By Uchechukwu Okoroafor, Abuja
The celebration is yet to end in Abia State. The celebration of the victory of the governorship candidate of Labour Party (LP) Dr Alex Otti in the March 18 governorship election. The excitement had been palpable. This is what you get when the winner is the choice of the people. There had been shouts of excitement that Abia has finally been liberated from ‘slave masters’ with Oti’s victory.
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With the mess that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had made of the state since 1999 you get the feeling of why the people felt that they had been in slavery for over 20 years and now have been liberated with the victory of Oti of the Labour Party.
However, Otti is inheriting Abia that is in a financial mess with huge foreign and local debts dating back to the time of Orji Uzor Kalu; huge wage bills and unpaid salaries for years; several years of unpaid pensions and gratuities; higher institutions closed due to lack of payment of salaries of lecturers and the necessary accreditations; poor infrastructure and high rate of poverty.
Otti has his job cut out for him. But in him Abia has hope. He seems prepared for a time like this. And his antecedent gives a clue of his capacity to hit the ground running from day one after his swearing in on May 29, 2023. Let’s take a cursory look at the man, Alex Otti, the man on whose shoulders the hopes and aspirations of Abia people now rests.
Alex Otti is an economist, ex-banker, investor, philanthropist, and politician. Otti is the Governor-elect of Abia State. Otti, who is the Labour Party (LP) candidate in Abia State, was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, after a dramatic collation of results for the state’s governorship election held on Saturday, March 18.
Otti emerged as the winner after defeating his closest rival, Okey Ahiwe of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP). According to the Returning Officer, Professor Nnenna Otti, the Labour Party candidate scored a total of 175,467 votes to beat his main challenger, Ahiwe of PDP, who garnered a total of 88,529 votes.
Alex Otti was born on the 18th of February 1965 in Isiala-Ngwa South Local Government Area of Abia State to the family of the late Mr. & Mrs. Lazarus Weze Otti from Atani in Arochukwu Kingdom. His father was pastor. He attended the Ngwa High School and Secondary Technical School, Okpuala Ngwa in Abia State. He graduated with a first-class degree in Economics from the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT).
He also got an MBA degree from the University of Lagos (UNILAG). Otti took some international courses in institutions like Columbia Business School, Stanford Business School, and Wharton Business School.
Otti and WifeHe started his banking career in 1989 with the Nigeria International Bank, then moved to Nigerian Intercontinental Merchant Bank Ltd. In 1992, he joined Societe Bancaire Nigeria Limited (Merchant bankers) before moving to the United Bank of Africa (UBA) as the principal manager overseeing the bank’s corporate banking sector for the entire south division.
In 2001, he joined First Bank of Nigeria as Assistant General Manager and was later appointed as executive director, of commercial banking. In 2011, he moved from First Bank Nigeria to Diamond bank as the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer. He retired from the banking sector in 2014.
He was a gubernatorial candidate of Abia State under the All Progressive’s Grand Alliance (APGA) in 2015. Otti was declared the winner of the election after the Court of Appeal removed Okezie Ikpeazu of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). But the decision was reversed by the Supreme Court. The governor-elect of Abia is a member of the Editorial Board of THISDAY Newspaper. He is also a columnist. Under the title, “Outside The Box”, Otti writes on a wide range of issues.
The Abia State Governor-elect, Alex Otti of the Labour Party has pledged to serve Abians judiciously for the next four years. He has also promised to be a servant leader which has already excited many because servant leadership is indeed what Abia State needs now more than ever before. Reacting to his victory via his official Twitter handle, Otti accepted the trust Abians had bestowed on him to serve them for the next four years.
“With deep humility and a profound sense of responsibility, I wholeheartedly accept your mandate to be your chief servant for the next 4 years”, he tweeted.
While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase “servant leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said:
“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.
“The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?“
A servant-leader focuses primarily on the growth and well-being of people and the communities to which they belong. While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the “top of the pyramid,” servant leadership is different. The servant-leader shares power, puts the needs of others first and helps people develop and perform as highly as possible. Abians be ready for a new leadership beckons.
To move Abia forward Otti needs all the support he can get. Even though his capacity to run the state is never in doubt, he cannot do it alone. He needs the support of well meaning Abians to change the sad narrative of the state. It is therefore nobbling that the leader of the defeated Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state and the incumbent governor Dr Okezie Ikpeazu has congratulated Otti on his well deserved victory.
Otti and ObiIn a statement by Onyebuchi Ememanka, his chief press secretary, Ikpeazu called on members of other parties to give Otti an enabling environment to run the affairs of the state from May 29.
The governor said having spent about three and half years in different courts, he knows the distraction such cases can cause a leader.
“I appeal to every candidate in this election not to distract the incoming administration with court cases, so that they will settle down and deal with the very demanding business of governance,” he said.
“Let us break this negative trend of subjecting our governors to endless litigations and allow them to concentrate on providing good governance.”
Ikpeazu commended Otti for his doggedness, saying he fought a long battle.
“Since we have come to the logical end of this battle, it is appropriate to congratulate the winner, Dr Alex Otti on his hard-fought victory,” Ikpeazu said.
“In every battle, there will always be a winner and in the spirit of sportsmanship and love for our state, the governor-elect must see his victory as a higher call to service to the people of Abia state.”
He also congratulated other candidates who took part in the election for their doggedness. Ikpeazu said he would put in place every necessary measure to ensure a seamless transition from the present administration to the incoming one.
Even former governor Orji Uzor Kalu who laid the foundation of financial recklessness and infrastructural decay in the state has also congratulated Otti and urged his opponents not to go to court. At this time, it is fair to say that any of the governorship candidates who goes to court to distract Otti may be digging his own political grave because Otti truly has the mandate of the people and does not deserve distractions. Let all hands be on deck to support the Servant Leader of Abia State to succeed in the onerous task of rebuilding God’s Own State.
-Uchechukwu Okoroafor is a Writer, Columnist, Social Commentator and Politician. He is the CEO of UNITY TIMES.