THE ABIA ARGUMENT: PERFORMANCE IS STRONGER THAN POLITICAL NOISE
The strongest defence of Abia State today is simple: even if the Accord Party endorsement is disputed, Governor Alex Otti’s performance does not depend on that endorsement. A political endorsement can be argued, disowned, challenged or litigated; but roads, schools, salaries, power, fiscal discipline and private-sector confidence are physical and measurable.
On the Accord matter, the fairest position is this: there is clearly a leadership dispute inside Accord Party. Channels TV reported in April 2026 that both Christopher Imumolen and Maxwell Mgbudem were laying claim to the Accord national chairmanship, while INEC currently recognised Mgbudem and his NWC as the legitimate leadership. � Therefore, Abia government supporters do not need to overbuild their argument on the disputed endorsement. The better argument is: whether Accord endorses Otti or not, Abia’s development evidence is already speaking.
Channels Television
The real proof is in governance.
First, Abia is becoming an energy-industrial model through Aba. The Aba Integrated Power Project is not mere propaganda. Geometric Power describes it as Nigeria’s first independent and integrated power utility, made up of a 141MW gas-fired plant, a gas pipeline and a ring-fenced distribution network for Aba industrial city and surrounding communities. � The Federal Ministry of Information also reported that President Tinubu commissioned the 141MW Geometric Integrated Power Project, expandable to 188MW, to supply businesses and households across nine LGAs in the Aba ring-fenced area. � That is why Abia’s case is stronger than noise: it is linking power to production, production to jobs, and jobs to long-term growth.
Geometric Power
Federal Ministry of Information
Second, Abia is putting money where development is. In the 2025 budget, Governor Otti proposed ₦750.28 billion, with ₦611.7 billion, representing 82%, allocated to capital expenditure and ₦138.6 billion, representing 18%, to recurrent expenditure. The same budget included ₦13 billion for agro-industrial processing zones and provisions for 170 kilometres of rural roads across the 17 LGAs. � This is a serious development signal. A government that spends heavily on capital projects is not merely sharing political appointments; it is building the productive base of the state.
Federal Ministry of Information
Third, Abia’s fiscal credibility has improved. BudgIT’s State of States report evaluates states on long-term fiscal performance and sustainability. � Reports on the 2025 BudgIT ranking placed Abia 4th on the fiscal performance table, noting that this was the first time Abia entered the top 10 since the report began. � That is powerful because fiscal discipline is not a billboard; it is a governance culture.
The Budgit Foundation
The Sun Nigeria
Fourth, education is receiving structural attention. Abia announced free and compulsory education from Primary 1 to JSS3 in public schools starting January 2025, regardless of state of origin. � By March 2026, Governor Otti stated that Abia had consistently allocated 20% of the annual budget to education for three consecutive years; the NUT also commended the recruitment of 5,394 teachers, planned recruitment of another 4,000, regular salary payment, and payment of 17 months’ salary arrears owed by the previous administration. � This is not cosmetic politics. It is human-capital investment.
Vanguard News
Punch Newspapers
Fifth, health worker welfare is improving. In November 2025, Abia approved full implementation of CONHESS for local government health workers, a step reported as aimed at improving welfare and service delivery in the public health sector. � A state that improves health worker welfare is not just renovating hospitals; it is strengthening the personnel system that keeps hospitals alive.
The Street Journal
So the response to critics should be calm and devastating:
Abia does not need to be desperate for validation. The evidence is already public. Aba power is real. Capital budgeting is real. Free basic education is real. Teacher recruitment is real. Health worker welfare reform is real. Fiscal ranking improvement is real. Road and agro-industrial provisions are real. If Accord’s internal leadership issue is in dispute, let Accord resolve Accord. But nobody should use Accord’s internal confusion to deny Abia’s visible progress.
A good closing line:
Governor Otti should not be defended with disputed endorsements; he should be defended with Abia’s new direction. The argument is not that everybody has agreed to support him. The argument is that even his opponents are now forced to discuss him because performance has made silence impossible.
