By Chijioke Amu-Nnadi
How did Pastor Umo Eno, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, realize that the wasteland where he is currently building one of the cornerstone projects of his administration, was wealth of immense proportions waiting to be discovered, tapped and brought to life? When did he know that what used to be a massive erosion site, and then reportedly a den for thieves, would be a resort of such profoundly extravagant promise and potential?
On a recent visit to my adopted city of Uyo, where I had gone to visit my good friend and professional ally, Etim Etim, he had spoken effusively about Akwa Ibom State’s Arise Palm Resort. He had painted a picture of resort unlike any owned by any state in Nigeria; of how it would help put Uyo in the global tourism map. He had spoken about its importance in the life of his state and to the burgeoning legacy of the quiet, softly spoken but vibrant man who is today the state’s helmsman. A man whose vision and commitment to transforming Akwa Ibom State my friend had obviously bought into, and is inspired by.
A man of spare words and contained enthusiasms, Etim had spoken about how it promises to be a favourite destination for tourists from all over Nigeria and beyond; how it would complement the wildly popular Calabar Carnival of the sister state of Cross River State. He had spoken about the vision of turning Uyo into a prime resort, in a state already famous for its hospitality, its rich culture, its beautiful traditional fashion and its wonderful tongue-turning cuisines.
I know the site of this resort quite well. On almost every visit to Uyo, particularly while I served the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, where my duties at various times involved close working relations with the Commission’s former managing directors, Barrister Bassey Dan Abia and Obong Nsima Ekere, as well as the Interim Adminisitrator, Mr. Efiong Akwa, I would drive past what was disintegrating, collapsing earth, which threatened to swallow the road, on my way to the Uyo Sports Club for the usual game of tennis.
The former Governor and current Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, had diligently worked to rescue the road and stem the erosion. And while nothing much more was done to improve the area, it soon turned to a hideout for armed robbers, hidden in the palm plantation and forest that landscaped the area with wanton disregard and disrepute. Sadly, it shared a boundary with Government House, Uyo, the state’s seat of power. And lay right in the middle of one of the most important state capitals in the Niger Delta region, as both eyesore and dangerous threat.
And here I am this Sunday afternoon, walking about, carefree, and charmed by the remarkable transformation of the area, in a place where no faint-hearted man dared to walk before the emergence of Pastor Umo Eno as Governor. In Christianity, this would be called a deliverance, a conversion of immense proportions. The kind that transformed Saul, in his fiery combustions, to Paul, a man full of wisdom and insight, full of miracles, the kind that I stood witness to here.
And I asked Etim the same question: how did Umo Eno know that this was possible? Certainly not because he is a pastor and understands the metaphor of deliverance. But then, perhaps because of that as well. Because there is something almost naive, almost innocent, in believing that transformations are possible. The sheer audacity of it all, of a vision to see what did not exist and, being determined and filled with wisdom and insight, began, shovel by shovel, brick by brick, to build the Arise Palm Resort. From wasteland to promised land (pun intended); one of potential and opportunity.
Here, by what is today two floating bars built upon a man-made lake, as I stood with Etim and his friend Udeme Inyang to take pictures, Imuse that I may be standing where bandits once stood to share their loot. By the site where guest apartments have been constructed and fully furnished, wild animals and dangerous snakes may have roamed free. Where a children’s playground rose into the coming evening in brilliant colours of promised adventure, nothing of important may have stood to excite interest. And there are many other facilities springing up here, as we walked past constructions workers at every turn, making Arise Palm Resort the proof that exists that when good visionary men rule a state, the people rejoice and become hopeful.
There are several facilities being constructed here. Besides the guest apartments, children’s playground and floating bars, there is a banquet hall that will seat about 1,500 people, a luxury shopping mall and restaurants, a man-made lake for water sports, swimming pool whose shallow end will be good enough for poor swimmers such as I. There is also a massive golf house, an indoor games arena, tennis and basketball courts, an arcade for indoor games and sports, and a nine-hole golf course. And, of course, the palm plantation which has been cleaned up and revamped for picnics and tours. And coming soon, I am told, there will be a film village for Nollywood movies, as well as luxury apartments for sale at the outskirts of the resort that would act as a befitting fence of splendour. All linked by newly tarred roads offering an easy network for visitors.
Again, I wonder, how did Pastor Umo Eno know? When did he know? How audacious is he, that what did not exist even in my wildest imaginations each time I drove past this once abandoned site of unbridled waste and devastation, would today become home to the flowering of dreams and the residence of promise? I will return here, perhaps to write in greater details about what is rising slowly into the Uyo skyline. And then, perhaps, I will shake hands with the man himself, and say, well done, pastor, governor, visionary, man of vigour, leader of audacious and capacious imagination.
And I know I will not be the only one to visit Akwa Ibom’s Arise Palm Resort, because it invites the world to relish the splendour of this audacious dream coming true.
