FACT-CHECK: LET US DISCUSS ABIA WORKERS’ PROMOTIONS WITH FACTS
Mr G. S. Ogochukwu Nwaokeoma raises a legitimate welfare issue, but parts of his presentation are incomplete and misleading.
First, it is inaccurate to suggest that Governor Alex Otti simply ignored the 2022 and 2023 promotion exercises. In July 2024, the government approved the conduct of the outstanding 2022/2023 promotion, conversion and confirmation exercise. In August 2025, Abia’s Head of Service, Mr Benson Ojeikere, publicly confirmed that Governor Otti had approved its financial implementation.
However, concerns about delays in fully reflecting the promotions in every affected worker’s salary are legitimate. In October 2025, the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Abia called for the implementation of approved promotions, indicating that some beneficiaries or sectors were still awaiting full financial adjustment. Therefore, the correct question should be: How many workers have received the adjustments, and when will all outstanding cases be completed?
Second, the claim that workers received proper grade-level advancement under former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu requires qualification. What Ikpeazu announced near the end of his tenure in April 2023 was a blanket one-grade-level “command promotion.” Contemporary reports showed that workers were still demanding its implementation before he left office. An announcement is not the same thing as completed financial implementation.
The Otti administration subsequently reviewed command promotions granted between 2015 and 2023 because they were alleged to have been issued without following normal establishment procedures, vacancies, examinations and budgetary provisions. At the same time, it restarted the regular promotion process and abolished promotion-examination fees for workers.
No credible evidence has been presented in the post establishing that the regular 2021, 2022 and 2023 promotions were all approved, completed and then deliberately withheld by the present administration. The author should publish the relevant circulars, promotion lists, effective dates and payroll records to substantiate that sweeping claim.
Civil servants have every right to demand the timely payment of promotion benefits—and every right to support Governor Otti or any other candidate. Their political choice does not cancel their entitlement to improved welfare.
The truthful verdict is therefore:
The allegation is partly valid regarding delays in completing some financial adjustments, but misleading where it portrays the Otti administration as having taken no action and presents Ikpeazu’s last-minute command promotion as a fully implemented regular promotion.
The government has published a ministry-by-ministry implementation report and has promptly resolved every genuinely outstanding case. That is accountability—not political manipulation.
