He Remembered the Dead — So the Living Can Cross Safely
By AProf. Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke
There are moments in governance when policy, infrastructure, and memory converge into moral responsibility. Governor Alex C. Otti’s emotionally charged address in Abam was one of such rare moments — a public acknowledgement that development is not merely about roads and bridges, but about lives once lost to neglect and a collective vow that such tragedies must never recur.
Decades ago, Abam mourned children — including those of Rev. Dr. Uma Ukpai — who perished because a bridge had deteriorated into danger. Their deaths were not caused by natural disaster or unavoidable fate; they were the consequence of infrastructural abandonment. The silence that followed over the years became symbolic of a deeper governance failure: when public works collapse, citizens pay with life.
Standing before the community, Governor Otti did not speak in the language of contracts or budgets. He spoke in the language of memory. By invoking the names and the grief of the past, he reframed infrastructure from a technical matter into a human covenant. A bridge, in that moment, ceased to be concrete and steel; it became a moral obligation between government and the governed.
This is the philosophical core of reform governance: societies do not rebuild infrastructure only to ease transport — they rebuild to restore dignity and prevent repeated tragedy. Every modern state that has transformed its development trajectory has passed through such moments of reckoning. Germany rebuilt its bridges after wartime collapse not merely for commerce but for national healing.
Rwanda rebuilt roads after genocide to reconnect broken communities. Nations remember their dead so the living can move forward safely.
Abam now stands at that threshold. The governor’s remembrance was not ceremonial nostalgia; it was a policy signal. By publicly linking past loss to present infrastructure renewal, the administration embedded accountability into reconstruction. The message was unmistakable: neglect killed before; governance must now protect.
In public administration theory, this is called preventive infrastructure justice — investment driven by the duty to eliminate historically known risks. It represents a shift from reactive governance to anticipatory governance. Bridges are repaired before they collapse; roads are strengthened before they kill; drainage is built before floods claim homes. Such thinking defines reform states worldwide.
For Abia, the Abam remembrance therefore marks more than empathy. It marks a transition in governance ethos: from infrastructure as expenditure to
infrastructure as protection. The governor’s words effectively repositioned development as a life-saving instrument rather than a political trophy.
Communities measure leadership not only by projects delivered but by tragedies prevented. When a government demonstrates that it remembers those lost to public neglect, it signals seriousness about preventing recurrence. That is why the Abam address resonates beyond locality; it reflects a governing philosophy that development is, ultimately, about safeguarding human life.
The dead of Abam cannot cross the bridge that failed them. But their memory now compels a government to ensure that future generations will.
And that is how responsible states are rebuilt: memory first, infrastructure next, safety always.
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