From Scotland with Noise: The Curious Case of Long-Distance Criticism
Why shouting from a functioning state doesn’t qualify as local knowledge—and why reform unsettles those who fled responsibility.
There is a peculiar genre of political commentary gaining traction in Abia discourse: the Scotland Desk Analyst—a commentator who enjoys the full dividend of a functioning state abroad while issuing loud, absolutist judgments about a society he no longer inhabits. The voice is confident, the tone theatrical, the distance safe. The facts, however, are often thin.
Eke O. Ako has perfected this genre.
From the comfort of Scotland—where institutions work, welfare systems function, and public services are predictable—he has appointed himself a moral megaphone on Abia affairs. It is an interesting posture: benefiting daily from the discipline of another country’s governance while ridiculing attempts to build the same at home.
One must ask: is outrage louder when it is consequence-free?
The Luxury of Distance, The Poverty of Context
Criticism is healthy. Dissent is necessary. But credibility comes from proximity—from staying, engaging, and bearing the inconvenience of reform. It is easy to shout “failure” from a land with ambulances, free transport, social housing, and structured accountability, while mocking a state emerging from decades of collapse.
Abia was not broken yesterday. It was not damaged by speeches. It was dismantled over 24 years of transactional governance, where politics thrived on disorder and budgets rose without systems. That history matters. Pretending otherwise is not bravery—it is amnesia.
Governor Alex Otti began not with theatrics but with stock-taking: forensic audits, payroll clean-ups, procurement resets, and fiscal discipline. Reform does not look exciting at first. It looks slow. It looks boring. It looks like paperwork. And that is precisely why those addicted to spectacle misunderstand it.
When Reform Disrupts Old Habits
What unsettles the Scotland Desk Analyst is not failure; it is change. Reform removes shortcuts. It replaces improvisation with records. It demands patience where chaos once rewarded noise. For those accustomed to political adrenaline, reform feels like betrayal.
So the insults come. The exaggerations follow. The tone hardens. Evidence thins.
And yet, the facts remain stubborn.
Roads long abandoned are reopening. Salary arrears have given way to regularisation. Budgets are being tracked against deliverables. Industrial planning—long absent—is back on the table. These are not fantasies. They are documented processes unfolding in real time.
A Question of Courage
There is a simple test of conviction: stay and build.
Relocating abroad is not a crime. But returning only as a megaphone of contempt—without engagement, without verification, without humility—is a choice. And it is fair to critique that choice.
Abia does not need long-distance scolding. It needs patient scrutiny, honest questions, and citizens willing to stand with institutions as they are rebuilt.
Mockery is cheap. Reform is hard.
The Irony at the Heart of the Noise
The deepest irony is this: the benefits enjoyed in Scotland—social safety nets, accountability, infrastructure—are precisely the outcomes of the kind of governance Alex Otti is attempting to institutionalise in Abia.
To mock that effort while enjoying its fruits elsewhere is not insight. It is contradiction.
Abia has tried noise. It has tried nostalgia. It has tried recycled anger.
What it is trying now is structure.
And that, perhaps, is why the noise from Scotland is so loud.
AProf Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke
