To say that Abia state is on the march is to state the obvious. For a state that has seen several seasons of anomie, especially in the last eight years, it is gratifying that Abia is realizing the dream of its founding fathers. Little wonder that those with clay feet are wailing and hyperventilating at the verdict of history.
To all lovers of good governance, it is no longer a matter for debate that Governor Alex Otti is reinventing the wheel of progress and reversing the past eight years of locust mania – a situation of locust invasion and the utter ravaging of the state’s patrimony through dubious contracts awards and other economic malfeasances by the ruling political elite then.
It is, therefore, laughable at the attempt to obfuscate facts through hysteria and ‘bolekaje’ tactics by minions of the last administration over Dr Otti’s outing in the United States recently.
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As Abia is regaining its pride of place as God’s Own State, it is only fitting that the chief driver and visioner of building a state that works for all, tell the renaissance story and seek fresh investors and lay the marker of where the state was, and where it is and going in the medium to long term.
This is what fellows such as John Okiyi Kalu, former Commissioner for Information, Trade & Investment, will wish to obscure and be afraid of the telling verdict of history of his principal’s time in office.
Okiyi Kalu in his poor piece, for which title bears no repeating, tried in vain to impinge on God’s design and creation of the physical attributes of His Excellency, Governor Alex Otti. Anyways, he failed just like the government he served in to give Abians any sense of cheer and hope.
If physical stature were raison d’etre for administrative excellence, then his principal, former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu would have excelled. But it is clear that after eight years, the state was balkanized, denuded and left poorer not just in terms of infrastructural development, but on all human index.
Since Governor Otti’s position in the United States, Ikpeazu’s media handlers have been behaving like banshees under exorcism, shrieking and twisting issues and facts. Unfortunate!
It should be stated that if people like Okiyi Kalu have any modicum of integrity and responsibility having been on the state executive council of Abia state, he will stay on the issues and not seek to disparage the person and office of the incumbent state governor. It is given that Dr. Otti is a man of immense strides and outstanding global recognition, winning hearts and accolades for his almost 11 months in office. At the moment, Governor Otti is the reference point of what good governance represents. From the political elite to the common man on the streets, the verdict remains consistent: come to Abia and see wonders of what Governor Otti is doing.
Leading the charge is former President Olusegun Obasanjo who charged other governors in the country to toe the Otti matrix of leadership and governance.
“You came and said there would be an end to that rascality. I congratulate you, and I say to you, I hope that your colleagues will follow your footsteps?
“You have started but you should never be tired. You will be discouraged, you will be abused, you will be called names but if we have one-third of our states doing what should be done this country will be a different country and you are doing what should be done,” former President Obasanjo said in March to Otti on his repealing of the obnoxious pension law for ex-governors and deputies.
Obasanjo has not been alone in recognizing the administrative acumen of Governor Otti. A former Senate President and the Chairman Board of Trustees BoT, of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Adolphus Wabara, similarly, former governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Dr Uchechukwu Ogah, as well as a former state chairman of the PDP and a governorship aspirant, Senator Emma Nwaka, and a host of others have recognized the making of history in God’s Own State and fittingly applauded what is going on.
True to Obasanjo’s prognosis, the abuses and insults have started raining by people who are persuaded that they should not be held accountable for how they managed the common resources of the people. People who have sold shame in the market square and nowhere near seeking penance for their gross maladministration and ineptitude while in office.
It should be stated that Otti’s administration is not enamoured by media bazaar, rather putting the issues as there are in the public domain.
In Okiyi Kalu’s trifle, he wondered why his boss, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, was not afforded the opportunity for defence. It is a crying shame that the ex-chief information handler of the state imagines that an investment summit is a court of law where debate should be held. It was never, and is not in the governor’s place to invite his predecessor on an investment drive when he couldn’t initiate one while in office.
And it is of interest for Kalu as a former commissioner of trade to provide the scorecard of his trade initiatives and the dividends of such policies, if any.
On the ill-fated Abia Airport Project, the question remains; was money spent or not? Holding on to the N10 billion as an alibi will not fly. From available records, meetings were held with some so-called investors and millions ploughed into the white elephant of a project.
If the former administration had their thinking cap on, they should have embarked on consultation before tinkering with the project, rather it was a case of putting the cart before the horse. But for the wise counsel of the traditional institution, much more than that will have been sunk into it. Let it be stated that all the hues and cries will not detract the present government from making public the details of the forensic audit. And in matters such as this, timing is essential and those who are playing ignorance of what awaits them will come to the full realization with time.
If the Ikpeazu administration “fixed more than 200 roads including many urban roads…” why was Umuahia and the major towns so much in disrepair? Oh, the roads were “fixed” like in patching and whitewashing at humungous cost no doubts. 200 “fixed roads” should be conspicuous enough. Since Okiyi Kalu’s comic claim, Abians have taken to social media asking if the roads are located in Mars because they can find them.
It is silly to make the innuendo that “Governor Alex Otti who supposedly worked at management level in a bank…” It is not a supposition and never was and never will be that Dr. Otti is a first tier banker and his records bear witness to this.
The former commissioner who said his principal was at sea as to what to respond to because of the unfounded claims by the Abia State Government has been huffing and puffing in denying the empirical evidence of the wanton rape of the Abia treasury.
If the former government was responsible, why did it inherit just a year’s pension arrears and left additional eight years even at a time of healthy exchange rate? It is a feat to note that the present administration has started clearing pension arrears of the last dizzying 8 years. That is what accountable and responsible leadership is. It is about commitment and taking the first bold steps. That is what Governor Otti has done and is doing.
Perchance Okiyi Kalu and his co-travellers are unaware, members of the Concerned Abia Pensioners held a thanksgiving service on April 7 in Umuahia to appreciate God and thank Governor Otti for paying them arrears of their pensions owed by past administrations in Abia State.
The Chairman, Concerned Abia Pensioners, Elder John Kalu, who spoke at the event that was widely reported by the media, at The Apostolic Church Nigeria, No. 55 Awolowo Street, Umuahia, was quoted as saying that during these years of non-payment of pensions, the group had gone to many churches as well as written letters to churches, asking for prayers on their behalf.
One understands why the Okiyi Kalus of the previous administration cannot sleep at night because of the prayers of those they cheated of their industry and toil through the years.
Let it be known that the Otti administration will not have a joint audit with the former government. Former Governor Ikpeazu knows what came in, what was generated and what went into non-governance rather private pockets. So it is incumbent on him to render full account of his time in office. A lot of us are persuaded that our “small but mighty” governor is not interested in the prosecution of his predecessor, rather he and those that served with him should return whatever it is they may have unwittingly taken more than the owners of the purse. Not to do so is to open themselves up to continued public opprobrium and Governor Otti cannot be blamed for that.
– Aluma writes from Umuahia, Abia State.
Disclaimer: This article is entirely the opinion of the writer and does not represent the views of The Whistler.