By: Amb. Godwin Apple
A one time pride of the African tourism and a booster for the Cross Riverians in Diaspora, a heavenly decorated valleys with lilies of nature.
Obudu Cattle Ranch, over the years, the Ranch has been hosting both national and international events as well as promoting the living standards of the people of Cross River State Nigeria.
With the present condition of the Ranch facilities today, one may ask, how do we get here?
Here are few drops of explanation given by a vibrant investigation journalist from the Government House Press. Eugene Upah, he wrote:
Obudu Ranch:
In 2015 Gov Ayade invested heavily in the ranch after a protracted court case against a the South African company that had operated the ranch and laid claim to so much money
Recall that Gov Ayade did the following
Refurbished and made functional the cable car and the the entire ranch facilities before the Xmas of 2015
Don’t forget that the French ambassador used that cable car under Gov Ayade and the entire embassy spent 3 days up the ranch
The doors, rooms, toilets bedsheets TV were all fixed and street lights and tennis court restored
Gov Ayade provided 1 megawatt power plant and refurbished the smaller generators and by 2015 Xmas the ranch and cable car were all functional
After that huge revenue expended total income realised from the whole December operations on cable car was N88,000 after paying multimillions to the original contractor
The ranch itself made a huge loss for the month due to low patronage and huge diesel cost
By Easter 2016 more renovations were done and roads fixed etc but patronage was just occasional thus running a perfectly functional ranch at a huge loss
No hotel nor resort would thrive on diesel as means of power
Gov Ayade reconnected electricity from jos and pypassed abakaliki to bring power to the ranch
Gov Ayade bought 1×7.5 mva and 1 x15mva transformer for the ranch and the North
To take power from Jos disco and transform for Northern Cross river as he did 1megawatt for ugep and 23 megawatt for calabar
All the cable car workers were restored to the ranch and salary restored and cable car fixed perfectly the second time and income remain zero
Why did the ranch fail?
Zero access by air and by road.It is a nightmare to go to the ranch from calabar Enugu or Abuja making it a torture to choose Obudu Ranch as destination of your choice for a vacation
Occasional occupancy kills any resort even if it is made from gold. The ranch is a business not emotions. The revenue was not adding up and the overheads was too much and climbing with increase in cost of diesel
2 No communication network
3 No power
Power was worked on and new line was laid to replace the old broken down line
Generator provided and a Chinese firm was contacted to provide hydro electric power and another was contacted to provide wind and solar knowing that wind speed was over 25m per sec up the ranch
Wind study and hydro study were completed in partnership with UNIDO
On communication the commissioner for information contacted MTN and they gave a report suggesting increase in patronage to justify installation of new cell site
Minister of state power attracted solar power plant to the ranch which was commissioned under the watch of Ayade administration
All outstanding salaries were cleared when Gov Ayade came into officeinto office
Solution
For the ranch to become a success story
First steps are
An airport that can take international flights to fly tourist straight to obudu Ranch was a core must do
The road from yala to the ranch must be fixed or dualised to drive traffic from south east and south west to feed the ranch resort
Electricity must be from renewable source
State must have an aircraft to develop the ranch route
Agriculture must thrive in the ranch and export of fresh fruits flowers and vegetables from the ranch can generate spin off traffic for the ranch
The ranch must be concessioned to an operator that can attract an international investor
In summary
Cally air airline
Obudu international airport project
The dualisation of yala to Obanlikwu
The concession of the ranch
The unido and Chinese consultancy projects for the obudu Ranch renewable energy projects were all multiple billion projects targeted at the Ranch
Gov Ayade has engaged both president Buhari and President Tinubu on the ranch
The Tinubu administration has given strong commitment to the ranch
And Governor Otu is committed to the airport project
In conclusion,
To fix the ranch The airport and access roads must be completed and callyair made to fly obudu airport on daily basis and a 5 star hotel must be erected at the ranch by the concessionaire and private resort and villa developers must be allocated land to build
We fixed the ranch for the 3rd time when a tentative date was fixed for the burial of Dr wayas
All these efforts won’t mean nothing after 8 years if the airport is not functional
Good news
Obudu airport has all the equipment on ground 100All the buildings completed
The runway of 3km has 2km completed and the last 1 km the entire furniture and security equipment for the ranch are 100% on ground
Everything for the digital best safety caution equipment was delivered over 2 years ago
Prince Otu must make sure that the last mile under his watch is realised so the airport can be commissioned in April 2024