Follow Us on Google
From Uche Usim, Abuja
History was made in Abia State on March 18, as the 24-year rule of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came to an end with the Labour Party producing a new Governor-elect in the person of Dr Alex Otti.
As it is with every new administration, expectations are high as many itch for improved living standards and growth.
In this interview with Daily Sun, Joe Eze Aru, a traditional title holder in Abia State and businessman, describes Otti’s victory as a soothing balm urgently needed to ameliorate the pains Abians have endured as a result of decades of deteriorated leadership.
Eze Aru also has a word for the Governor-elect, which is to walk his talk as regards building Abia from the scratch because the state has never been built in the real sense of it.
What’s your advice for Alex Otti now that he has eventually been elected?
The journey to liberate Abia by Dr Alex Otti started in 2014 and the people believed in him. Now that he has been elected by the people of Abia State, so many things are expected of him by Abia people. It wasn’t easy. As you can recall, in 2015, Alex won the election. In 2019, he also won the election, but was stolen through the so-called Obingwa magic, which has been dismantled today by the combination of forces. The forces I mean are people from Abia State who were determined to take back their state from bad leaders. So, many things are expected of Otti. I pity him because I don’t even know where he is going to start from to fix Abia. Talk about infrastructure, talk about education, talk about security and so on. I disagree with people who said that Otti is coming to rebuild Abia. Has Abia been built before? Because you only rebuild something that had been built before. Abia has never been built before. Nobody has ever built Abia. Is it Theodore Orji or is it Okezie Ikpeazu? So, Otti has come to build Abia. He is coming to build Abia from scratch. Otti is coming to lay a foundation for the infrastructural development of Abia. Also in education, security and so on and so forth. I know it is not going to be easy for him. He should understand that the success and failure of most leaders is to a large extent determined by the people around them or by the people that are working with them. Political compensation should not be the basis for the appointment or selection of his team that will help him to deliver his promises to Abia people. I know Otti is a very intelligent man but once you become a governor, you are no longer a governor of those who have been working with you. You become a governor of five million Abia people and everyday in your life, within the period you will be the governor, the five million people would want to hear from you. They will want to see what you are doing. Many of them will want to even speak with you directly, to know what you are doing and what you are not doing. So, the people that would work with him will to a very large extent, determine the success or the failure of his government and of course, when he fails, nobody will talk about the people that are working with him. People will only talk about Alex Otti. He knows the actual meaning of governance and democracy, and has identified the failures of Ikpeazu, and has made a promise to Abia people to change the narratives. I believe so much in him, I believe so much in his capacity to fulfill these promises.
Alex is a man who believes so much in God. He is a man who has the fear of God in him. And of course, he is also a man who is always ready to learn. When you throw up a superior argument, Alex will listen to you. He is always receptive to ideas and opinions. That is why I said I believe in him and I know he will always do the right thing. He must always be conscious of the reactionary elements in Abia State who will disguise themselves as friends.
Now, there is this question around the youths. How do you want him to bring in the youths into governance in Abia State? In what capacity should they be coming in so that the energy they have can be channeled into developing Abia State?
Alex Otti has alway emphasized on working with the youths during his campaigns. Since 2014, when he came into this race, he has always recognized the importance of the youths in the society and in nation building. And now that he has been elected as the governor of Abia State, I am sure that the promises he has made on empowering the youths and making sure that they are redirected to become useful to themselves, to their families and to the society will be fulfilled. Not only involving them in his government, but by also creating an enabling environment for them to prosper in their chosen careers.
In terms of grassroots level involvement in governance, what sort of projects should go on there? How do we revive grassroots participation because we know that our LGAs have been ineffective?
Yes, the local government system in Abia State for the past years has been a total failure. And of course, we know what they do. When the allocation comes from the Federal government every month, the governor will compel every local government chairman to sign a false document affirming that they have received the allocation in full while only a very little proportion of that allocation will be given to the chairman as his security vote. In most cases, like in my own LGA, I think the monthly wage bill should be about N30 million or N31 million, which have not been given to them of course because the civil servants in the LGA level are also being owed like their counterparts in the state. So, what the Governor has been doing over the years, is giving them maybe N5 million or whatever per month as security vote while the bulk of the allocation remains unaccounted for. But in Alex Otti’s government, nobody will witness or experience such things. This is because grassroots and rural developments are one of the priorities of Otti in Abia State. Rural development tackles insecurity headlong. When you cannot develop the grassroots, you are empowering criminals and let me tell you, those who have been stealing the monies allocated to LGAs in Abia State, have never seen anything good in their lives. While you are there, you will be enjoying the money, money that belongs to the poorest people. Those people living with you in your own immediate locality, those people living with you in your village, the money belongs to them and when the money comes, you and your so-called governor will seize it. And you think that you will ever be happy in your life? You will never have peace in your life and of course, I am telling you, check out those who have been the Chairmen of various local government Areas in Abia State in the past, their position today. Those who are stealing the money in collaboration with the state government. So, I believe one day, all of them will be brought to book.
Agriculture is a major plank Alex Otti promises to use to drive Abia’s growth. In what ways can we tap into that? In what ways can we jump-start Agriculture in Abia?
Let me remind you, most humbly, that Alex Otti is a renowned economist and with his background, he knows the best policy to introduce to move Abia forward at any point in time. In agriculture, in whatever sector of the economy, Otti knows the best policy to introduce or bring onboard, to move the state forward. Involving the youths, involving whoever that will make meaningful contribution to the development of agriculture in Abia State and so on are options on the table. Abia people are predominantly subsistence farmers and Otti will always do the right thing to assist and support the farmers to increase their harvest. He will also encourage and support commercial agriculture in Abia State to be comparable to what we have in our neighbouring state of Ebonyi.
What’s your assessment of the outgoing administration?
The only thing Ikpeazu is bequeathing to Abia people is a moribund state. Ikpeazu is so inefficient that he cannot even tell a simple lie, which is the trademark of some of his cabinet members. The evidence was sufficient when he appeared on national television a few days ago to tell the world that he is not owning civil servants in Abia State. What a shame!
Abia people will always remember Ikpeazu as the man who basked in underperformance. He will forever be remembered as the man who has brought a perpetual shame to his kinsmen by stigmatizing Obingwa as the most notorious LGA in Nigeria for election rigging. Obingwa has gained negative prominence in the political lexicon of Nigeria, courtesy of Ikpeazu.
How can we make Abia more secure for people to invest in it?
Security is every man’s business. It is not only for the governor. If you leave the security problem in Abia State to the governor alone, it will be difficult for him to tackle it because he is not a spirit. He is a human being like all of us. First of all, the insecurity problem we have in Abia State, is basically caused by unemployed youths. Millions of our youths are unemployed and you cannot engage any youth who is doing something meaningful to go out there and become a kidnapper or create a security problem for the state. So, Dr Alex Otti, one of his promises to Abia people, is to ensure that unemployment is reduced effectively in Abia State. And when the idle youths are meaningfully engaged, there will be a drastic reduction of the insecurity problem in Abia. That we have a security problem in Abia today is because successive governments have failed to engage or create employment for Abia youths. They only made empty promises. But as I have said, it is not only the work of the governor. Every one of us must be involved in securing our environment or securing our society. How do we do that? The criminals, the kidnappers, the armed robbers, etc are not spirits. They are people living with us in the same environment, in the same community. So, we know them, we should try in our own ways to identify them and when we identify them, we do the needful. Otti is going to bring up a very robust economic policy that will make these idle boys rethink and make them have a sense of belonging. So, in that case, I am sure that Otti, through his different economic policies, will create an environment that would reduce insecurity to the barest minimum.
Let’s talk about moribund factories in Abia. These are major employment creating hubs for the state. What do you advise him to do about them? Sell, revive or what?
First of all, what have successive governments done about all these moribund industries in Abia State? We have many of them. We have them in Umuahia, we have them in Aba, we have them in Bende, and other places. These are areas the government can create employment for the idle youths who are causing security problems in Abia State. Alex Otti will consult widely with Abia people both at home and in the diaspora to seek the best advice and solution to our moribund industries. And we must also consider the fact that governments don’t manage or run businesses. Any Business run by the government is not sustainable. So, I think he is going to take the best decision about all these moribund industries in Abia State. I hope that those moribund industries will never be the same again by the time Otti finishes his tenure in Abia State.
