Governor Alex Otti of Abia State
You have made my job easy, Otti tells Transition Council
From Boniface Okoro, Umuahia
Incoming Governor of Abia State, Dr. Alex Chioma Otti, says the 101-member Transition Council he set up to draw a roadmap he would use to tackle governance issues, when he assumes office, has made his job easy through its excellent recommendations.
Also following the recommendation of the Council, the Governor-elect said he would take a second look on the naming of a special ministry dedicated to development of Aba, the economic hub of the state.
A statement by a media aide to Otti, Kazie Uko, disclosed that the Governor-elect who spoke on Sunday while receiving the report of the Council led by the Managing Director of PWC, Mr. Victor Onyenkpa and a former Executive Chairman of Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Mrs. Ifueko Omogui-Okaru, promised to retain the Council throughout his tenure, instead of dissolving it.
While thanking members of the Council for a job well done, Otti said they have made the job of implementing his policies in the governance of the state easy, adding that the members would be happy that their recommendations were implemented.
“On listening to the presentation of the Chairman, I will say that this job has been made very easy by the job that you have done. Granted some of the things that you have recommended are things that we have talked about, but a lot of them are also things that are new. And even the things that we have talked about, you have brought in a sharper relief and focus. So, it becomes easier to implement. I must say thank you to all of you.
“I want to thank you for the energy, I want to thank you for the time you put into this. I want to thank you for doing a job without pay. I do know how important your time is. You can rest assured that we are not going to take lightly the efforts you have put into this.
“You will also be very proud, I can assure you, that the recommendations that you have made will be implemented,” he assured.
On his plans to create a Ministry dedicated to the redevelopment of Aba, the incoming Governor said he would look at the nomenclature again, in line with the recommendation of the Council to re-designate it for the fear that a ministry with its bureaucratic bottlenecks may vitiate the laudable objective of the Aba renewal agenda.
He said: “When we talk about disruption, when we talk about digital economy, when we talk about Aba, and I agree with you when you say, may be, the creation of a ministry is not the solution, we’ll go and look at it again. The reality is that I want an agency that will report directly to me, that is in charge of Aba.
“So, if calling it a ministry will take away from what we want to achieve, we can call it anything and if the ministry with all its bureaucracy can be a problem, I can be a commissioner in charge of Aba.”
He promised to restructure the Council and retain it for the period he will be governor of Abia State.
“I will like to say, on the final note, that this Committee will not be dissolved. This Committee remains a Standing Committee. The only thing that will change is its name. The leadership remains and, with your permission, I will like to transform the committee into a Special Advisory committee, unlike what happens in a few other places. We will reorganise it but it will be a standing committee for as long as I’m the Governor of state,” Otti added.
Also speaking on the viral social media report that he has been sacked by a Kano-based Federal High Court, Otti assured Abians that he would be sworn in on May 29, saying that the mandate given to him by Abians was sacrosanct.
He told them that he would do his first tenure and go ahead to seek a renewal which he was sure Abians would grant him.
