ABIA’S SMOOTH OPERATOR
A Political Satire on Alex Otti and the Abia Opposition
“He’s a smooth operator…”
Sade sang it in 1984.
And as I look at Abia politics today, I am beginning to wonder whether Abia has found its own version four decades later.
Not the lover moving from city to city in dark glasses, but a banker-turned-governor moving through Abia politics with an unusual method: smile at the opponent, shake his hand, refuse his invitation, appoint his wife if she is qualified, collect some of his supporters, and continue working.
That, to me, is the Alex Otti version of the smooth operation.
And the remarkable thing is that, so far, some of his opponents seem to have supplied the lyrics themselves.
FIRST MOVE: BREAK THE 24-YEAR WALL
Before I could call him a Smooth Operator, there had to be an operation.
On 22 March 2023, INEC declared Alex Otti of the Labour Party winner of the Abia governorship election. Otti received 175,467 votes, against PDP candidate Okey Ahiwe’s 88,529. YPP’s Enyinnaya Nwafor received 28,972 votes. Otti won ten of Abia’s seventeen local governments.
That result did more than change governors.
It ended the PDP’s 24-year control of Abia State.
For me, the old establishment had simply been told:
Thank you for your service. The music has changed.
Smooth Operator.
OKEY AHIWE AND THE PDP: FROM BALLOT BOX TO COURTROOM
The PDP did not simply disappear after losing the election.
Its candidate challenged Otti’s victory.
But on 6 October 2023, the Abia Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal dismissed the PDP petition and upheld Otti’s election, ruling that the major qualification arguments raised were pre-election matters.
So, as I saw it, the electoral manoeuvre had survived its next battlefield.
First the ballot box.
Then the tribunal.
The opposition changed venue.
Otti kept the chair.
Smooth Operator.
BENJAMIN KALU: “APC WILL TAKE ABIA”
Then came Benjamin Kalu, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and one of the most prominent APC politicians from Abia.
In 2024, Kalu publicly argued that it would be an aberration for Abia to remain under another party while he occupied such a senior position nationally, and predicted an APC takeover in 2027.
What struck me was Otti’s response.
On 9 September 2024, Otti said he deliberately declined to trade political blows with Kalu, arguing instead that political power ultimately belongs to God and that he would not pretend to know who would win in 2027.
My translation into Smooth Operator language is simple:
Benjamin announces the battle.
Otti declines the boxing gloves.
But the story later became even more intriguing.
THE WIFE OF THE MAN FIGHTING YOU?
In April 2026, Otti appointed Chinyere Kalu, Benjamin Kalu’s wife, as chairperson of the board of the Abia State University Teaching Hospital.
Yes.
The wife of a major APC political rival.
On 27 April 2026, Otti defended the appointment on the basis of merit, despite their different political affiliations and the political friction involving her husband.
And I ask myself: imagine being an opposition strategist.
You have prepared twenty pages explaining why the governor is politically hostile to your camp.
Then the governor appoints the wife of one of his loudest political opponents.
What paragraph do you read next?
Smooth Operator.
Not annihilation.
Absorption.
Not “You are my enemy.”
More like:
“We disagree politically. Is she competent?”
To me, that may be one of Otti’s cleverest political messages because it allows him to present himself as standing above partisan warfare while simultaneously making crude partisan attacks against him harder to sustain.
ORJI UZOR KALU ENTERS THE FLOOR
Former Abia governor and current senator Orji Uzor Kalu has been considerably less coy.
On 2 January 2026, he pledged to work for a landslide APC victory in Abia in 2027. He acknowledged that Otti was his friend but said politics was politics and his objective was APC victory.
Otti’s camp responded days later.
On 6 January 2026, Otti criticised Kalu’s repeated declarations about removing him, describing the rhetoric through his media aide as increasingly pedestrian.
Yet what I noticed was that Otti did not reorganise his entire government around fighting Orji Kalu.
He kept governing.
That appears to me to be the method:
Let the opponent announce 2027.
Remain publicly occupied with 2026.
Smooth Operator.
THEN SOMETHING WORSE HAPPENED TO THE OPPOSITION
Some of them began crossing the carpet.
On 30 April 2025, Nnamdi Ibekwe, representing Bende North State Constituency, left the PDP for the Labour Party.
It was during that reception that Otti said he was not bothered by what he called the opposition’s “noise.”
To me, that is politics with a certain wicked elegance.
Your opponent is shouting outside.
One of his men is already inside drinking water.
Smooth Operator.
2026: THE DOOR OPENS WIDER
On 4 April 2026, Otti received a much larger group of former opposition figures into Labour.
Among them were Ncheta Omerekpe, a former PDP governorship aspirant; Onyebuchi Ememanka, former chief press secretary to former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu; GOC Nnaji; and other politicians drawn from the PDP, APC and ADC in the Umunnato-Ngwa bloc.
Otti publicly told the newcomers that they would enjoy equal status and even said anyone wishing to contest the governorship against him inside Labour was free to do so.
There, again, I see the manoeuvre.
Do not merely defeat the opposition.
Make the opposition comfortable enough to enter your house.
And when they arrive, tell them:
“There is no visitors’ chair. Sit with us.”
Smooth Operator.
OKEZIE IKPEAZU: THE OLD ORDER IS STILL WATCHING
Former governor Okezie Ikpeazu remains an important PDP figure.
On 29 March 2026, he said the PDP would field a candidate against Otti in 2027 if the party remained strong enough. He declined, however, to assess Otti’s performance directly, saying former governors traditionally do not publicly grade their successors while they are still serving.
The wording caught my attention.
Not:
“We shall certainly defeat Otti.”
But:
“If the party stays strong enough.”
For a party that governed Abia continuously for 24 years before 2023, that sentence alone tells me a political story.
Smooth Operator.
THREE FORMER GOVERNORS VERSUS ONE CURRENT GOVERNOR
By January 2026, the political symbolism had become even sharper.
Political stakeholders were responding to a declaration attributed to three former Abia governors — Orji Uzor Kalu, Theodore Orji and Okezie Ikpeazu — concerning moves to unseat Otti in 2027.
Three former governors.
One incumbent.
Several parties.
One governorship seat.
If this were Sade’s nightclub, I would say the saxophone should enter here.
AND THEN THERE IS ABUJA
Perhaps what I find most sophisticated about Otti’s political positioning is his relationship with the Federal Government.
He remains a Labour Party governor.
Yet he has maintained working relations with President Bola Tinubu’s APC-led Federal Government and has publicly supported particular federal policies.
In September 2026, Otti explained that cooperation with the federal government should not automatically be interpreted as political endorsement. He argued that a governor belonging to an opposition party still has responsibilities that require working with the government at the centre.
He has also repeatedly rejected reports that he secretly joined the APC.
So, as I see it, the posture becomes:
Labour Party card.
Working relationship with Abuja.
No unnecessary war with the President.
No surrender of the Abia governorship.
Smooth Operator.
EVEN HOPE UZODIMMA COULD NOT SIGN FOR HIM
In July 2026, Imo Governor Hope Uzodimma suggested that South-East governors had collectively settled on supporting President Tinubu’s reelection.
Otti publicly rejected that interpretation.
On 24 July 2026, Otti said Uzodimma could speak for himself but could not commit all South-East governors politically. Otti reaffirmed that Labour intended to field its own presidential candidate while maintaining that cooperation with Abuja was separate from partisan endorsement.
I think that kind of manoeuvre requires balance.
Do not insult Abuja.
Do not surrender to Abuja.
Do not allow another governor to announce your vote.
Smile.
Correct the record.
Continue.
Smooth Operator.
PETER OBI MOVES; OTTI STAYS
Then Labour’s own national crisis presented another test.
By the end of 2025, Otti said Peter Obi had informed him that he intended to leave Labour, while Otti himself intended to remain and continue trying to reposition the party.
On 31 December 2025, Otti said he would not simply follow Obi out of Labour and would continue the struggle over the party’s future.
Again, I saw another interesting manoeuvre.
He does not fight Obi.
He does not follow Obi.
He gives Obi his blessing.
Then keeps the political vehicle.
Smooth Operator.
THE POLITICAL FORMULA
What makes the Otti approach interesting to me is not that he has destroyed opposition politics in Abia.
He has not.
The APC remains active.
The PDP remains active.
Benjamin Kalu remains formidable.
Orji Kalu remains influential.
Okezie Ikpeazu remains politically relevant.
And 2027 has not been decided.
That distinction matters to me.
But his method so far appears to be:
When they attack, govern.
When they defect to you, receive them.
When Abuja calls, cooperate.
When Abuja rumours begin, deny defection.
When an opponent’s wife is qualified, appoint her.
When they announce 2027, talk about today’s work.
When they predict your defeat, refuse to predict theirs.
That is not, to me, the politics of the machete.
It is politics with a calculator.
FINAL CHORUS
So when I look at Okey Ahiwe and the PDP,
Benjamin Kalu and the APC,
Orji Uzor Kalu,
Okezie Ikpeazu,
the old PDP structures,
and the new APC calculations,
I see an Abia political dance floor that is already crowded.
Everybody is preparing for 2027.
But at the centre, I see a former banker who increasingly appears to have understood one elementary principle:
You do not always defeat an opponent by fighting him.
Sometimes you defeat the argument.
Sometimes you take his supporters.
Sometimes you cooperate with his party in Abuja.
Sometimes you appoint his wife.
And sometimes you simply smile while he explains how he intends to remove you.
And that is why, looking at Abia politics as it stands, I am tempted to say:
Abia…
you may need no further introduction.
Smooth Operator.
