“When opposition elements attack without substance, they do more than miss the mark – they make a mockery of themselves. Citizens are not blind, Governor Otti’s approach has been simple: work first, talk later. While others hold press conferences, his team holds the line on service delivery”
By Njoku SaintJerry A & Ukoha Njoku Ukoha
Every citizen and residents in the New Abia Abia shares a common excitement, living in a region touted among South East States as one of the safest, cleanest, disciplined and organized with a political administration delivering quality governance to the people and their environment.
This is a far cry from what we used to know of the Old Abia, a very disorganized, dysfunctional political administration with a warped focus on a circle of individuals that lacks virtually everything related to responsible governance.
Abia has walked away from such a sordid political past and with pride under the leadership of H.E. Governor Alex Otti led Labour Party government and as we approach the end of the first four year tenure of the administration of a working government leading us to a another dispensation beginning from 2027 under the platform of Labour Party, that will lead us to a continuation of the great works our government is doing to solidify the foundation of the New Abia and completion of the reconstruction process that we have initiated since May 2023, certain band of individuals hiding under political platforms are gathering to throw a wrench in the great works that the Labour Party government is doing to reposition Abia as a model state in Nigeria under the leadership of Gov Alex Otti.
As much as it is one of the demands of democracy to have viable oppositions providing the services of a watchdog to the ruling government, their presence becomes distractive and nauseating rather than appealing when they resort to ‘sand throwing’ in the air, perhaps to cause blindness to those who have eyes and are seeing all the good works and the beauty the New Abia has become.
This signifies an expression of childish tantrums when the sweets are denied a child or taken away from a petulant child, even while he or she drools in the puddle of his own mess. Perhaps these are signs of an inherent fears among those in the distractive camp of the opposition, Fact is; Abia has been pulled out of the mess, out of the mess of political manipulation and institutionalized deception and we cannot allow those children in adult frames take the state back to the mess of yesterday for any reason at all.
Nevertheless, as my brother and friend Citizen Ukoha Njoku Ukoha (CPS) will clarify in one of his exposé; Abia State is changing, and the evidence is no longer hidden behind rhetoric.
Under Governor Alex Otti, “New Abia” is moving from slogan to street-level reality – from road reconstruction and erosion control, to healthcare upgrades, education reform, and improved security. The work is visible, measurable, and touching communities that waited years for intervention.
This is why attempts by unrepentant remnants of the “Old Abia” to criticize the “New Abia” government often collapse under the weight of facts. When opposition elements attack without substance, they do more than miss the mark – they make a mockery of themselves. Citizens are not blind. They see the new roads, the clean environment, and the cleared drainages, the upgraded schools and functionalized healthcare facilities, the regular payments of salaries and pensions, the reforms in public service and the restored confidence in governance.
Every baseless criticism ends up doing what the opposition fears most: it allows the people to see through the depression and frustration driving those attacks. Instead of discrediting Governor Otti’s administration, hollow criticism highlights the contrast between noise and performance. The more the opposition raises empty objections, the clearer it becomes that their frustration stems not from failure of government, but from their own irrelevance in the face of results.
Governor Otti’s approach has been simple: work first, talk later. While others hold press conferences, his team holds the line on service delivery. The people of Abia are responding with the only metric that matters — their daily experience. When a government fixes what was broken and builds what was missing, criticism without proof becomes its own undoing.
Abia has moved beyond propaganda. The transformation is real, ongoing, and undeniable. And in that light, the loudest critics are only proving the point: Governor Otti is working, and Abia is transforming.
Njoku Jerry A. is the Past State Publicity Secretary, Labour Party, Abia, UKOHA, NJOKU UKOHA is the Chief Press Secretary to the Executive Governor of Abia State.
