Alex Otti And His New Deal For Abia

 Kevin Oji submits that  Labour Party’s 2023 governorship candidate in Abia state, Dr Alex Otti, represents the new change the people are craving for

The stock market crash of October 1929 in  the United States sent the Wall Street on a tailspin and wiped out millions of investors; it left in its wake the Great Depression, the worst economic  downturn in the history  of the industrialized world.

In response to the ineffectiveness of President Herbert Hoover in meeting the ravages of the Great Depression, the then candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed The New Deal which he envisioned to bring economic relief as well as reforms in industry, agriculture and other critical sectors of the American economy.

Described as the New Deal for the “forgotten man”, Roosevelt eventually launched it from 1933 when he swept into office with the sole aim of restoring prosperity to Americans.
In our contemporary society, Abia state’s steep economic decline bears striking similarities with the United States in the throes of economic meltdown during the Great Depression.

For over two decades, the state has been misruled by self serving leaders who have squandered the state’s enormous human and material resources, mindlessly leaving it on the path to its dreaded descent into perdition.
The unenviable legacy of this visionless governance is in plain sight: complete breakdown of infrastructure, frightening and unacceptable increase in inequality, corruption, abject poverty, poor healthcare, non payment of wages of workers, high rate of unemployment, weak economy, collapse of the education sector, among others.

Dr. Alex Otti, a respected banker, entrepreneur and the governorship candidate of the Labour Party has embarked on a mission to rescue the state from decades of misrule and set it on the path of progress and shared prosperity.
His New Deal for Abia state which is a plethora of bold economic policies and initiatives mirrors the Roosevelt economic policies credited to have lifted millions of Americans from the poverty unleashed by the Great Depression.
Otti who first sought to govern Abia state in 2015 is bristling with ideas, policies and a clear plan on how he intends to rebuild the state and restore its lost glory if he wins the governorship election next year.

Successive administrations of the state under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) encouraged by the indifference of and connivance of the political elite, the cynicism of the citizenry totally mismanaged the state and left it wallowing in penury. With unemployment rate at 50.07%, the second highest in the south east after Imo state,it is not surprising that all the development indicators are on downward spiral.

The prognosis are indeed uninspiring and raises the frightening spectre of a gloomy future unless decisive action is taken to arrest the drift. Governor Okezie Ikpeazu promised so much at the inception of his admnistration in 2015 but has so far delivered so little at the twilight of his tenure in office.
His admnistration has supervised the collapse of virtually all the sectors of the economy of the state. Public hospitals and healthcare centres are in varying degrees of neglect and decay. Doctors at the Abia State University Teaching Hospital are owed 25 months of salaries and the staff of the Health Management Board owed 11months in arrears.

The economy of the state has taken a hit as workers are either under paid or owed arrears of salaries. Binge borrowing has ballooned the state’s debt profile without any marching verifiable and high impact projects to show for it. Aba the commercial nerve centre of the state is a shadow of itself as the near total collapse of critical road infrastructure and poor environment sanitation have impacted its business capacity and stymied its development.

The New Deal for Abia as envisioned by Dr. Otti is not only bold, visionary and realistic, it bears the precious seeds of the state’s renewal. There is no doubt that the mindless misrule of the state for the past two decades has eroded public trust in governance and created a cynical electorate, yet in the deluge of this collosal failure, betrayal and the squandering of the public trust, there still exists patriots in the state in the mold of Otti whose unwavering commitment to the primacy of collective interest and the progress of the state is total.

The economic development master plan of Otti, a product of thorough and painstaking analysis of the state’s financial profile, its assets and liabilities and of course consideration of the areas the state has comparative advantage will get Abia working again for the people.
From 1999 to date, the state earned over two trillion naira in revenue with little to show for it in terms of development. In his second run for the governorship, Otti pledged to run an accountable state admnistration by putting in place a new transparent threshold which will do away with wastage and profligacy by making sure that every single kobo that belongs to the state is accounted for.  

The prudent management of state resources will free enough funds and enable him to make the payment of salaries a first item in the budget; make possible free and compulsory education for Abia citizens up to secondary school level, launch a revolution for SMEs and large scale industries. This New Deal will create an export free zone to stimulate industry and commerce, create a new future for the youths through gainful employment and transform Aba into the Dubai of Africa.

The New Deal for Abia is ambitious, realistic and workable; it will restore prosperity to Abians. Otti’s pledge to rebuild Aba and the battered infrastructure in the state with the economy on progressive progression are founded on his plan to create wealth and employment through critical interventions that will leverage industry and commerce, agriculture and other areas that the state has comparative advantage.

Under the Otti plan, the state will pursue economic policies for shared prosperity with immediate attention on youth employment. His plan will ensure the modernization of agriculture with a clear plan to harness the transformative capacity of its value chains which in essence will create thousands of jobs and lift millions of citizens out of poverty.

His New Deal for Abia will revive moribund industries and create new ones to generate employment. Aba, the commercial centre of the state, used to be the home of many thriving industries and factories constructed by the legendary Dr. M. I. Okpara and sustained by Dr. Sam Mbakwe. These industries included Aba Textile Mills, Aba Glass Factory and Ceramic Industry, Nigerian Breweries plant, etc.

Under his plan, the state’s battered and decaying infrastructure will be rebuilt to FastTrack the ease of doing business and attract investments.
The state will also establish modern healthcare facilities and make healthcare affordable for the people. His plan places high premium on cleaning the Augean stable by tackling corruption which is endemic in the state. The revolutionary aesthetics of the New Deal will restore honour and integrity in the state’s public service by  attracting, motivating and retaining the very best.

The new age of greatness for Abia state envisioned by Otti’s New Deal has the capacity to change the fortunes of the state forever.
If elected as governor, he has the capacity to make his bold plans a reality. He is capable, immensely talented and has the qualities of a servant leader which is critical in getting the people to buy into his plan.

Otti is a man of integrity. All through his public service, his reputation is untainted and unimpeachable. He embodies the best in us. He is humble, flexible, resilient and easily connects with the people through empathy. In the face of the misrule of the state, he has been with the people in the trenches, a distinct voice of courage.

It is crystal clear that the present admnistration in the state is lacking in capacity and vision to govern Abia and transform it to the state of our desired dreams and it would be a profound mistake to vote for ineptitude by supporting the preferred and anointed candidate of the present failed admnistration  in the state.
Such a prospect is not only suicidal but will drive the final death knell on the dream of the state for socio economic renewal. The citizenry should reclaim the state by rejecting the emergence of a governor being sponsored by the outgoing governor.
If insanity as stated by Albert Einstein is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then the time has come for Abia to embrace the New Deal as espoused by Otti and let the arduous journey to the restoration of Abia state begin.

–Oji writes from Umuahia, Abia State capital.