I cannot agree more with the factional PDP support group in Cross River and, indeed, its factional governorship candidate that Governor Bassey Otu has “failed”!
He has failed, monumentally, the most rigorous examination apparently known to contemporary opposition politics in Cross River — the Commissioning Ceremony Test.
By this extraordinary new standard of public administration, it matters little whether a road exists, whether a bridge carries traffic, whether a hospital functions, whether a school is safe or whether a community can finally sleep without fear.
The decisive question is much simpler: Has somebody cut a ribbon? If not, the project apparently does not exist.
Thus, a road connecting previously isolated communities is a mirage until the Governor arrives with scissors. A bridge carrying farmers, traders, schoolchildren and patients across a river remains a “white elephant” until a plaque is unveiled. A renovated health facility is presumably still dilapidated if there was no photographer present when the paint dried. And a measurable improvement in security is apparently worthless unless accompanied by a parade, a podium, a bouquet and the obligatory photograph of political dignitaries smiling beneath a banner. Yes, Governor Otu has indeed “failed”.
He must therefore be told, in the strongest possible language, that in this new opposition catechism, the commissioning ceremony has become more important than the commission itself; the photograph more valuable than the project; the ribbon more consequential than the road. This must be a fascinating theory of development, and perhaps the first in which scissors have acquired greater developmental significance than bulldozers.
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But beneath the satire is a serious question: what exactly should constitute evidence of governance? By the May 29, 2025 anniversary address, the Otu administration has had more than 80 kilometres of roads constructed or rehabilitated, while the broader road-and-bridge portfolio was estimated at about 200 kilometres. Whatever reasonable dispute may exist over figures, quality, completion or cost, the underlying reality cannot be wished away by partisan rhetoric: infrastructure interventions have been undertaken across communities that had endured years of neglect. Roads around Ukelle, Nfom, Okpoma and adjoining communities have witnessed renewed intervention. The administration commenced the 10-kilometre Ndok Junction–Mbube–Okubushuyu Road in 2025. The long-abandoned Adiabo–Ikoneto corridor, including difficult bridge sections, is being constructed. In Bekwarra, work around the Ochagbe, Afrike–Ugboro Junction and the East-West Boki corridor forms part of the wider effort to reconnect communities. The Oban–Nsan Road in Akamkpa, stretching approximately 29.87 kilometres and currently under construction, belongs to the same infrastructure story.
Now, perhaps the opposition would prefer that none of these roads count until the Governor has stood at each location, scissors in hand, while a brass band performs the appropriate fanfare. But there is a small problem with that theory. The farmer does not drive to the commissioning ground. He drives on the road. The trader does not sell the commissioning photograph. She sells her goods.
The student does not cross the bridge because a plaque has been unveiled. The student crosses it because the bridge is there. The patient does not recover because a government delegation commissioned a clinic. The patient benefits because the clinic functions. That is the inconvenient difference between governance and political theatre.
… Obogo is the Chief Press Secretary / Special Adviser to Governor Bassey Otu on Media and Publicity.
