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The Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, Cross River State, Hon. Yibala Igri Inyang, has described the ongoing oil and gas skills training for 2,000 youths initiated by Governor Bassey Otu as a masterstroke that will reposition the state for economic growth and its littoral status restoration.

Inyang, who is also Chairman of Yakurr Local Government Area, said the programme, themed “Skill Up in the Season of Sweetness,” is a proactive and strategic move to prepare Cross River’s human capital for its natural maritime endowment.

The training, which was flagged off on Thursday by Governor Otu, represented by the Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Elvert Ayambem, is offering CPD-accredited certificate and diploma courses to beneficiaries drawn from the 18 Local Government Areas of the state.

According to the ALGON Chairman, the initiative is proof that Cross River State is not landlocked but ready for take-off in the oil and gas sector.

“This is a last-mile requirement for the seamless take-off of oil business activities in the state. It is a clear statement that Cross River is not a landlocked state but a maritime state preparing its human capital for its natural endowment,” Inyang said.

He described the state’s current push as a journey “From Legal Setback to Economic Comeback,” recalling the 2012 Supreme Court judgment which ceded 76 offshore oil wells following the loss of Bakassi Peninsula.

Inyang said the judgment, which he described as ill-fated, robbed the state of hundreds of billions of naira in 13 per cent derivation, stalled the Bakassi Deep Seaport dream, and wrongly branded a state with over 90 kilometres of Atlantic coastline as landlocked.

“What we missed is poignant. That judgment dealt with an administrative dispute, it did not erase our geography. It could not erase our estuaries, our direct discharge into the Bight of Bonny, our access to deep sea within a few nautical miles, and our massive Blue Economy potential,” he stated.

The ALGON boss listed natural endowments which, according to him, affirm the state’s littoral status to include the strategic siting of the Eastern Naval Command in Calabar, the Cross River Estuary and Calabar River system, direct access to deep sea within a few nautical miles to the proposed Bakassi Deep Seaport, confirmed oil wellheads identified during technical mapping for the Deep Seaport project, and vast Blue Economy and maritime trade opportunities.

Inyang aligned with the position of the Cross River State Businessmen’s Forum under High Chief Dr. Henry Onwe which faulted the description of the state as landlocked, credited to Senate President Godswill Akpabio, describing such tag as “geographically inaccurate and economically dangerous.”

He called for ongoing scientific verification by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, to be allowed to run its course without prejudice.

“Governor Otu has seen tomorrow. By training 2,000 youths today, he is ensuring that when our littoral and oil-producing status is fully restored, Cross Riverians will be the engineers, safety officers and managers of their own resources,” Inyang said.

He, on behalf of the 18 Local Government Chairmen in the state, pledged total support for Governor Otu’s People-First agenda and his drive to diversify the state’s economy through oil and gas and the Blue Economy.