With due respect to all other names being mentioned, from a governance and policy standpoint, Efiok Cobham, the Deputy Governor of Cross River State from 2007 to 2015, is by far the most qualified candidate to be Governor from May 29, 2023. Here’s why.
In terms of agriculture, in April 2013, Cobham stated that a ₦N157 million World Bank agricultural grant (which was part of a larger five-year grant of US$24.3 million) that the state received was the result of their administration’s effort to diversify the state’s economy away from oil. The grant enabled rice, cocoa and palm oil farmers to access new technologies. Cobham played a major role in kick-starting our state’s agricultural revolution
In education, at an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) workshop for secondary school teachers on April 29, 2013, Cobham disclosed that their administration had spent N2.7 billion on primary education since taking office in 2007, mainly as counterpart funding for various educational programmes and rehabilitated over 500 primary school classroom blocks.
In secondary education, they spent over N6 billion from 2007 to 2013. These funds were also used to establish a few new secondary and primary schools, undertake manpower development through scholarships, distribute over 10,000 laptops and computers to primary and secondary school teachers, install state-of-the-art computer systems in over 60 secondary schools.Â
As Deputy Governor, Cobham demonstrated great concern for youth unemployment, but also made great efforts to provide the youth with capacity-building entrepreneurship opportunities. In December 2014, for example, Cobham launched the YouLead Project, which was undertaken in partnership with the Canadian government to promote environmentally sustainable and market-driven employment opportunities for young people in the state.Â
To get an idea of how a Governor Cobham would handle any unfortunate security crisis, let’s take a look at how he, as Acting Governor, responded to a deadly communal border clash in Abi Local Council (with neighbours in Ebonyi State) on January 19, 2013, that led to, at least, a dozen deaths and over 2,000 displaced.
First, Cobham undertook an on-the-spot assessment of the community, sympathized with the people, assured them of emergency relief, urged them to cooperate with law enforcement, warned against counter-productive reprisal attacks and promised to bring all the perpetrators to justice.
In the area of water supply (which is a very important component of healthcare), Cobham (representing Governor Imoke) chaired at least two of the water contract-signing events in 2014 alone. First, the January 2014 contract with a British firm, Lilleker Brothers, to execute a ₦N3.7 billion World Bank-assisted National Urban Water Sector Reform Project, for the Ikom Local Council.
