Otu Bassey Edet

Bassey Edet Otu, popularly known as "Sweet Prince," was born on 18 October 1959 in Calabar and is a Nigerian politician who serves as governor of Cross River State. He is male, from the family of the late Eld. and Mrs. Edet Okon Otu of Adiabo in Odukpani LGA, and grew up in Calabar and Jos, Plateau State, where his father served on Church of Scotland mission assignment. He studied at the University of Calabar, where he earned a bachelor's degree in Social Sciences, and he ran with Odey Peter Agbe as running mate.

Before politics, he worked in banking, the petroleum sector, and farming. He was elected to the House of Representatives in April 2003 to represent Calabar Municipality/Odukpani Federal Constituency and was re-elected in April 2007, serving between 2003 and 2011 as Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), Vice Chairman of the House Committee on National Population, and a member of several committees including Power, Niger Delta, Environment, Water Resources, and Defense.

In 2007, he said the international court ruling ceding Bakassi to Cameroon was wrong, while also arguing that priority should be given to resettling displaced Nigerian relatives and moving forward. In 2011, he was elected Senator for Cross River Southern Senatorial District and later chaired the Senate Committee on Finance and then the Senate Committee on Banking and Other Financial Institutions, while serving on committees that included Navy, Power, Petroleum, and Water Resources.