“By the time the Otti’s government would have concluded its first tenured assignment, political leadership in Abia would have been clearly defined in so much that no man or woman would dare mount the campaign rostrum to ask for vote without a clear definition of what he wants to achieve in office and how he plans to get that established. That’s a legacy and Abia has found its footing.”
Until recently every political office contender in Abia State has often mounted the rostrum loaded with rhetoric and platitudes to sway the uninitiated voters and once in office, the attention is diverted for the interest of a few circle of influencers notoriously code-named ‘cabals’ and when it does appears the contender do have something that took the form of a manifesto, it’s either a contracted document of sweet essay of what the contender never had in mind and knows very little about until either by the crook or hook or by sheer manipulation by INEC the contender finds himself in a political office, then the confusion begins.
Abia State was trapped under the burden of such manipulation for more than 20 years. They never had a functional government.
In the early days of the last administration, I had visited the first sets of economic team organised by the ex-governor and the first shocker was; neither the governor nor his team has any documented plans of what to do or where to begin, no blueprint, not even a manifesto to reference, apart from those campaign rhetoric used to sway the people during the campaign, the governor do not even own himself.
The economic team led by one Austin Ufomba appeared confused at first then admitted that the only document of reference to any blueprint of Abia State was the one done by the late Dr. Sam Mbakwe, Governor of Imo State in 1978, when Abia and Imo State was under one political administration. This was in 2015!
“Then how have they been governing the State without a plan queried a member of the team.” They hurriedly sat down to work, an event I cared less what was the outcome until I returned overseas.
To put it clearly, Abia state in its early days of democratic dispensation was trapped in the hands of individuals I will classify as transactional experimental politician with no clear program, and where a manifesto had existed, it was merely a futile incentivized media engagement to deceive the people. Abia State never had a clear blueprint of governance since 1999 political dispensation; if it had existed I am very certain there won’t be space for those media hyped nonexistent billboard project or the sudden self adulation that almost became a political culture where it produced a different breed of sycophancy peculiar to Abia State.
Then came 2023, and by the people’s strong determination to upturn the Augean table of economic deprivation and frustration, H.E. Governor Alex Otti emerged the Executive Governor of Abia under Labour Party.
The victory was well orchestrated first by a deliberate intention to end the ongoing leadership rascality that has become a common feature in Abia State politics, second, was to rescue the state from continuous decline into a chaotic political situation and finally to rebuild the state from the colossal ruin it has degenerated. By this time Abia was the butt of every comedian skit.
What broke the camel’s hump was the Alex Otti’s Manifesto, a 44 page cut out plan of how under his leadership the old Abia of dirt and failures was going to be completely rebuilt.
The mission as stated in the manifesto clearly stated its resolve; “to establish a responsive, efficient and accountable government that will sustainably develop Abia State for the welfare, security, and progress of all Abians”, not enough stated, Otti went ahead to explain how he had sat down overnight to work out page by page of each phase of the manifesto that will see Abia rebuilt from the scratch, not a page was contracted to any wordsmith in the UK or Lagos. He went ahead to distribute a summarized handy version of the 44 page into an 8 page journal until the message sank deep and saturated.
Today Abians celebrate 24 months of the first tenure of Gov. Alex Otti’s labour party. How the plans as written out in his manifesto had fared is evident in virtually all the 3 senatorial zones in the state, specifically in Abia and Umuahia that once evoke that infamous statement by Billionaire Arthur Eze “Abia stinks.”
In reality, that manifesto marks its first 2 years in operation as the state and residents continue to celebrate the marvel that has become the New Abia.
This is what happens when you sit down and draw a plan of action into any venture, this is what happens when you desire quality home and you sit down to plan with architects and engineers, you will get nothing but the best home for your family and here in Abia what we got through that Otti’s manifesto was quality leadership and a new Abia
No doubt, by the time the Otti’s government would have concluded its first tenured assignment, political leadership in Abia would have been clearly defined in so much that no man or woman would dare mount the campaign rostrum to ask for vote without a clear definition of what he wants to achieve in office and how he plans to get that established. That’s a legacy and Abia has found its footing.
As noise of 2027 electoral year looms, today sets the mileage for the second half of the journey into the New Abia. It is obvious when the bell rings again; campaign rhetoric will become dry jokes by unprepared aspirants hoping to cash in on the gullibility of the citizenry.
“Abians don wise” the people are smarter, they have seen it all, from Orji Uzo Kalu, T.A Orji, to Okezie Ikpeazu and now with Alex Otti’s led Labour Party government, Abians can tell the stark difference of a planned journey, a planned battle, a structured building plan to a fraud decorated as another ‘guber’ hopeful without direction and nothing but to massage the ego and vanity of his sponsors.
Most importantly, the manifesto in practice has set up institutional frameworks of infrastructural development across the 3 senatorial zones, and bringing every community in Abia into the development circuit.
This is what happened when aspirants, candidates, flag bearers of political parties or by whatever nomenclature are adopted by their parties on merit as Labour party does and the citizenry are not manipulated to accept anybody into political office by mere sweet political platitudes and rhetoric.
Njoku Jerry Ajike is an ambassador with State of African Diaspora, He writes from Beijing
