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Prof. Sattar Bawany Meets Dr. Alex Otti: Leadership Through Crisis and Transformation

If ever there was a Nigerian example of what Dr. Sattar Bawany calls “The Making of a C.R.I.S.I.S. Leader,” it is the story of Dr. Alex Chioma Otti (OFR) and Abia State. In Bawany’s new global best-seller, he argues that leadership isn’t about power or comfort — it’s about clarity in chaos, moral courage in turbulence, and the ability to turn crisis into structure. Scroll through Abia’s social-media landscape today and you’ll see that happening in real time.

When Otti spent eight years in opposition, he wasn’t playing politics; he was learning systems. His opposition was data-driven, surgical, almost academic. The Supreme Court cases of 2016 and 2017 are public record; he fought with law, not street slogans. Those years were his crucible — the very crucible Bawany describes as the “pressure chamber where true leadership is made.”

Now, in office, the test has moved from theory to reality. Abia is no longer the state of arrears and darkness. Facebook reels show jubilant staff at Abia Poly confirming payment of 36-month arrears. The Guardian carried the same headline — “Abia Poly Clears Salary Backlog.” Videos from civil-service unions show teachers receiving payments previously thought impossible. The Abia Internal Revenue Service is posting its own digital reforms, with new tax automation platforms that citizens can actually log into. This is not propaganda; it is administrative resurrection.

Yet, as with every reform, noise comes with progress. Opponents spread stories — “September salaries unpaid,” “₦500 million approval limit,” “favoritism.” Each time, the facts catch up. September salaries? Paid. Approval limits? Fabricated. The law is clear: no unilateral expansion has occurred. But you see, Bawany warned that in a crisis, every act of transformation will trigger resistance. He calls it the “Crisis-of-Perception,” where entrenched interests create chaos to protect old privileges.

Otti’s leadership style fits that definition of crisis navigation — resilient, evidence-driven, unflustered. Even on social media, he rarely claps back; he lets data speak. The public now reads budget performance reports online — unheard of in Abia’s history. Pension laws that drained the treasury are gone. Roads once used for campaign photo-ops are now asphalted and motorable. Markets are being redesigned with environmental plans, not “emergency” demolitions.

This is what Dr. Bawany calls structuring recovery: building transparent systems that outlive personalities. Crisis leadership is not noise; it’s quiet reconstruction. And Abia is finally experiencing that.

So, yes, let people criticise. But if they must, let it be with evidence. The opposition that birthed the Otti revolution was never hateful — it was factual. And now that he governs, the same discipline guides him. That is how a crisis leader behaves — calm under pressure, deliberate in reform, unmoved by chatter.