By,
Don Norman Obinna (Agu Ibeku)
When it comes to seeking validation and kneading his ego, Governor Alex Otti is no different from his predecessors.
The Aesopian saying, “Onye ji igu ka ewu n’eso” (Goats obey the man in possession of the palm fronds), coupled with a flurry of sycophantic articles praising him or comparing him to the late Eastern region Premier Michael Okpara and former Imo State Governor Sam Mbakwe, lend credence to this assertion.
Governor Otti seems to relish these anachronistic political tactics, particularly given the substantial resources he allocates to media propaganda and his pursuit of validation from former presidents and their representatives.
Some ludicrous articles by Otti’s supporters on social media read: “Are Ndi Igbo witnessing a reincarnation of Dr Michael Okpara and Dee Sam Mbakwe in Gov. Alex Otti?” “M.I. Okpara + Sam Mbakwe = Alex Otti. This is my answer; you can verify.”
While these fawning write-ups may delude Governor Otti into believing he is on a pedestal, they obscure the realities around him and turn him into a public spectacle.
M.I. Okpara was a colossus whom none of the past and current South-East governors could untie his shoelace. There is no appropriate scale on which to compare Okpara and Otti.
Okpara was the second premier of the defunct Eastern region, which encompassed nine states: Anambra, Imo, Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi, Rivers, Bayelsa, Cross River, and Akwa Ibom.
During his less-than-six-year administration, Okpara built high-quality roads across the eastern region and established many companies, including Golden Guinea Breweries, a ceramics factory, and a brick factory in Umuahia.
He also set up facilities for producing corrugated iron sheets in Port Harcourt, asbestos roofing sheets, ceiling boards, and pipes in Enugu, as well as metal doors and window frames in Port Harcourt. He developed rice farms in Abakaliki and Adani.
Using agriculture as the foundation for both micro and macroeconomic growth, Okpara leveraged the platform of the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation (ENDC) to create farm settlements for oil palm, rubber, cocoa, cashew, and rice, incorporating intercropping with pineapples, bananas, plantains, and cassava.
He built and equipped the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and developed infrastructures, companies, and institutions across the region, using proceeds from agriculture.
Okpara’s agricultural, educational, industrial, and infrastructure revolutions led Michigan State University to rank the Eastern Region as the fastest industrialising economy in the world by 1964, ahead of the Asian Tigers – Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, and Taiwan.
This is the man whom Otti’s supporters dare to compare with a governor who, aside from patching, retrofitting, and expanding the roads built by Okpara and Mbakwe, has not achieved anything, despite receiving ₦21 billion in monthly federal allocations.
While Okpara utilised an agricultural and industrial revolution to build the eastern region’s economy, Governor Otti is relying on nonexistent agricultural and infrastructure projects – ₦6.5 billion for recreational facilities, ₦68 billion for school projects, ₦1.6 billion for agricultural facilities, ₦10 billion for research facilities, ₦3 billion for an ICT centre, and ₦7 billion for women’s development – to withdraw billions from Abia’s funds.
Okpara did not use proxies or relatives to acquire filling stations and hotels, nor did he own any property except one built for him in his Umuegwu village by friends after his retirement.
I won’t even delve into Dr Sam Mbakwe, who developed the old Imo region – covering Imo, Abia, and part of Ebonyi – constructing many roads and infrastructures that Governor Otti is still patching, expanding, and re-asphalting today.
Before Dr Otti assumed office in 2023, many regarded him as a classy and stylish leader who would not engage in the empty praise-singing that characterised his predecessors. However, here he is, basking in accolades, even those that invite public criticism.
A report by Thisday Newspaper on May 17, 2008, under the headline “Nigeria’s Harvest of Failed Industries,” summed up Okpara’s unparalleled achievements:
“In the Eastern region, Dr Michael Okpara was another great nation-builder with equally great ideas transformed into action from his palm produce earnings. The agrarian revolution led to the establishment of farm settlements across towns and villages. The Ulomna farm settlement, the Obudu cattle Ranch and industrial villages in Port Harcourt, Aba, Enugu and Umuahia made Eastern Nigeria a region with great promise. His idea was to route development from Port Harcourt to Enugu as one huge urban area back to back..”
This is the man that Governor Otti’s supporters and sycophants compare him to, despite Otti not constructing a single kilometre of road in two years, even after receiving ₦21 billion in monthly Federal Allocations and ₦630.4 billion over 19 months (from June 2023 to December 2024).
Unless Governor Otti wants to be remembered as the governor who only retrofitted and rehabilitated roads in Abia State, he should pay less attention to praise singers, as they will ruin him just as they did his predecessors.
Don Norman Obinna is the Abia State chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
