(OPINION) SCHOLARSHIPS: A FEW THINGS ABIA ELITES CAN LEARN FROM ALEX OTTI

By. Dodo Okafor

1. You may be an experienced excavator to find anything that has the semblance of a  pleasant news from Abia state these days.

2. News of starvation,  non-payment of salaries and pensions, abandonment of civil servants in several ministries and parastatals and similar depressing news are more common in Abia since Okezie Ikpeazu’s most unfortunate emergence as governor a little over four years ago.

3. Then when you come on social media, the most common pictures that greet you from Abia state are pictures of impassable roads at Aba and several areas in the state, garbage filled streets, flooded homes and dilapidated school buildings.

4. In the villages, the only evidence that the residents are not dwelling in the middle ages are the burial posters that are plastered on electric poles and on church signposts.

5. Things are a lot worse in the urban areas where child prostitution is becoming more rampant owing to the inability of most parents to cater for their families – sadly- these parents are teachers, staff of the state’s hospital management board and those working at the area councils.

6. The ones who can’t go into prostitution do whatever they can to survive including robbery, kidnapping and political thuggery. 

7. In Abia today, the best job for most youths is political sycophancy.  Online and offline- most youths can only afford money to survive till the next day when they lie and praise politicians.

8. The state ministry of information according to intel available to me and several others have more a dozen hired hands doing online propaganda work for the govt. Sadly, much of these hired hands are boys and girls whose parents and relatives have not been paid their salaries and pensions in years.

9. Abia state has the worst road network in all of Igboland.  The state has the most demotivated workforce in the region also and on all human development index, you find Abia at the bottom of the ladder.

10. It is unfortunate that the Abia Elites are not saying a thing about the misfortune the Ikpeazu administration represents.  They are keeping quiet for the simple reason that they are also parasiting on the state- feeding off the resources of the people.

11. I have weighed some of the most prominent men in the state and I can say without equivocation that Abia has the worst set of elites in all of Igboland.  Their complicity in the mess going on in the state is tragic and even then- tells you how irredeemable the state appears to be.

12. But amidst the darkness that have enveloped Abia for the greater part of the last 20 years, one man and one man alone offers a glimmer of hope. That man is Alex Otti.

13. In a land where most well-to-do men are selfish and self-serving, Otti has demonstrated that there’s more to politics and public service than the primitive acquisition of wealth and material things.

14. It is in the light of the afore that I welcomed with excitement a few days ago, the news that Alex Otti- astute financial administrator and prominent commentator on national issues- has floated through his foundation – a scholarship program for indigent Abia students in higher institutions.

15. I am glad that Mr Otti is stepping in to offer succor to thousands of Abia indigent students whose hope of obtaining quality education is being threatened by the refusal of the Okezie Ikpeazu administration to pay salaries and improve the economic fortunes of families in the state.

16. I am also happy that the scholarship exercise will be devoid the ills and setbacks that destroyed the legitimacy of several such initiatives in other places. For once- I was told that a special selection committee made up of professionals and independent players has been set up to assess and verify the claims of the would-be beneficiaries. 

17. It is my prayer that politics, ethnic and religious (church)  considerations be removed permanently as a criteria in the process of of selecting awardees.

18. Alex Otti is a model for millions of Abians because of his demonstrated academic brilliance, sky-high work ethics, outstanding career history, discipline and an enduring commitment to promoting decency in the conduct of public affairs. 

19. Mr Otti is the only man across the state that forms a strong, formidable wall of opposition against the misbegotten government in Umuahia.  Mr Otti has refused to abandon his conviction that Abians deserve better- even when that would have been the most convenient thing to do.

20. Otti has kept faith with Ndi Abia. He has shown great magnanimity even when betrayed by trusted aides and associates. He is a model of principled opposition politics.

21. I wish Abia had just 1 more character with Otti’s conviction,  resources and insights into governance. Abia would have been rescued with just two of his type around. Unfortunately – Opposition politics in Abia functions more on sabotage, betrayal and sheer dishonesty. 

22. To be clear, Mr Otti has never ascribed perfection to himself.  Like all of us, he is a human being who may have judged situation/events wrongly in times past. Yes- he is a man and bound to make mistakes.

23. To me and millions of Abians however, there is no better person more equipped, prepared, intelligent and strategic than Alex Otti in the Abia political firmament.

So in my estimation – nobody is more qualified to lift Abia from the doldrums of failure and setbacks than this experienced technocrat. 

Thank sir.