Calabar:
A thrusting modern city, Calabar is a beacon of hope for liveable cities in Nigeria. Adeola Akinremi writes
The first thing you’ll notice when your flight lands in Calabar is not a
greeting as common with other cities. In Calabar, culture comes on your
face right from the Magaret Ekpo International Airport. With a grand
artistic wall design at the airport terminal that reflects the status of
Calabar as a cultural capital, the city’s iconic places and rich story
of Mary Slessor behind it, Calabar definitely offers special attraction
to tourists.
Ostensibly, Calabar is one of the few cities in Nigeria with buzzing hotel culture. “That happens because of the people regularly that flock to it. They want the best environment and Calabar offers one,” says Emmanuel Etuk, a hotelier in the city.
But the trappings of Calabar are much more than its festivals and arts,
Cross River State’s terrific investment in health care, education,
sport and infrastructure has been a plus.
The idea that Nigerian cities should feature on liveable cities in the world and that Calabar could bring home that honour has been the driving force behind the state government’s investment in the city’s infrastructure.
In a street Café nearby to the airport, Enobong Emem, who has spent all
his life in the city says, “Calabar continues to transform because of
right leadership,”.
True, the Cross River State Governor, Liyel Imoke continues to improve
the city’s landscape with infrastructure that could help position it as
the most important destination Africa.
On a recent week, the communication technology development department
of the Cross River State Government in partnership with its private
sector partner, MTN, completed the installation of its metropolitan dark
fibre optic network infrastructure. The idea is to make Calabar the
most digitalised city in Nigeria. That feat has been achieved. Calabar
has been named Nigeria’s first digital city.
The infrastructure which consists of 120km of 96 core fibre cable and
open access ducts spans the length and breadth of the entire city of
Calabar.
The infrastructure is immediately available for lease to any interested party, according to a government document.
So Calabar has become the most comprehensively wired city for voice,
data and video telecommunications and various technology driven services
in the country.
The Special Adviser to Governor Imoke on Communications Technology
Development, Mr. Odo Effiong, said the government agrees with the United
Nations, that 50 per cent of Africa’s population would live in cities
by 2035.
According to Effiong, population growth would result in congestion,
rising crime, higher cost of living and pressure on public utilities.
“These necessitate increased demand for intelligent and sustainable
environments with reduced environmental impact and higher quality of
life. Cities structured to deliver these are known as smart cities.
Smart Cities bring together technology, government, the private sector
and society to enable smart services, mobility, environments, economy,
government, people and living,” he said.
The next steps in the development of Calabar as a smart city, Effiong
explains, would include facilitation of city-wide wifi and connections
to various institutions.
“The infrastructure would not only facilitate improved
telecommunication services and broadband but also overtime a variety of
technology driven services and improvements including access to
information, tourism, innovation, security, transportation, education,
health care, land title, social services, financial inclusion, and
entertainment among others. The state government is prepared to partner
with the private sector with the capacity to activate technology driven
improvements in various sectors.
“The installed infrastructure is an important vision of a non-oil
service driven economy for the state that Governor Imoke continues to
push for. The development of Calabar into a smart city is a significant
component of Cross River State building on its foundation as the
nation’s tourist destination as it seeks to become the business and
lifestyle destination as well,” Effiong enthused.
To be sure, the Cross River State Department of Communication
Technology Development working to make Calabar a smart city expressed a
level of optimism with how residents and visitors to the city will
embrace it. In a 2013 report, it says those who will be key to the
success of the smart city, the young people and business owners have
been trained to take advantage of this new lifestyle, where technology
takes the centre stage in all spheres of life.
Accordingly, the state in a document says, “over 2000 citizens mostly
students have been trained in various computer related courses at the
Women Development Centre. Just under 500 civil servants have been
trained in computer appreciation and microsoft windows and office.
“We have facilitated and launched a Mobile App for tourists and
investors that will facilitate the information for the festive and other
seasons. This is important because five times as many people in Nigeria
now access the Internet from phones and tablets than from full
computers and the numbers continue to increase.
“We have established a regional digital hub that links education and
business, attract private investment, facilitates research, create
skills, incubates technology SMEs and creates jobs for our youth and
ultimately position the state as a leader of the emerging knowledge
economy.”
Really, all the cities in the world that have been adjudged liveable
cities by the Economist Intelligence Unit's liveability survey have had
their thermometer based on important criteria such as safety, education,
hygiene, health care, culture, environment, recreation,
political-economic stability and public transportation. The survey rated
cities out of 100 in the areas of health care, education, stability,
culture, environment and infrastructure.
Those things are what now placed Calabar in the lead as a liveable city
in the country and of course with possibility of making the list of
EIU’s liveable cities soon.
“It is a deliberate decision by Governor Imoke to make Calabar a smart
city. This is one city in the country, where there is no fear when
darkness falls. The idea of adding better infrastructure to the existing
layers of what we have is premised on making Calabar a liveable and
sustainable city. So digitalising the whole city makes life easier for
the people and businesses,” said Christian Ita, the governor’s
spokesperson.
A study on smart city creation, notes that smart cities could be part
of the response for the betterment of life in cities. Smart cities are
synonymous with intelligent cities, information cities, virtual cities,
amongst many other nomenclatures.
For his part, the co-founder of Intelligent Community Forum, Robert
Bell, may have had Calabar in mind when he wrote somewhere that
“intelligent communities are those which have - whether through crisis
or foresight - come to understand the enormous challenges of the
Broadband Economy, and have taken conscious steps to create an economy
capable of prospering in it. They are not necessarily big cities or
famous technology hubs. They are located in developing nations as well
as industrialised ones, suburbs as well as cities, the hinterland as
well as the coast.”
Revealingly, beyond its digital appeal, Cross River is set to unveil
the biggest conference centre in the country this year. Located near
Tinapa, the Summit Hills where the conference centre is seated according
to the project Manager, Richard Longdon, is an innovative, mixed-used
lifestyle development that combines convention, recreation, arts,
culture, housing and health care facilities all within an exclusive and
idyllic location bounding the Tinapa Business Resort and Calabar Free
Trade Zone.
It was conceptualised to draw much needed traffic into Calabar as part
of government’s vision to build an economic engine in the area for the
state’s advantage.
And with a monorail connecting the 5,000 capacity conference centre to
Tinapa that is just adjacent it, the novelty will no doubt draw people
from around the world.
Longdon said: “The monorail would be a special appeal, a novelty which
on its own would draw people. It would multiply footprints into Tinapa.”
According to the Commissioner for Special Projects, Mr Bassey Oqua,
this modern transport system will be powered by electricity generated by
an independent supply, to ensure sustainability. In addition, the power
plant will serve Summit Hills.
“By connecting Tinapa to the CICC, the monorail will make it convenient
for delegates and organisers staying at the Tinapa Lakeside Hotel to
attend conferences at the CICC, in style and with ease. And, during
their free time, delegates can visit the shopping mall or water park at
Tinapa Resort for a much-needed break. For very large conferences, the
monorail will serve as a quick connection between the CICC and breakout
meeting rooms across the lake at Tinapa.
“For the monorail we are at 70 per cent completion because the tracks
have been ordered and ready and should be completed by early next year.
The conference centre is also about 70 per cent completed. Everything
needed or it has been ordered. It is just to fix them. Completion has
been scheduled for end of February next year. Of course they would do
some testing, so I would say till March.
“The golf course is about 85 per cent complete. The golf club house we
started a bit late but that also would be finished by March. For the
hospital we started much later. It is about 60 per cent. They are
bungalows not storey buildings. The rest of it is really for the
equipment to arrive and then be installed.
“The golf estate is privately driven. We don’t have control over that.
What they have done is start with some units, get response from the
market and then ramp up. The golf course would be playable in January.
The club house ready in March. So, the full golf course would be March.
Same for conference centre. Same for the monorail. The hospital would be
April. As I said the golf estate would be on demand. As people buy,
they build,” he said.
Now, as Calabar blossom, its petals will undoubtedly be seen everywhere
for the city to be ranked as Nigeria’s most liveable city.
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