By Clement Warrie
Two years ago, the site where the ARISE Palm Resort now occupies in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, was a sprawling ravine and a notorious hideout for criminals.
Today, that same ground has been transformed into a world-class recreational destination, one that has drawn comparison with the best on the continent, and a symbol of what vision and purposeful leadership can achieve.
As recently as Friday, November 6, 2026, that transformation took on added significance when the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, stayed at the resort during his first working visit to the state.
Despite its new stature, the resort’s past deserves to be remembered. Those who knew the place before its transformation, this writer among them, recall a ravine that swallowed tonnes of earth and tall palm trees as though they were matchsticks
For years, it was a creeping catastrophe. Each rainy season, the ravine edged closer to homes and shops, and residents lived pain and fear of losing everything.
Nowhere was the pain sharper than in Uwah’s household. A retired civil servant, he had poured his retirement funds and life savings into building a hotel to draw income in his old age. When the ravine crept toward his hotel, stealing his structures, bit by bit, his heart faltered and eventually stopped beating. He died of a broken hear
His widow, Lucy Uwah, was left to face the same advancing and unforgiving gully, alone. But a savior was on the way. After Governor Umo Eno visited the site, she could not hide how close she came to joining her husband in the grave. “Were it not for the governor’s quick intervention,” she says, “I would have been dead by now.”
The Arise Palm Resort which now attracts global attention and commendation from visitors and tourists alike, was initially scoped as the DEVELOPMENT OF DOMINIC UTUK SPRING WATER LAKE AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF TOURIST RECREATIONAL CENTRE WITH ROAD NETWORK IN EWET OFFOT, UYO”. As per report in Vanguard publication on July 21, 2024, and other national dailies.
On his very first visit to the area, the governor of Akwa Ibom state said. “We will reclaim this place and channel the water properly to create a beautiful lake, and we will have a very good tourist site here too that will make money for the State. The ROI is very promising,” he meant every word.
The project was awarded to Faysal Harb, MD/CEO of BCC, who found himself facing 73 hectares of unyielding landscape waiting to be tamed. “When we first arrived here, it was a wasteland”, Faysal said. “People used it as a borrow pit… It was a completely marshy area. No one could access it. The house you see over there would have been completely gone without the governor’s quick intervention”, Faysal said.
According to Anietie Usen, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Media, once the first work to check the erosion was complete, the governor asked Mr Harb a bigger question: “What can we do to reclaim the entire landscape and turn this wasteland into wealth?” Mr Harb answered with a presentation of a resort on the 73 hectares. It included a 9-hole golf course, an artificial lake with floating bars and boats, luxury chalets and villas, a 1,500-capacity banquet hall, swimming pools, a football pitch, tennis courts, a children’s playground, and restaurants and lounges. The whole concept, Usen said, “was pleasing to the eyes.”
And barely two years later, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, visited Akwa Ibom on a one-day working visit — and found this world-class paradise ready to commission, pleasing to the eye, and comfortable enough for him and his dear wife to pass the night in.
The president’s choice to sleep over at the ARISE PALM RESORT was hardly surprising. It also sent a powerful message.
It delivered an endorsement no marketing campaign could buy. It tells investors, tourists and event planners that Akwa Ibom has built something that meets the highest standard Nigeria can demand. It says the state’s tourism ambitions rest on real infrastructure the world can count on.
The President was full of praise for Governor Umo Eno. “He is a city boy like myself,” the President said matter-of-factly. “When I was Governor of Lagos State and the Atlantic Ocean threatened to take over the State, I rebuked it. This is what your Governor has done in this place.”
“When I look at the pictures of what this place was, a 73 hectares of gully erosion reclaimed from the elements, I can say that it takes a very strong determination to achieve this. This is what happens when honest people are working for their people. Umo Eno is a good thinker and a doer. For me, I am going to be here to enjoy the resort,” said the President.
Although, this may have been a working visit, but his decision to sleep over at the Resort told a bigger story. To stakeholders, and even to members of his own entourage, it was not just trust. It was a testimony that Akwa Ibom is safe, peaceful, and homely.
At the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, before more than 30,000 Akwa Ibom people who could not be present at the Airport to welcome him, he made it personal.
“This is a homecoming for me. I worked here in Akwa Ibom as an auditor in Mobil… and I love you with my whole heart.”
And the whole stadium stood up for him.
For many who had been to the Resort before the President, his decision to stay there was hardly surprising, considering how calm and serene the place is. The Honourable Minister for Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, was one of them.
“I took time out to inspect the mind-blowing ARISE Palm Resort in Uyo, being constructed by the State Government led by the visionary Governor, Pastor Umo Eno. It is a state-of-the-art vacation resort designed for a comprehensive leisure experience. It is one of the best of such facilities I have seen around here… it is huge and mesmerizing,” he said
Ben Bruce, CEO of Silverbird Group and himself a tourism czar, could not hide his admiration: “A world-class destination that will place Akwa Ibom at the heart of Nigeria’s tourism map.”
Thomas Larmena, Chief Executive Officer and President of Digital Learning Network, Chicago, USA, was equally effusive about the sprawling facility: “The breathtaking aerial view and standard of facilities at the resort show a commitment to excellence.”
And Ambassador Elsie Attafuah, Resident Representative of UNDP in Nigeria, added: “Seeing the ARISE Park project firsthand has been an eye-opening experience. The level of planning and execution is commendable, and I sincerely hope to be a part of this great transformation unfolding in Akwa Ibom.”
For Holger Knaack of the Rotary International, the ARISE Palm Resort is not just a destination. It is emblematic of Governor Umo Eno’s larger vision for Akwa Ibom, a state being transformed sector by sector.
He puts it this way: “From agricultural revolution to rural development, from infrastructure renewal to security management, and from education to health innovation, His Excellency’s commitment to Service Above Self mirrors the very heart of Rotary’s mission.
“A shining embodiment of that vision is the magnificent ARISE Park, a world-class leisure and tourism wonder rising from a 73-hectare reclaimed erosion site, proof that impossibility is nothing when purpose leads the way.”
