“I am not a politician, said Alex Otti, “if this is the sacrifice I have to pay to rescue the dire situation I have envisaged in my homeland Abia, so be it. I am counting on the cooperation and support of every Abia state indigen”
By Njoku Sainterry A
Countdown to 11th March gubernatorial elections in Abia state, a group known as Abia Professionals converge in Umuahia to endorse Labour Party candidate, Dr. Alex Otti, as most suitable to occupy the leadership of Abia state beginning from 29th May 2023. Tipped as most prepared candidate among 3 selected candidates of APGA, APC and LP, Alex Otti emerged as most credible with character, capacity, competence, consistence and commitment to establish the kind of drastic development Abia requires.
In an evening of questions and answers on the manifesto of Alex Otti, men and women garnered from various professional backgrounds in business, finance, agriculture, trade and craftsmanship took turns to analyze contents of the manifesto announced to have been written by Alex Otti himself based on his experience in corporate world of finance, management and industry.
“Abia state is in dire straight situation and it requires someone with an in-depth knowledge of how global economy operates both in finance, administration and managerial discipline of resuscitating failed economies.”
Abia is facing a bleak future and it is disheartening many people resident in the state are yet to find out the reality of hardship that is imminent unless the people take the resolve to change the dire situations they have found themselves in the state.
Research revealed that the Ease of doing business in Abia is 32% / 36%, that means any investor looking forward to where to invest his money will never consider Abia among the first 30 out of 36 states of the federation. That is bad news to the economy of the state.
The IGR in Abia state is one of the lowest in Nigeria at 27%, at the moment Abia’s IGR hovers around 15billion per anum and 6billion Annual allocation. Between 2015 to 2023 of the Okezie Ikpeazu PDP led government of Abia state, Abia’s debt profile has bludgeoned from #34.5billion to #190billion and still growing and might hit #250billion before the expiration of this administration.
This is not the best of time to be carried away by political campaign rhetoric of individuals parading as gubernatorial candidates whereas they are completely bereft of how the economy functions.
In his acceptance remark, the LP gubernatorial candidate thanked the group for considering him worthy of their endorsement. He declared that “it is in our collective interest to put heads together to salvage this state.”
“I am not a politician, said Alex Otti, “if this is the sacrifice I have to pay to rescue the dire situation I have envisaged in my homeland Abia, so be it. I am counting on the cooperation and support of every Abia state indigen, most especially, the group of Professionals to act as additional support channels to forestall discipline during the election and I promise, you won’t be disappointed. Said Alex Otti
“Somebody is making campaign promises of buying JAMB forms for students, a gubernatorial candidate making such wild promises, He did not ask, what happens to the impoverished parents whom the government has withheld their salaries for more than 36 months, why expose the family to more suffering and ridicule because you want to become a governor, some are promising to repair markets – who will go to these markets? Ghosts or the people who are owed between 24 to 52 months salaries, until the government makes provisions for business to thrive in the society how can they have the moral justification to force the people to pay tax.”
Abia state is in dire straight situation and it requires someone with an in-depth knowledge of how global economy operates both in finance, administration and managerial discipline of resuscitating failed economies. Abia state has risen to the status of a failed economy and it does not appear it is going to get any better unless the people rise up to the challenge and take drastic actions to rescue the state from the grip of poor leadership culture that is destroying the economy and social status of the region and people in the state. This is what those parading as governorship candidate are not telling you.
Somebody is making campaign promises of buying JAMB forms for students, a gubernatorial candidate making such wild promises, He did not ask, what happens to the impoverished parents whom the government has withheld their salaries for more than 36 months, why expose the family to more suffering and ridicule because you want to become a governor, some are promising to repair markets – who will go to these markets? Ghosts or the people who are owed between 24 to 52 months salaries, until the government makes provisions for business to thrive in the society how can they have the moral justification to force the people to pay tax. Once people economic powers are stiffened you have automatically withheld their ability to contribute a quota to the economic cycle that comes in the form of taxes.
For sake of clarification, Taxation is a government share of the prosperity it has created in the society for the people and that is what boosts the IGR of a state. If the government creates a society of poverty, a situation of poor people at all corners, people whose wages those in government has withheld to share among their cronies, it is obvious, the IGR of such state must continue to go down and that is what is happening in Abia state.
Those owing the workforce in Abia state are only killing the economy and destroying the state further, so I wonder what are they and their cronies campaigning for.
Is it not the profits made from business, the wages earned from workplaces that the people will contribute for the wellbeing of the economy? Therefore when the people are owed salaries endlessly, where the leadership does not pay serious attention to infrastructural development of the state, how can the state grow? This is what the Alex Otti manifesto has vowed to deal with in character and in principles. More so, This is the clear statement the endorsement by Abia professionals has made.
