Imoke said the state government transferred its interest in the resort to AMCON because it lacked the funds required to bring the facility back to full operation.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS, the former governor said the proposed investment could not address Tinapa’s major challenges because key infrastructure outside the resort remained inadequate.
“Why did AMCON not succeed in making those investments? Because the basic parameters never changed. The airport in Calabar is still as small as it was, the seaport in Calabar was never dredged, and the free trade zone status was not satisfactory to investors,” he said.
Imoke said Tinapa’s difficulties were not limited to its buildings and facilities, stressing that the commercial ecosystem needed to support the resort was never properly established.
“Let us start with the concept of Tinapa—it was badly conceived at the beginning. That is the reality. Tinapa was conceptualized as a free trade shopping destination, and it was built. But the commercial ecosystem for Tinapa to succeed—which should have been developed while construction was ongoing—was not happening and did not happen,” he said.
According to him, the resort required better air and road connections, a dredged port, tax incentives and regulations acceptable to international investors.
“The great challenge was that as a state government, we had no control over the dependencies required for Tinapa to succeed,” he said.
Imoke said the Federal Government should have provided the necessary infrastructure and regulatory support while the resort was being constructed.
“In the three years Tinapa was under construction, it would have made more sense if the Federal Government had made these commitments, rather than commissioning Tinapa politically as an infrastructure—beautiful by any definition—with a number of facilities still incomplete at the time of commissioning,” he said.
He said the scale of the project also required infrastructure capable of supporting large numbers of visitors.
“To give you some numbers: You are anticipating three million visitors into Calabar to build a mall. To receive 1.5 million at the Calabar airport for Tinapa as conceptualized, you need 63 flights a day, with a minimum of 130 people on each flight. You are expecting 8,000+ footfalls a day, and you spent $350 million,” he said.
Imoke also said Tinapa lacked adequate electricity when it was commissioned, adding that he installed an independent power plant to keep the resort operational.
“As we speak, there was no power supply to Tinapa on the day of commissioning. I was the one who brought power in by installing an IPP to keep Tinapa functional,” he said.
The former governor rejected claims that his administration abandoned Tinapa after he took over from Donald Duke, saying it continued to use and develop the facility.
He said his administration connected Duke’s proposed monorail to the Convention Centre, established an ICT hub and moved some government and cultural activities to the resort.
Imoke said the state’s decision to prioritise other areas of governance was also influenced by its limited resources.
“Governance is about serving the people. It was very important that we served those who needed it most—people in communities who did not have access to healthcare, qualitative education, or basic infrastructure for farming to bring goods to market,” he said.
His comments came amid renewed disagreement between him and Duke over the N40bn Tinapa project, which was initiated under Duke’s administration and later encountered investment, regulatory and debt challenges.
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