roads, and we expanded Ugep urban roads. It must be painful for him that we delivered innovative healthcare programs, renovations of schools; and equipped our schools across the state. The Comprehensive Sports Development Program, winning five successive championships and playing host to the National Football Teams, and the upgrading of the Stadium and the sports facilities in the state including the new Ikom Stadium. It must be very painful to him that we succeeded where he expected us to fail in spite of the huge debt burden which he left behind. Donald claims that he electrified 80 per cent of the communities in the state; that is a very interesting number! We can check the records. We can specifically state that we electrified 176 communities, and as minister of power and steel, I got the Obudu Ranch communities and the Ebrutu axis of Odukpani electrified with the support of the Japanese Government. He must not have heard of the modern civil service housing estate in Akpabuyo with the provision of road infrastructure, water and electricity which provided civil servants with an opportunity to own their own homes. Donald wants to believe that nothing good has happened to Cross River State since he left office in 2007. The stark reality is that in spite of the challenges, which he left behind, many good things have happened to Cross River State since 2007. I believe that the people of Cross River State are not blind.
Again, coming back home to the state, he says he dealt with the Atam Congress challenge all by himself. Did you play any role at all in ending the Atam Congress?
It’s typical of him to talk about the Atam Congress in the manner he did in that interview. Everyone familiar with the issues knows the role I played in taking a position against the Congress. But my friend dares not acknowledge it. It was through my intervention that we killed the Atam Congress movement. I was vilified and called a traitor because as an ‘Atam man’, I worked against the Atam interest. He was the beneficiary. He says he did it all on his own. I also recall when the common saying was that ‘an Efik man can never be governor,” and against all odds, I stood my grounds, taking a position against parochialism and ethnic bigotry. Again, Donald was the beneficiary.
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Before we round up Sir, do you have any other issue you want to raise concerning what Mr. Duke said about you?
It is unfortunate that it has come to this, as I have always believed that public service is about the people and meeting the needs of those who need government the most. Public service shouldn’t be about blowing our own trumpets or running others down. I have hitherto refused to join issues with him, but I am constrained at this time to set the record straight.
Donald left office 11 years ago and I left office three and a half years ago; we were both elected to serve and by God’s grace we contributed our quota, leaving Cross River State better than we met it. It is a very rare privilege which must not be abused and used to aggrandise ourselves.
I pray that this puts an end to Donald’s vengeful vilification of my person and that he charts his own course without having to pull others down. It’s time to move on!
The end