After eight years, Mr Ayade left office with most of the grandiose projects he proposed uncompleted but however went ahead to commission them.
Ben Ayade, a professor of Environmental Microbiology and former lecturer at Delta State University, was young, articulate and vibrant when he decided to join active politics about a decade and a half ago.
Elected into the Senate to represent Cross River North on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2011, Mr Ayade was later elected the governor of Cross River State in 2015. He took over from Liyel Imoke, also a former senator.
To prove his wide acceptability among the people, Mr Ayade defeated his closest rival, Odey Ochicha of the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), with a margin of almost 300,000 votes.
Campaign promises
Like a typical Nigerian politician, Mr Ayade boasted of his capacity to turn around the fortunes of Cross River, a state once considered to be the tourism capital of Nigeria.
Though it is difficult to come by a codified document chronicling Mr Ayade's manifesto throughout his tenure, the former governor at various fora pledged to build infrastructure and industries, and provide job opportunities for the state's growing population of youths.
Meanwhile, without clear-cut breakdowns and analyses, Mr Ayade became notorious for deploying jaw-breaking phrases to qualify his annual budget proposals - a development that informed analysts' description of the former governor as an "entertainer".For instance, Mr Ayade's first budget proposal in office in 2016 was tagged "Budget of Deep Vision" while that of 2017 was named "Budget of Infinite Transposition," and the one for 2018 was titled: "Budget of Kinetic Crystallisation."
In 2019, Mr Ayade gave the title as "Budget of Qabalistic Densification," and the 2020 as "Budget of Olimpotic Meritemesis"; 2021 was "Budget of Blush and Bliss"; 2022 as "Budget of Conjugated Agglutination," and that of 2023 was titled "Quantum Infinitum".
Apart from laying the fat document before the parliamentarians in the state, Mr Ayade was in the habit of only making his budget presentations in a few words, making it difficult for the residents to have a full idea of what the documents contained.
But in his Democracy Day broadcast in 2016, Mr Ayade promised to make Cross River Africa's industrial hub.
He said: "We are fully reloaded to make Cross River State the construction hub for Africa... with sincere commitment, with the love and fear of God, with all your support, Cross River State indeed shall move from 3rd world to 1st world under my watch."
But eight years after, residents have decried what they described as the "deception in governance" allegedly represented by Mr Ayade.
While many of the tourist attractions in the state have reportedly been abandoned, many of his much touted industries were said to have remained uncompleted or executed poorly.
Offiong Edet, a broadcast journalist resident in the state, expressed sadness over what he termed the inglorious abandonment of the tourism sector in the state. He said Mr Ayade's predecessors had invested massively in various tourism sites, and had marketed them to the world but that the administration of Mr Ayade "killed the tourism industry in the state."
"Calabar had nice tourist sites but these are no longer functional, thanks to Mr Ayade's administration. Political instability has always been a major problem in any administration because every individual comes with different ideologies," said Mr Edet.
What data says - increased IGR, high debt profile
Using data on key socio-economic indicators, PREMIUM TIMES examined the performance of Mr Ayade since he assumed office in 2015.
Increased IGR
In 2015, before Mr Ayade took office, the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of Cross River State was N13.56 billion, according to the National Bureau of Statics (NBS).
The IGR increased from N14.77 billion in 2016 to N18.10 billion in 2017 and decreased to N17,55 billion in 2018.
By 2019, the IGR of the state grew to N22,59 billion, a 28.74 increase from the previous year.
In the State of States Report 2022, a fiscal performance analysis of each of the 36 states of the federation by Budgit- a Nigerian non-governmental civic organisation, Cross River State generated the 19th largest IGR in 2021. The report stated that the state's revenue grew by 41.58 per cent from N16.18 billion in 2020 to N22.91 billion in 2021.
Budgit, however, said the state still heavily depended on the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) revenues, noting that the previous investments in projects such as a garment factory which was projected to employ 3,000 people, and the 24,000-per-day chicken processing plant, ought to have translated into more IGR for the state.
Overall, the available data shows a 69 per cent increase in IGR in the state from 2015 to 2021 as of the last available data.
Huge debt profile
According to data from the Debt Management Office (DMO), Cross River in 2021 and 2022 had total debts of N159.81 billion and N197.21 billion respectively.
Cross River's debt grew by 75.21 per cent between 2016 and 2021, making it the fifth most indebted state in the country as of December 2021, while its total debt stock grew by 16.52 per cent from N236.30 billion in 2020 to N275.34 billion in 2021
On foreign debt, the state experienced a growth rate of 45.32 per cent from $192.48 million to $279.71 million, ranking it the third most indebted state on foreign borrowings which by extension makes it one of the most exposed states to exchange rate volatility.
According to Budgit, Cross River and four other states: Lagos, Kaduna, Rivers, and Ogun -- are responsible for 37.09 per cent of total subnational debt.
But Mr Ayade has repeatedly denied the debt figures. In a recent interview on Arise TV, the former governor said he had been servicing the debt which he noted was already high when he assumed office in 2015.
He said: "All the entire debts mentioned are debts that I met. I met between N383 to N403 billion debt as governor. I have been servicing this debt by approximately N2.2 billion every month which has dropped down to about N1.6 billion today.
"So, I didn't borrow money. I have never borrowed from any foreign country."
Listed as one of the worst states to do business
In March, the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), a Federal Government Agency responsible for facilitating the ease of doing business in Nigeria, listed Cross River as one of the worst states in Nigeria to do business.
PEBEC ranked Cross River 33rd out of 37, after scoring 4.99, which the agency said was below the national average of 5.69. The latest position is six places worse than its 2021 ranking of 28.
According to Budgit in its 2022 report which ranked the state 27th on ease of doing business, Cross River is the 14th largest economy with an estimated GDP of N4.07 trillion, attracting $ 25.85 million as capital importation between 2019 and 2021.
"Cross River is blessed with numerous natural resources that, if properly harnessed, can make the state prosperous... More deliberate measures need be taken to improve the state's ease of doing business," the report noted
Unemployment
As of the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2020, NBS data shows that the unemployment rate in Cross River stands at 53.65 per cent.
The report noted that the state has a total unemployed number of 998,203 and an underemployment rate of 17.81 per cent.
But in his reaction, Mr Ayade in an interview on Arise Tv said the data is false and an old report, but he could not provide his 'accurate' version.
He said, "Statistically speaking, I met Cross Rivers State at that high figure of unemployment and that has changed dramatically."
When asked about the chicken factory project he claimed would reduce the state's unemployment rate, he said the project was delayed due to a lack of materials to produce the feeds for the chicken.
He said: "On the Calachika Chicken, the first of its kind in the whole of Africa I must say, unfortunately, we need a lot of soya bean and maize to be able to produce the feeds. The feed meal is there, the poultry is there and the factory is there.
"Unfortunately, we need massive amounts of soya beans to be able to produce the feed to feed the chicken to be able to get them to the slaughterhouse. And so, we try to encourage young people to go into farming. That has been particularly difficult, occasioned by the issues of insecurities, lack of the initial capital".
Last-minutes commissioning of projects
After eight years, Mr Ayade left office with most of the grandiose projects he proposed uncompleted but however went ahead to commission them.
In an interview with BBC Pidgin in 2022, Mr Ayade promised that before the end of his tenure, he would complete the Obudu International Cargo and Passenger Airport, revamp the Obudu Cattle ranch, complete the Teachers Continuous Training Institute (TCTI), spaghetti flyover, among others.
In less than one week to the end of his tenure, the governor embarked on a last-minute commissioning of the TCTI, for which he had promised over N200,000 salary for teachers after certification, while the Obudu International Airport is still under construction, and the ranch not revamped.
As posted on the official Facebook page of the state's Public Communications Department, Mr Ayade on 25 May inaugurated four projects in Calabar, the state's capital. They are the Calachika Poultry, Noodles factory, Packaging factory and Feedmill.
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The former governor also abruptly commissioned a 140-bed Obudu-German Specialist Hospital, the Calabar-Odukpani-Tinapa dual carriage, the Spaghetti Bridge flyover, and a 275km 'superhighway' - one of the projects his administration initiated in 2015.
Another most anticipated and controversial project, Bakassi Deep Seaport, which was conceived in 2015 at the beginning of his administration is virtually non-existent.
However, Mr Ayade in a comment on the #ENDSARS protest in 2020 posted on Twitter said his administration had established and completed several industries including the Calabar Pharmaceutical Factory, Calabar Noodles Factory, Frozen Chicken Factory, Calabar Garment Factory, Rice Seedling Factory, Toothpick Factory, and Piles and Pylon Factory.
But some critics of his administration alleged that the former governor goofed, insisting that the listed projects were not contributing anything to the state's coffers in terms of revenue.
Comments by stakeholders
A resident of the state and Director, Africa Environment Plus Rights Action Alliance (AfERAA), a civil society organisation, Obongha Oguni, said many analysts like him believed Mr Ayade's administration caused the state not only stagnation in terms of development but also a backward shift "of about 20 years."
He said 99 per cent of Mr Ayade's initiatives were not completed.
Also, in a long tweet on his verified Twitter handle on 28 May, a day before the completion of Mr Ayade's second term in office, a right activist and former senator, Shehu Sani, said the former governor "led the state without any economic direction."
Also speaking, the broadcast journalist, Mr Edet, said inaugurating projects without proper execution amounts to "setting a trap for the next administration."
"He had great ideas but now now he has commissioned projects with no one employed and most of these factories have not been completed. They are just there with the equipment locked up in their cartons," Mr Edet said.
TUC leader speaks
The Chairman of the Cross River chapter of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Monday Ogbodum, recently disclosed that no civil servant in the state was promoted by Mr Ayade in the last seven years.
The TUC chairman, who scored the outgoing administration low on workers' welfare, said that aside from the regular payment of salaries and pensions, "workers had the worst welfare under the administration."
