RE: Senate President Akpabio's Comments on Cross River State
My attention has been drawn to comments credited to the President of the Senate, His Excellency, Senator Godswill Akpabio, to the effect that: (a) Cross River State is landlocked; (b) Bakassi is on the ocean but Cross River is not a littoral state; (c) The boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon is in Akwa Ibom State; (d) He came to an event with a Senator from Cross River State and appointed another as Chairman of the Senate Committee on NDDC to demonstrate his "uncommon love" for Cross River State; and (e) 40% of the population of Cross River State are Akwa Ibom people.
While it is true that following the International Court of Justice judgment of 10th October, 2002 which ceded the Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon, and the subsequent Supreme Court decision in AG, Cross River State v. AG Federation (2012), Cross River State was judicially declared to have lost its littoral status and consequently its 76 offshore oil wells, that is a legal fiction, not geographical reality.
Geographically and historically, Bakassi Peninsula, which forms the southernmost tip of Cross River State and juts into the Gulf of Guinea, is on the Atlantic Ocean and was part of Cross River State.
To say the Nigeria/Cameroon boundary is in Akwa Ibom is misleading. The land boundary is in Cross River State. What the Supreme Court held is that the maritime boundary between Nigeria and Cameroon now abuts Akwa Ibom State, not Cross River State.
The appointment of my brother and friend, Distinguished Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong, as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is commendable. However, bringing a Cross River Senator to an event while simultaneously using the same platform to declare the State landlocked and non-littoral is at best political tokenism.
If this is a demonstration of "uncommon love", one wonders what hatred would look like. True love for Cross River State would be shown by supporting the State's quest to regain its littoral status, its oil wells and the full resettlement of the displaced people of Bakassi - not by mockery. Love is not shown by words, but by actions.
Finally, the claim that 40% of Cross River's population are Akwa Ibom people has no empirical or statistical basis from the National Population Commission, National Bureau of Statistics or any credible source. It is divisive and should not come from the number three citizen of Nigeria.
Cross River remains a coastal state in geography, history and in the hearts of its people, even if the law has temporarily stripped it of benefits attached to littoral status. We urge statesmanship and sensitivity.
God bless Cross River State. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Okoi Obono-Obla
Abuja, FCT.
25 September 2026
