NBC charges other governors to emulate Ayade on industrialisation

The NBC board members, who were in Calabar for their yearly summit, stated this after a tour of factories at the industrial park established by Ayade, saying that with Ayade’s achievements, hope is not lost yet on Nigeria.

A statement from the governor’s office yesterday said the Director-General of the commission, Malam Kawu Modibo, was of the view that the Nigerian Governors’ Forum should institute a peer review mechanism to share ideas, compare notes and learn from each other.He said: “I want to tell Nigerians that what we have seen here is real and a major contribution to the economic development of our dear country. We have seen the rice seedlings factory, the pharmaceutical factory, the Chicken processing plant, the Garment factory and the noodles factory. We have seen that young people are employed in hundreds, especially in the garment factory for the production of clothes.

“It is a fact and not fiction. It is not a conjunction or theoretical issue.”Also, a former Director-General of the commission, Danladi Bako, said he had fair knowledge of Cross River and was happy Ayade was tapping into the agricultural potentials of the state to industrialise it.

“I have had the privilege of seeing the industries at the industrial park, a brain child of Ayade. I am conversant with Cross River’s agricultural and infrastructural potentials having been a board member of the Cross River Basin Authority. I am happy Ayade is tapping the agricultural and infrastructural potentials of the state using his background as an academic, as an environmentalist and as a professor.

“He has shown us that he is also a visionary, one who can drive projects to fruition,” the former NBC DG stated. Bako, who compared factories at the industrial park to what is obtainable in Malaysia, China and Thailand, urged other governors to take a cue from their Cross River State counterpart, adding: “You are a governor in Nigeria and you have not been here, then you should not bother about governance. I encourage other governors to come and see what Ayade is doing. I am not saying they should copy but let them just come and see, and then make up their minds.”