Abia: Can professionals make a difference?

Worried about the relative underdevelopment in their home state, leading Abia professionals gathered in Lagos recently to receive a former Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank Plc, Dr Alex Otti, who recently joined the All Progressives Congress (APC). They also brainstormed on how to bring good governance to their people. ROBERT EGBE reports

It was meant to be a simple reception in honour of a fellow leading light in the Abia intelligentsia, but it ended with a burning determination to lift the state out of the relatively low level of development among Southeast states.

Abia professionals from across the country gathered in the Lagos home of lawyer and businessman, Chief Azu Ezeibe, last Sunday to host a former Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank Plc, Dr Alex Otti.

Otti, a two-time governorship candidate of Abia State on the platform of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), formally defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on August 14. His supporters said to be up to 500,000, also joined the APC with him.

Besides Ezeibe and his wife, the reception featured several leading Abia professionals and entrepreneurs, including former chief executive officer (CEO) of Hallmark Bank, Chief Marc Wabara; Group General Managing Director KCH, Lekki, Lagos, Chuks Okah; CEO Suntap Technologies Ltd, Sir Uzor Nwachukwu; Group Head of Operations, UBA, Alex Alozie.

Others were CEO of Noble Factors Associate Company Ltd, Chief Noble Odemelam; businessman, Chief Victor Amuta and a cleric, Prophet Emmanuel Chinonso Stephen.

A former Zenith Bank Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Stanley Amuchie, from Imo State and CEO Scrib Nig & Co Ltd, Shola Tinubu, a Lagosian, were guests at the reception.

Ezeibe set the ball rolling by recalling how Otti for facilitating the construction of the road in that passed in front of his country estate. He said the road had been a nightmare for motorists and previous attempts to get government help failed. He said four years ago when his mum died, he could not fulfil his promise to bury her within two weeks of her death, partly because of the bad road.

Describing how bad the road was, he noted that “When Okezie Ikpeazu was elected governor the first time, on the eve of the election, I was forced to cough up N50,000 to ensure that my people were able to pass through that place”.

But, Otti, he noted, facilitated the construction of a quality road in record time. Ezeibe said: “One day I was out of the country, they called me that contractors were in front of my house…. Within one year, you would not know (the location) of my house. Previously there was no way you could pass in front of my house without doing obeisance; you couldn’t even pass. So, Alex, thank you.”

Tinubu, who attended the meeting as Ezeibe’s guest, corroborated the quality of work done on the road, which he said he saw during his trips to his host’s country home. He thanked Otti for the work.

Tinubu added: “I’ve known Alex, he was introduced by a mutual friend of ours… One of the things that I also got to know when I met Alex is that he doesn’t have the airs and graces of people who have achieved what he has in this country.

“I met him in the private sector. When I heard that he was venturing into politics, I took a deep breath, because everybody knows that it’s not just everything you have, to be successful in business, the corporate world, is what you need to be successful in politics. You definitely need a lot more, especially in these parts.”

He commended the gathering for their determination to improve the lives of their people.

For Amuta, the meeting was an opportunity to re-strategise to salvage Abia. He urged everyone to join in the efforts.

Nwachukwu urged prominent Abia sons like Ezeibe not to stay in the background in politics. He said if they publicised their stand, it would encourage others who had yet to take a stand to come out too.

Wabara gave a background of the decision to host Alex. He said: “When my younger brother Azu broached or initiated the idea of hosting Alex – Alex you probably may not know we have what we call parliament for almost 20 years now. I’ve been hosting it in my place every Sunday. It’s a mosaic of Nigerians, the whole idea is to discuss politics and all of that tribe, religion all of that. By God’s grace, that arrangement still subsists and many members of parliament are here today.

“As you can see, from this meeting today, other things have come up, but the central issue is how do we individually and collectively – whether you are in politics, or the private sector – how do we salvage our own God’s own state, Abia State?”

He explained that he tried to do this by aspiring for governorship twice but couldn’t secure his party’s ticket.

Not being comfortable with ‘political magic’ and the effect on one’s integrity among other things, he quit the race.

Nevertheless, Wabara said he made a commitment, “that as long as God gives one the strength and the opportunity” he would do his utmost in the interest of Abia people.

He added: “Politics take a lot of heart…. That is why I appreciate our brother Alex for his courage, commitment, for a man who has carved a niche in banking – and I know what it is, having also been there as Chief Executive of a bank – to decide to come and join to serve his people.”

The subject of the evening, Otti thanked Ezeibe for hosting him and Sir Wabara for coordinating the reception. He shared the story of his journey to the APC. He recalled that Wabara and later Amuta invited him to join the APC long before now, but he could not do so at the time for several reasons.

Otti said: “The major problem I had was that I was already committed to APGA: I had 60 people who were aspirants for the 24-member House of Assembly. I had about five or six people who were contesting for the Senate, I had 20 people who had indicated interest to contest for the Federal House of Representatives, I had a deputy. So, if I jumped ship at that time to the APC, of course, I would have got the ticket, but how about all these other people. It was difficult for me to just leave them.”

That was not all. The next problem, he explained, was that “I don’t believe in giving up a fight.”

He said he expended his personal resources and that of others in and out of Abia to build APGA.

But, when the new leadership of the party swore in 2015 that he would not get the governorship ticket, “I said it would not happen, so, I stayed there to fight…to get the ticket and I did get the ticket. But we knew that the party had been weakened, so we were not surprised about what happened in 2015.

“So, we had our minds made up that immediately after the elections, we were going to leave…and like Sir Wabara said, God’s time is always the best and I believe that this is God’s time.”

On his chances of securing a governorship ticket in the APC, Otti was not worried. He said: “About 2023, I have always said it is not a do-or-die for me. If by 2023 we all collectively see a younger man who has more capacity, he has the vision and he can lead, and all of us say let him go I’ll support the person.

“But you know, I will not rest until we achieve what we have set out to do; and that is that Abia must develop.”