The governorship candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in Akwa Ibom State, Michael Enyong, has promised to commence construction of the long-delayed Ibom Deep Seaport within 90 days of assuming office in 2027. He said he would relocate the project from Ibeno to Ibaka and bring in private investors.
Mr Enyong, a former member of the House of Representatives, said the proposed relocation was necessary because the Ibeno location was too shallow and would require expensive dredging, making the project less attractive to investors.
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He made the fresh commitments while speaking with PREMIUM TIMES on 1 November, following his earlier pledge during a visit to the Akwa Ibom State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Uyo.
The NDC governorship candidate insisted that the 90-day promise was not merely about initiating discussions or conducting feasibility studies but about commencing actual construction.
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“Within the first 90 days, I will get it going,” he said, adding that he already had an American investor who was fully prepared to participate in the project and another prospective investor from France.
The pledge introduces a new dimension to the debate over the seaport, a multibillion-dollar infrastructure project that has featured prominently in Akwa Ibom’s development plans for more than two decades but has yet to reach the construction stage.
The presidential candidate of the NDC in the forthcoming 2027 election, Peter Obi has also committed to developing the Ibom Deep Seaport if elected.
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Dispute over location
Mr Enyong said the project was originally conceived as the Ibaka Deep Seaport under former Governor Victor Attah but was subsequently renamed Ibom Deep Seaport and moved towards the Ibeno axis during the administration of former Governor Udom Emmanuel.
He said he would retain the name Ibom Deep Seaport because the project is registered and approved under that name, but he would return the project to Ibaka, arguing that the location offers a more suitable natural harbour and would reduce dredging costs.
“The moment you return it to Ibaka, investors will know that they won’t spend too much money on dredging an artificial location because the water there is shallow,” he said.
The location of the project has, however, been a subject of disagreement for years.
In December 2014, Vanguard reported that the proposed port had been moved from Ibaka to Ibeno after consultants reportedly concluded that Ibaka would not be commercially viable because of its distance from the sea.
The Akwa Ibom State Government subsequently defended the location decision, saying experts had assessed different sites based on viability and accessibility before selecting a location spanning parts of Mbo and Ibeno local government areas.
Mr Enyong did not provide any new technical feasibility study to support his assertion that returning the project to Ibaka would make it more commercially viable than the existing proposed location.
The $2 billion question
Mr Enyong said the project did not require a fresh presidential approval or Governor Umo Eno’s defection to the All Progressives Congress because the Federal Executive Council (FEC), under the late President Muhammadu Buhari, had already approved its first phase on 16 December 2020.
He said the approved first-phase investment of $2.016 billion could be raised through a combination of private investment and contributions from the state and federal governments.
According to him, the private investor would provide 50 per cent of the funding, while the two tiers of government would provide the remaining 50 per cent.
He argued that Akwa Ibom could comfortably finance its contribution, citing the state’s revenue inflows under Governor Eno.
“Assuming we divide the money in half, the state’s portion is very affordable to achieve considering that in the last 42 months, the state has gotten over N3.7 trillion,” he said.
He estimated the state’s contribution at $400 million, equivalent to approximately N538.59 billion at the exchange rate of N1,346.47 to the dollar on 1 November.
But the financing arrangement he described differs from the structure publicly announced when the FEC approval was secured.
In December 2020, the then Akwa Ibom Commissioner for Economic Development and Ibom Deep Seaport, Akan Okon, said the first phase would cost $2.016 billion, with private investors providing 60 per cent and the public sector contributing 40 per cent.
The difference is noteworthy since the public sector’s 40 per cent share would amount to $806.4 million, while the private sector’s 60 per cent would amount to $1.2096 billion.
If the public sector contribution were shared equally between the state and federal governments, Akwa Ibom’s share would be $403.2 million, close to Mr Enyong’s estimate of $400 million.
However, he did not explain why he was using a 50-50 funding arrangement rather than the previously announced 60-40 public-private partnership structure.
He also did not provide documents identifying the American and French investors he said were ready to participate, their proposed financial commitments, or whether they had entered into any formal agreements with him or the project authorities.
Asked how he would secure the federal government’s contribution, Mr Enyong said the state must first demonstrate commitment to the project.
He argued that the federal government would be encouraged to participate once the state showed seriousness, adding that the project could proceed even without federal funding.
“But even if the federal government fails to invest, don’t we have the $800 million? It is our project that will turn around things,” he said.
When reminded that the $2.016 billion approval covered only the first phase and that the overall project was estimated at $4.6 billion, Mr Enyong said attracting further investors would become easier once construction commenced.
“When you start a project and people begin to see where you are going, don’t others join?” he asked.
The candidate maintained that he would commence construction within his first 90 days in office.
Budgetary allocations, questions over spending
The proposed seaport has continued to feature in Akwa Ibom’s annual budgets under Mr Eno, although the extent of actual spending on the project remains difficult to find out from publicly available financial records.
A PREMIUM TIMES review of the state’s approved budgets shows that N7.36 billion was allocated to the construction of the Deep Seaport and Industrial City in 2026.
The state allocated N2 billion in 2025 and N2.6 billion in 2024. No allocation was identified for the project in the state’s 2023 revised budget.
However, PREMIUM TIMES could not independently verify how much the Eno administration had actually spent on the project because the state’s recent budget performance reports and audited financial statements do not detail capital expenditures.
PREMIUM TIMES previously reported that Mr Eno’s administration received at least N2.934 trillion in public revenue within its first 38 months. However, the state stopped publishing detailed revenue receipts and capital expenditure records, making it difficult to independently track revenue inflows and spending on individual infrastructure projects.
A subsequent analysis of the state’s revenue records shows that the administration’s revenue had risen to at least N3.218 trillion within 41 months in office. This excludes internally generated revenue and the State’s 13 per cent derivation refunds for May and June 2023.
In April, Mr Eno received the seaport’s feasibility report from a technical committee led by Mfon Usoro, a former director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency.
The governor said his administration had funded feasibility studies, prepared investor documents, conducted geophysical and geotechnical assessments and established a project office.
The technical committee also reported progress on financial modelling, due diligence and international bidding, with preferred bidders emerging.
Mr Eno subsequently held discussions with prospective project partners in Paris in June, seeking clearer implementation timelines and investment commitments.
The governor has described the project as a long-term undertaking requiring careful planning and sustainable investment.
Other promises, political history
Beyond the seaport, Mr Enyong, during his NUJ visit, promised scholarships, free tuition and automatic employment for indigent medical students who complete their training.
He said beneficiaries would receive attractive remuneration, arguing that the initiative would help address shortages of healthcare professionals and discourage skilled medical personnel from leaving the state.
He also promised to equip existing public healthcare facilities rather than establish new hospitals without providing the necessary equipment and operational support.
On employment, he claimed to have facilitated jobs for more than 200 citizens through the Human Resource Information System, promising to expand such interventions if elected.
Mr Enyong previously contested for the Peoples Democratic Party’s governorship ticket in 2023, but lost to Mr Eno.
In February 2023, PREMIUM TIMES reported that a court order had replaced Mr Eno with Mr Enyong as the PDP’s governorship candidate, triggering a legal dispute over the party’s ticket. A higher court subsequently set aside the order in favour of Mr Eno.
His 2027 ambition also comes in the face of political discussions over zoning, an informal arrangement under which the state’s governorship is expected to rotate among its three senatorial districts.
Mr Enyong represented the Uyo/Uruan/Nsit Atai/Ibesikpo Asutan Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives between 2015 and 2023. The constituency is in Uyo Senatorial District, which is favoured in the current zoning discussions to produce the next governor.
The question of whether a governor elected in 2027 should seek a second term in 2031 since the governorship is expected to rotate to Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District could also influence political alignments. Mr Enyong did not state his position on a possible second term during the NUJ engagement.
Responding to his visit, the NUJ State Chairman, Nsibiet John, said the union remained non-partisan and provided political stakeholders with opportunities to present their programmes to journalists.
He stressed that the engagement did not amount to an endorsement of Mr Enyong or his party, adding that journalists retained the responsibility to interrogate political promises and report objectively in the public interest.
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