Otti Restates Commitment to Achieving Highest Standard of Governance in Abia

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

Abia State Governor, Mr. Alex Otti, has restated his commitment to achieving his goal of placing the state on the highest pedestal of governance.

He said his administration has “deliberately set the bar (of governance) very high to insulate us from the trappings of mediocrity.”

Otti stated this weekend while addressing members of the State Executive Council and senior political appointees at their 2024 Special Retreat held in Aba.

“We want to wake up each morning with a fresh resolve to do better, to work harder, and to achieve more,” he said.

The Abia governor noted that his pursuit of excellence in governance remains a legacy he would leave behind so that Abians would never again allow mediocrity to preside over their affairs.

He charged all his team members to tune their minds to the set goal and work in synergy with one another irrespective of their area of operation to make Abia a reference point in good governance.

He said: “The resolve is to give our best every day, appreciating that we do not have what it takes to solve all the social and economic problems around us.

“What we ask of ourselves is to be deliberate in the things we do, purposefully inspiring changes, engineering excellence, and building a dynamic team to support the vision in our various spheres of influence”.

Otti reminded his cabinet members and other appointees that he took them on board with the belief that they possessed the needed capacity and character to add value in the quest to build a new Abia that works for all.

“The hunger to be the best has informed our pattern of appointments and the leverage given to each official to drive their strategic outlook in pursuance of the broad vision we had laid out at the beginning of this important project,” he said.

The governor noted while it is fair to acknowledge the modest achievements recorded by his government so far, it would be better to focus on the areas where much has not been achieved.

He emphasised the need for sustained growth, saying that the only way to make this possible entails changing the mindset of ordinary people to make them the guardian of the new standard.

The Abia chief executive stated that the weekend retreat had become necessary as it was an opportunity “to take stock, to identify what has worked and how well, what needs to change and also talk to ourselves for learning and growth.”

He described his administration as “a very ambitious government (hence) excuses shall not be accepted to justify failure” given the high expectations of the people that gave the mandate of governance.

According to him, the Abia electorate that put him in the government house still retains “very high hopes that we shall use the levers of power to effect a holistic turnaround in their economic and social fortunes.”