By Christian Njoku
CALABAR (CONVERSEER) – The dawn of the democratic era in 1999 ushered in an administration in Cross River that made tourism its forte by activating many of the state’s tourism sites and even establishing more.
Between 1999 and 2007, records show that there was a massive influx of fun seekers into the state not just to Calabar for the carnival.
Sites like the Obudu Cattle Ranch, Marina Resort, Tinapa Business Resort, Kwa Falls, as well as Agbokim all witnessed an increase in tourists.
In one of his interviews with journalists, the then Governor of Cross River, Mr Donald Duke, said that because of the location of the state on the map and its constant rains, nobody wanted to come to the state.
He said his administration had to take the bull by the horns to carry out programmes and put up infrastructures that lured people to the state considered to be at the “end of Nigeria.”
This decision paid off as massive investments were made in the tourism sector in the state; at some point, everyone, including organisations, held their meetings in Cross River.
According to Duke life returned to the popular Margaret Ekpo International Airport in Calabar with an influx of everyone who craved the neatness, serenity and greenery the state had to offer.
In the area of sports development, the UJ Esuene stadium was a fortress for Nigerian National teams, with different sporting activities taking place at the stadium and world-class table tennis players were raised.
From this stadium teams like Rovers of Calabar and Pelican Stars thrived. In fact, Pelican Stars won multiple Nigeria Women’s Football League (NWFL) titles as they were dominant in the 1990s and early 2000s.
However, a few years down the line, many of the things that made Cross River one of the most sought-after states in Nigeria have either disappeared or are in a moribund state due to poor, weak or inconsistent policies.;
For instance, tourism in the state has been reduced to a monthly affair with the Carnival Calabar Street Party and the decorations of major roads during the Yuletide as the only practical definition of tourism,
All the other tourist attractions in the state, including its rich forest reserve, have either been left in a state of disrepair, dilapidation or are being directly destroyed by formal and informal agents.
One of the irregular decisions taken in recent times in the state that further quenched its little embers of tourism and sports development was the cancellation of the 2025 Agbokim Green Marathon, an annual event driven by the private sector.
Agbokim Green Marathon, which started in 2024, became important in the state not only because of what it represented but because it replaced one of the world’s highest-paying marathons, the Obudu Mountain Race.
The Obudu Mountain Race attracted athletes from all over Africa and was an opportunity for Cross River to showcase its pristine environment, landscape and tourism potentials, but was stopped in 2014, with some of the winners of the last event never receiving their prizes.
The advent of the Agbokim Green Marathon was welcomed with so much anticipation for obvious reasons, which included the fact that it was private sector-driven with sponsors like Nigerian Breweries, Wild Life Conservation Society (WCS), among others.
According to the Creator of the Marathon, Mr Emmanuel Udomiyang, the Agbokim Green Marathon, which was successfully held in 2024, is more than just a marathon.
“Our idea was that as the athletes run through the greenery from Ikom through Ajasor to Agbokim, which is 42 kilometres, they would also appreciate the pristine nature of the forest of the area.
“In fact, we wanted to use the marathon to carry out destination promotion of the Agbokim Waterfalls for tourism, grassroots sports promotion and environmental sustainability,” he said.
He stated that in their deliberations with the Grassroots Sports Development Department of the National Sports Commission, they were told to use the event to also discover and nurture
indigenous young talents like the winners of the 2024 edition from Plateau.
He also said to make the marathon an international event, they invited elite athletes from Kenya, Cameroon, Ghana and other states in the nation, many of whom were on the ground before the scheduled date of the marathon.
However, 48 hours before the second edition of the Agbokim Green Marathon on Nov. 22, the state government issued a release signed by the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Anthony Owan-Enoh, cancelling the marathon citing security reasons.
This information did not go down well with the vendors who had strategically booked stands at the Ikom Township Stadium, the starting point of the marathon and the Agbokim Waterfalls, the end point and were expecting a lot of visitors.
It also devastated the organisers of the event who all along had meetings with the state government and were assured that the second edition of the marathon could go on.
The private sector was not left out, as many of them immediately pulled out their support, leaving the organisers who had invested so much in the event prior to the cancellation in a huge debt.
While the organisers were still grappling with how to offset the debt they had incurred as their sponsors pulled out, in less than 24 hours after the date of the marathon, another statement was released by the state government.
This time signed by Mr Linus Obogo, Chief Press Secretary to Gov. Bassey Otu, noting that Cross River was safe and ready to host the National Council on Sports, adding that the state had earlier hosted the National Council on Health successfully.
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Speaking to Mr Tayo Olukumbi, a Sports Journalist in Calabar, he said that in the last few years, there have been no deliberate programmes to discover talents in the state.
He said some of those that have been discovered earlier have either left to represent other states or have been poorly catered for.
He said, for example, the Governor’s Cup hosted by the state government in 2023 and 2024, it took up to six months before the winners of the competition could get their prize money, which was just N2 million.
“To be honest with you, sports are going backwards in Cross River. Some years ago, you could beat your chest to say in a competition, Cross River will come home with medals in key areas such as table tennis, weightlifting or football.
“But today we cannot boldly say that as the UJ Esuene Stadium is usually empty and used more for religious programmes.
We only remember the stadium when it is time for a major sporting competition like the National Sports Festival (NSF), and we start running around a few weeks before the competition,” he maintained.
He said it had become so bad that in the last NSF, the outgun director of sports in the state’s sports commission had to go outside the state to shop for athletes which was an insult to Cross River.
Olukumbi also stated that the state has one of the best Olympic-sized swimming pools in Africa that is not used for any sporting event but for fun seekers who come every weekend to swim after paying N500 or N1,000.
“We cannot move forward in sports if there is no conscious plan towards sports development or appointments of sports administrators based on political sentiments and rewards,” he added.
In Ikom, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) discovered that the people were prepared and had so many expectations before the news of the cancellation of the marathon filtered in.
Two Kenyan athletes, Kevin Nganga and Florence Wachira, from the All Nations Sports Academy in Kumasi, who were on the ground in Ikom, expressed their disappointment over the cancellation.
“We spent three days on the road to get to Calabar from Kumasi, only for the event to be cancelled. Now we have to start thinking about the expenses to go back to Kumasi, ” they said.
The vendors who spoke to NAN expressed visible anger over their losses due to the cancellation of the event, adding that the state government only pays lip service to issues of development outside Calabar.
Stanley Ntangha said they had stocked goods booked spaces and prepared for a business boom to be driven by visiting athletes and spectators but the cancellation destroyed everything
“We don’t understand the reason given by the state government because the area has remained peaceful, with no violence, we are angry because the government only remembers us during campaigns and elections.
“We booked our stands and hotels, believing that there would be traffic and we would benefit but the marathon was cancelled we are not happy”, he said
Similarly, Tasen Odima asserted that they have not asked the state government for money, they only need an atmosphere to work and make money themselves, which was what the marathon would have given them.
“Who will refund what we have invested in printing of banners, booking of a hotel, and paying for the stall? This is sad because the government is depriving us of benefits this season, using security as an excuse, which is not tenable.
Going through the 42-kilometre marathon route between Ikom and Etung LGAs, NAN discovered that banners were made to create awareness, and the bike riders, who are the major mode of transportation, were all consciously waiting for the marathon.
A police officer who pleaded to be anonymous said the environment has been peaceful, using insecurity as a reason for cancelling the marathon is far from the truth.
“Some of the athletes who came in from outside Cross River arrived in Ikom late at night, but because of the overwhelming sensitisation of the marathon, all they had to say was Agbokim Maratho, and they were connected to their hostels, cyclists were on standby,” he said.
An ecotourism expert, Mr Clement Umin, said the aim of the Agbokim Marathon is to drive socio-economic growth by linking sports, ecotourism and environmental sustainability to improve rural livelihoods.
According to Umina who works with Cross River’s Forestry Commission, the initiative seeks to mobilise government, private sector, agricultural stakeholders and host communities to adopt sustainable practices as viable livelihood options.
“The project aimed at showcasing Agbokim Falls, surrounding landscapes and watersheds for tourism development while promoting environmental protection and responsible use of natural resources.
“The marathon uses sports to engage rural communities, running through villages, forests and cocoa plantations to highlight conservation, agriculture and tourism opportunities but again we couldn’t harness the opportunity,” he said.
Sadly, a state like Cross River, which prides itself as the tourism capital of Nigeria, pays lip service to specifics that have the capacity of turning the sector around and making it a money spinner.
Tourism and sports development are not a monthly thing; they are sectors that require serious investments all year round for them to thrive.
For instance, we cannot leave the Obudu Cattle Ranch, Agbokim Waterfalls, Kwa Falls, communities with wonderfully structured monoliths, caves and pristine forests in a devastated state and put all our energies in the Calabar Carnival during the Yuletide.
The Agbokim Waterfall, like other tourist sites in the state, has the potential of generating foreign exchange for Cross River, like in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, but must be developed with proper infrastructure, such as roads.
In the same vein, we cannot run sports using officials who know almost nothing about the industry and cannot harness local talents through conscious developmental programmes.
It is important to note that Nigeria’s reigning female table tennis champion, Hope Udoak, who was discovered and grew up in the UJ Esuene Stadium today, represents Bayelsa.
This same thing happens every year after youth games and sports festivals, as there is a massive exodus of athletes discovered in Cross River to other states with better welfare packages.
This is a call to the government and all stakeholders in Cross River to know that sports, tourism and environmental sustainability can only be achieved through a conscious and well-structured plan that yields results all year round.
UJ Esuene Stadium must be active daily with youths and coaches sweating it out in the process of forging new champions with support from the state, and should not only come alive a few weeks before a major national sporting competition.
