Governance Is About the People, Not Personal Legacies- Otti

Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti, has called for people-centred governance, urging leaders to regard the development of the state as a collective responsibility rather than a platform for personal recognition.

Governor Otti made the call on Thursday at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Umuahia, during the anniversary lecture and grand finale of activities marking the 35th anniversary of the creation of Abia State, themed: “The Rise of a New Abia”.

According to the governor, public officials should not become preoccupied with personal recognition or seek to attach their names to government projects.

Governor Otti while reflecting on the state’s journey over the past 35 years, said the modest contributions of successive administrations should be viewed as efforts made in the service of the people rather than as personal achievements.

“It’s about our people. The modest efforts and contributions that we have made is not about us.

“And any time you begin to discuss yourself and you become important, then you’ve missed the bus. We are not important”, he said.

Governor Otti said the anniversary should therefore serve as an opportunity for Abians to focus on the progress made by the state and the responsibility of current and future leaders to sustain and improve what they inherit.

He rejected the notion that government projects should be regarded as permanent “legacy projects”, arguing that infrastructure could deteriorate if subsequent administrations failed to maintain and improve it.

According to him, the priority of every administration should be to build on existing foundations, repair infrastructure where necessary and leave institutions stronger for those coming after them.

“There are no legacy projects. Of course, you can build a project, and tomorrow it will be dilapidated, and your name will be on top of a dilapidated property.

“So just like when we came here, a lot of things were falling apart, and we took time to fix them”, he said.

Governor Otti who also used his personal experience to underscore the importance of government investment in education, said access to education had played a decisive role in his own journey.

The governor said the experience informed his administration’s decision to abolish school fees in public schools, including smart schools, to give children from different socio-economic backgrounds equal access to quality education.

Governor Otti said the ultimate measure of development should be whether government policies and investments enable citizens to improve their circumstances and create better opportunities for the next generation.

He urged stakeholders to see the anniversary not merely as a celebration of the state’s past, but as a reminder of the collective responsibility to build stronger institutions and improve the quality of life of Abians.

Governor Otti said the work of governance should therefore continue beyond individual administrations, with each government expected to preserve useful foundations, correct shortcomings and create conditions for the state to make sustained progress.

In her virtual goodwill message, the Director General of the World Trade Organization, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala commended the Abia State Government for its efforts to diversify revenue, improve financial sustainability and prioritise capital investment, noting that the state devoted 77 per cent of its spending to capital projects.

She praised the Otti led administration for upgrading infrastructure, rehabilitating neglected transport corridors, improving electricity supply, clearing inherited salary and pension arrears and reducing the state’s debt burden.

Okonjo-Iweala, however, acknowledged that more work remained to be done, particularly in unlocking Abia’s significant economic potential.

She highlighted Aba’s leather and manufacturing clusters, noting that despite their strong production capacity, limited formal exports and high trade costs constrain their growth.

Dr  Okonjo Iweala urged the state to deepen its integration with the South-East, Nigeria’s wider economy, the ECOWAS region, the African Continental Free Trade Area and global markets.

The WTO DG argued that with reliable infrastructure, supportive policies and targeted investment in high-potential sectors, Abia could become an important node in national, regional and global value chains.

She also called for Aba to develop strong global brands and for Umuahia to be strengthened as a centre for light manufacturing and administration and expressed optimism that Abia could translate its potential into jobs, prosperity and greater dignity for its people in the years ahead.

In his anniversary lecture earlier, the former minister of Aviation and Areospace Development, Mr Osita Chidoka traced Abia’s political and economic trajectory, recalling a period when the state exercised considerable influence in national affairs and produced political leaders whose activities extended beyond its boundaries.

Chidoka, a former Corp Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, however, said Abia’s national standing subsequently diminished, while its public infrastructure deteriorated.

According to him, Aba, once one of the country’s greatest centres of indigenous enterprise, increasingly appeared to succeed despite government rather than because of it.

He said the emergence of Governor Alex Otti in 2023 should therefore be understood against the background of the state’s search for renewed confidence, possibility and institutional capacity.

The former minister said his assessment of the Otti administration was that “something material has happened”, pointing to improvements in roads, urban renewal and other areas of public infrastructure.

However, he stressed that the more important test was whether the visible improvements could be translated into durable institutions capable of sustaining progress beyond the tenure of an individual governor.

Chidoka said the lesson for Abia was the need to move from leadership driven by the energy and standards of an individual to institutions with the capacity to function independently.

“The real choice, therefore, is not between capable leadership and strong institutions. The challenge is to produce leaders strong enough to build institutions and institutions strong enough eventually not to need those leaders,” he said.

Chidoka cited Governor Otti’s 2014 book, “Saving the Future: The Economic Development and Prosperity Agenda”, in which the governor had argued that education was a pillar upon which other sectors rested.

He said the increased allocation to education under the present administration reflected a commitment that predated governor Otti’s assumption of office.

He also stressed the importance of measuring educational outcomes over several years, arguing that the impact of current investments should be assessed through the performance of pupils and students as they progress through the education system.

He challenged the administration to ensure that good governance became routine rather than dependent on the personal intervention of the governor.

Chidoka said the ultimate measure of Otti’s administration should therefore be its institutional legacy.

“It will not be because of what he has done, but because of what the state has learned to do because he was governor.

“Roads can be inherited, buildings can be inherited, equipment can be inherited. The greater inheritance is a government that has learned how to work”, he said.

Chidoka said Abia’s ambition should be to make competent government, functioning schools, clean cities, passable roads, timely payment of salaries and effective public institutions ordinary features of life in the state.

He challenged Abia to reclaim its historical position of punching above its weight in Nigeria, arguing that its future influence should be based not only on the prominence of its political personalities but also on the quality of its institutions, education, enterprise and governance.

He expressed hope that Abia could eventually become a reference point for good governance, saying the state should aspire to a situation where Nigerian governors and international organisations would not need to travel abroad to find examples of effective governance.

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