LET US NOT “OPPOSITIONIZE” THE TRUTH
I am honestly shocked by the argument that we should somehow be embarrassed to acknowledge roads, schools, hospitals, electricity and water as evidence of performance. Where exactly was Governor Alex Otti supposed to start from—the moon, the sun, artificial intelligence laboratories or interplanetary exploration?
Development does not begin in the clouds. It begins from the condition a government inherits.
The uncomfortable truth is that Otti inherited a state whose basic foundations had deteriorated badly. Roads that should ordinarily have been routine public infrastructure had become symbols of abandonment. Public institutions required rebuilding, communities needed better access, schools and hospitals needed renewed attention, and the commercial potential of Aba had been constrained by years of infrastructural deficits.
In such circumstances, restoring the basics is not the end of development; it is the necessary beginning.
At the same time, honesty demands balance. We must never “oppositionize” the truth. Everything done before Otti did not suddenly become useless because a new government came into office. Dr Okezie Ikpeazu constructed and rehabilitated roads in Aba, and any fair-minded assessment should acknowledge those projects that remain useful today. Likewise, Geometric Power was not conceived by the Otti administration; it is a long-running project involving earlier governments, investors, regulatory interventions and years of disputes. Giving credit where it belongs does not diminish Otti.
But the same standard of honesty must apply in the opposite direction. We cannot dismiss visible improvements simply because roads and hospitals are theoretically supposed to be “normal.” What is normal in a functioning society becomes a major achievement when citizens have been denied it for decades.
The more important question is therefore not whether roads should ordinarily be celebrated, but whether Abia is moving from reconstruction to transformation. That is where the conversation should go: quality education, modern healthcare, industrialisation, technology, productivity, investment, stronger institutions and globally competitive cities.
Nobody should worship any governor. Nobody should suspend scrutiny of public finances, local-government administration or project claims. But criticism must not become a refusal to recognise progress.
Opposition is healthy. Propaganda is not. Support is legitimate. Blind praise is not.
Let us judge Otti by evidence, acknowledge what predecessors genuinely accomplished, challenge what remains undone, and insist that the rebuilding of roads, schools and hospitals becomes the foundation—not the ceiling—of Abia’s development.
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