ALEX OTTI – THE LATEST LETTER WRITER IN TOWN

ALEX OTTI – THE LATEST LETTER WRITER IN TOWN

By Onyebuchi Ememanka
I have just read a letter written by, Mazi Alex Otti, the defeated APGA Governorship candidate in the 2015 elections and a current aspirant to the same office for the 2019 elections.

Even a daft person will appreciate the amateurish strategy adopted by Otti and his spin doctors, namely to set the tone and whip up sentiments in readiness for his formal declaration of intention to contest for the APGA ticket for the elections tomorrow. The timing of the letter is too weak a strategy indeed.

The letter had just one theme – salaries of workers in Abia State, nothing more.

Before a formal response to the letter is issued, let me say that this letter is radically different from previous commentaries by Alex Otti on the Ikpeazu administration. I have had the privilege of responding officially to previous pieces authored by Otti against the Ikpeazu administration.

Before now, Otti’s commentaries were usually replete with non existent accounts of administrative failure in Abia. Both during his campaigns for the 2015 elections and in his subsequent commentaries, Otti made a lot of noise about the state of infrastructure in Abia State and how terribly hopeless the situation was. He spoke about how security had collapsed and other issues. How businesses were dying on account of bad roads and kidnaps, etc. Of course, he also made references to the salary situation.

Surprisingly, in this his latest letter, Otti talked about salaries and pensions alone.
So what of roads?
What of security?
What of the investment climate?

This display of selective amnesia on the part of Otti is a clear indication that things have improved massively. Knowing Otti and his style of using high fallutin words and bombastic negative phrases to describe the situation in Abia then, that he kept sealed lips on roads, security, investment, etc means one thing – he has nothing to say there.

The logic is simple. If between 2015 and 2017, Otti cried about roads, kidnaps, armed robbery, salaries and pensions; and 24 hours to the launching of his campaign, he now talks only about salaries and pensions, the meaning is clear. We have made clear progress.

Even on the convoluted issue of salaries and pensions, Otti is either ignorant of the situation on ground or being plainly mischievous.
The Government of Abia State has always made public the salary situation in the state, including pensions. We will do it again, not necessarily in response to Otti’s empty diatribes which are replete with the fallacy of argumentum ad misericondiam, but as part of our duty to the people of Abia State.
At no time have we stated that some segment of workers are not owed in Abia State. No. What we have done and will continue to do is to bring our people up to speed with what we have done to tackle the challenges and our plans to bring a permanent closure to this issue which clearly predates this administration. The challenge of salaries and pensions have been with us since 1999 with every succeeding administration inheriting a huge backlog of unpaid salaries and pensions.
While Governor Ikpeazu is not in the habit of blaming past administrations but rather believes that governance is a continuum and whatever a new administration meets on ground, work must start from there, it must be clearly stated that the challenges of salaries and pensions didn’t emanate with the Ikpeazu administration.
The statistics bandied about by Otti in his letter do not reflect the situation on ground. The situation is way way better what he stated and most definitely better than what we met by May 29, 2015.
For the records, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu will put an end to the challenge of salaries and pensions in Abia State in his time as Governor.

Alex Otti need not whip up sentiments against his Friday declaration. We don’t consider him a threat to the reelection of Governor Ikpeazu next year.
By the time results of the 2019 elections will be declared, Otti will realize that indeed, he has been a butterfly all along who thought himself a bird because the greater majority of Abians will reelect Governor Okezie Ikpeazu so that he will continue with the work he has so passionately committed himself to.
One thing that will stare Otti in the face by the end of the 2019 elections is that he and his supporters have a clear overestimation of his acceptance by the people of Abia State. They will also realize, to their chagrin, that the people of Abia State are appreciative people who have seen the seen clear signs of progress under Ikpeazu and are not prepared to play BETNAIJA’s PERM FOUR FROM TWO with the next four years.

Finally, on Friday, at Ngwa High School, and as Otti makes his declaration, the first ever Flyover in the history of Abia State which is being constructed by the Ikpeazu administration will be overlooking him and staring him in the face.

I hope he finds courage to turn around and look.