By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
Territorial Archbishop of Calabar and the founding patriarch of the Cross River State Christian Leaders Forum, Archbishop Josef Bassey, has called for the reelection of the governor of Cross River State, Prince Bassey Edet Otu for a second term, insisting that the administration deserves continuity to consolidate the fiscal recovery already underway in the state.
The archbishop made the call on Thursday in Calabar while speaking with journalists at the Metropolitan Hotel, during an event themed ‘State of the State.’
He said that the governor inherited a state in severe financial distress in May 2023, stressing, “The state was in a ‘deep pit’ with accounts ‘in red’.”
Citing Debt Management Office figures, he noted that domestic debt as at June 2023 stood at about ₦204 billion, while foreign debt was around $223 million.
He added that workers and pensioners were owed 14 years of arrears, including gratuities unpaid from 2009 to 2023, reiterating that the civil service had been “bastardised.”
Archbishop Bassey said the situation extended to state infrastructure, with “key assets like the Governor’s Office, state Library, state Newspaper Corporation and Cultural Centre complex had also deteriorated, worsened by destruction from the #EndSARS protests.”
He said, “It was an accumulation of problems which had eventually become the condition of the state itself.”
He, however, said the numbers have shifted significantly in the last three years, adding that the current DMO statistics, domestic debt dropped to ₦137.36 billion by December 2025 and further down to ₦132.30 billion by March 2026.
He enthused, “That represents a reduction of roughly ₦71.7 billion from the June 2023 figure.”
On revenue, he referenced the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, data, which showed that internally generated revenue, IGR, grew from ₦21.1 billion in 2022 to ₦31.56 billion in 2023, while state records put 2024 IGR at ₦46.3 billion with “further substantial growth” since then.
He added, “The state’s internally generated revenue capacity has been rising, while reported domestic debt has been falling. For me, that carries considerably more weight than political slogans.”
The cleric argued that the turnaround is more remarkable, given Cross River’s fiscal constraints, noting that the state ranks “close to the bottom nationally in net FAAC receipts” and has been operating amid high inflation.
He also warned that while external debt remains at about $223 million, “naira depreciation has increased the burden.”
Questioning the state’s political culture, he said, “When you understand the depth of the pit, the fiscal limitations, the inherited obligations and the economic environment, the weight of what has happened becomes clearer.”
He added, “If failure and credible stewardship receive exactly the same consequence, then we have removed one of democracy’s strongest incentives for performance.”
Concluding, Archbishop Bassey said continuity was critical, adding, “With debt coming down and IGR going up, Governor Otu deserves a second term to consolidate recovery and move Cross River into aggressive development.”
