Alex Otti’s Giant Strides -By Kene Obiezu

It is not about physical stature. If it was, others would quickly dwarf him.

It is not also about time or experience in politics. He boasts time an experience. But not in politics. Not in any government house. Rather, he came from academia. From banking, where the pressure is unrelenting and excellence is the watchword.

Like gold, Alex Otti also passed through the furnace. The cauldron, the crucible that Abia State was on March 18, 2023, yielded him.

Despite the PDP’s elaborate rigging fest in Obingwa, Professor NnenayaOti declared that Otti was Abia’s choice.

What a choice it was. After 24 years of the PDP’s poverty-producing politics, Abia was free.

Its liberator was the Labour Party, its lightening rod Alex Otti. Orji Uzor Kalu, Theodore Orji and Okezie Ikpeazu, collectively responsible for some of the worst 24 years in Nigerian politics, had lost.

Alex Otti, not one to dwell on an improbable victory, has been quick to set his hand to the plough. He has refused to look back.

Suddenly, Abia has an impressive network of good roads. Residents and visitors alike speak of feverish construction works.

Aba,Umuahia and other towns have experienced a new lease of life. Thanks to Otti.

Otti’s ideas also show he is not a normal politician. His appointment of mayors show he is embracing innovative approaches.

The Abia State Investment is yet further proof of his lateral thinking.Okonjo-Iweala, ArunmaOti, LamidoSanusi are not career politicians. Otti has brought them together to advise and transform Abia.

Otti is a game-changer for Abi. He is an outlier in the Nigerian Governors Forum. The only true child of Nigeria’s third force, he is outnumbered but not outmatched.

Suddenly, under a first-rate economist and astute banker,God’s own state is breaking free of its many demons.

The PDP in the state had twenty-four years. But it took only a few to show it had nothing.

It insisted on recycling expired politicians and their egregious politics.

There was no alarm that the state was being left behind. It did not bother the PDP that its first gift to the State went to jail for stealing money while in office.

The PDP’s pattern was clear—from the Government House in Umuahia to the National Assembly. It didn’t bother the party that its products in the state were underachievers.

Now that Otti is rejigging the state and filling up potholes, what should Abians expect?

Now that he is showing Abia what they haven’t had in twenty-four years, what does the future hold? Would Otti be a flash in the pan?

It is unlikely. After twenty-four years, he seems a God-sent to God’s own state to redeem it from atrocious leadership.

Abia’s perfect match relishes the promise in Aba. He drools at its potentials.

The city has long been marked by neglect. But it has pushed through adversity. Scarred by stigma, its resilient industry and innovation are worth studying.

No doubt, Otti will work properly harness its potentials as a wellspring of economic prosperity.

In Otti, Abia is finally in safe hands. The state, home to some of Nigeria’s best minds, is finally in the hands of one of the best.

Temptations will come. Nigeria’s politics is mostly desperate, divisive, and dark. Otti will be pressured to loosen up a bit.

He will be told he has overachieved. They will ask him to play their kind of politics. Poisoned chalices would be offered him.

But he must resist. His guerdon will come from within. Not anywhere else.

His greatest satisfaction will lie in the fact that, under him, a crippled state will walk again.

He must resist the sons of Barabbas in the state. He must also ignore the siren calls of agitators in his domain.

They would attempt to distract him and drag him into their mud.

He should remain committed to youth. His deputy is only 38 years. His commissioners are bright, young things. He should stick with them.

Abia is not a cob of corn to be passed round old and greedy career politicians. The state deserves more.

It deserves excellent infrastructure, quality education, impeccable Healthcare delivery and opportunities for wealth.

Abia State deserves maximum security. It deserves content and secure residents. It deserves to be advised by the best in the business of development.

The state deserves a complete departure from the politics of blood, bile, and brigandage.

It deserves sprawling economy hubs like Aba.

Not the hubris of expired politicians with elaborate egos, not former governors who become inmates. Certainty, not disgruntled citizens who become agitators.

Abia deserves men like Otti whose politics is that of development.

The state should enjoy the breath of fresh air blowing through the state. While it lasts, it should be savoured because experience had shown that it can be in very short supply here.

Kene Obiezu

keneobiezu@gmail.com