It’s time to stem the rot in Abia – Abia Professionals

*Throws weight behind LP guber candidate, Otti

From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia

Abia professionals have thrown their weight behind the governorship candidate of Labour Party in the State, Dr. Alex Otti, promising to work for his emergence in the March 11 2023 governorship poll, saying time has come to stem the rot in the state.

The group, made up of young professionals of different intellectual inclinations and diverse political orientations, endorsed Otti as its governorship candidate for the Abia 2023 guber contest during an interactive event tagged “Abia Professionals Hosts An Evening With Dr. Alex Otti,” said Abia needs a man with the pedigree to save it from sliding further into a failed state.

Secretary-General of Abia Professionals, Nkem Egbuta, while addressing the gathering in Umuahia at the weekend, said the group was not happy with the state of affairs in God’s Own State and would not sit on the fence now that there was another opportunity to choose a new leader for the state because the group was convinced that “the problem of Abia is simply a problem of lack of true, transparent, visionary and purposeful leadership.”

“We are joined in the unity of our collective angst at the parlous, decrepit state into which our dear state of Abia has sunk. We are appalled by the manner successive governments have plundered our scarce resources, mismanaged the state and thrown the entire citizenry into penury,” Egbuta said, noting that “the entire citizenry of Abians continue to wallow in wants in the midst of plenty.”

He lamented the dearth of infrastructure in Abia, while welfare of the citizens has nosedived occasioned by non-payment of salaries to workers; pension and gratuities to pensioners coupled with unacceptable spiraling unemployment rate in the state and insisted that there was need to choose a competent leader on March 11.

”Our situation is critical and that is why as Abia Professionals, we have organized this platform for the one who we feel possesses all the qualities we need to rescue this state should come and interact with the professionals and tell us what his plans are for the state and then we ask him questions in a convivial atmosphere.

“We are convinced and emboldened by the realisation that we all are equal stakeholders in the Abia enterprise, and that if we collectively decide to say no, enough is enough, that we shall stem the rot.

“Today, we are convinced that of all  the persons who have put themselves forward for the position of leadership of Abia State, that Dr. Alex Otti, stands body and shoulders above the rest. And we are determined to synergise our mental and physical energies to support his candidature and ensure he emerges the governor of the state so that he can begin to stem the tide,” the Abia Professionals leader said.

Before arriving at the choice of Otti, the group said it examined the competence, capacity, credibility, pedigree and integrity of the candidates who have put themselves forward.

“So, what we have simply done was to look at the candidates, x-ray their history, their pedigree, their job history, where have they worked; their capacity and what impacts have they made on the society and that is how we came by the choice of Dr. Alex Otti.

“When you choose a candidate for an election, it should go beyond the man who answers the most questions correctly. You have to look at his integrity, you have to look at his character because any person can produce a manifesto. The most important thing is who gets the job done, the person who does what he says he will do and it is very critical in leadership.

“And we see Dr. Alex Otti, a First Class Economist; is the kind of person that we need at this moment in time. This was a man who was an Executive Director of a first generation bank at the age of 40; that tells you that he is a financial whiz kid, more or less,” Egbuta explained.

Addressing the audience, the Labour Party Governorship Candidate, Dr. Alex Otti, who accepted the Abia Professionals endorsement with open arms, said the action has portrayed members of the group “as men and women of honour, particularly when no money changed hands.”

“I express my gratitude to you for the endorsement; it means a whole lot to me, more so, coming from the body of Abia Professionals,” Otti added.

He urged Abians to focus more on the character of all parading as governorship candidates, noting that Abia was at crossroads today because the people failed to scrutinize the character of those they elected into office.

“Any time you get involved in the leadership selection process, there are few things you must check, otherwise, if you garbage in, you garbage out. The most important thing is character.

“Abia is where it is because the electorate never paid attention to character. It is after character that you begin to talk about capacity, competence.

“For us, we are very clear about what we have come to do in Abia State. Some people are parading themselves as governorship candidates and at the back of their minds is how to share the money. I will not share Abia money, I will use it to develop Abia.

“The main reason why we left what we were doing to come and contest elections here is nothing but service,” the ex-Diamond Managing Director said.

He charged the Abia Professionals to go to the hinterlands to educate the rural populace on the need to elect credible leaders and as well educate them that he (Otti) was not vying on the platform of All Progressives Grand Alliance but that of Labour Party.

“Go to your areas of influence and tell them that Alex Otti is now in Labour Party, not APGA. Come out on election day and vote and defend your vote. I promise all of you that we will not disappoint you,” Otti said.

Director-General of Dr. Alex Otti Campaign Organisation, Iheanacho Obioma (Chomen), agreed that Abia needs a visionary, experienced leader at this time of her history.

“We are supporting Otti because we believe that he will give Abia a new direction, he will lead Abia to the path of glory. We need a man that would find the money to develop Abia State, not one who will sit and wait for monthly allocations from Abuja; we need a man who will bring discipline to the administration of Abia State, a man with vision,” Obioma said and thanked Abia Professionals for organising the forum for his principal.

The Chairman of the occasion, Dr. Eme Okoro, described the event as timely, noting that time has come to deploy professionalism in building a solid Abia.

Dr. Okoro, a former Secretary to Abia State Government, said professionals elected into positions of trust were expected to harness their body of knowledge to benefit the community, state and the nation, to build a new human society and human capacity which should be blended to midwife operational institutional capacity  for nation building.

The agronomist challenged the Abia professionals to organize such an event for all the governorship candidates to interrogate their competences to enable them to point the way for Abians on the best candidate they should root for and expose those out to deceive the people.

“If we want to compare people, this is the opportunity for us to expose those who want to deceive us, when once you don’t have competence, please, go home and sleep; if you have capacity, brag about it,” Dr. Okoro said.

The ex-SSG who explained that he graced the event as a professional, and on a non-partisan basis, said Otti has capacity and competence in the areas of finance and management, harnessing of resources and human capacity to change the narrative of Abia State.

During the interactive session, members of the group asked questions on Otti’s rural development agenda, agriculture, electricity, vote protection, money laundering allegations, women, youth and vulnerable inclusion , among others, to which the governorship candidate provided elaborate answers.