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WHEN ARGUMENT FAILS, THEY ATTACK THE PROFESSION

I had actually decided not to dignify most of these rigmarole responses with an answer because many of them are built more on excitement than substance.

But this one dragged my profession into it.

So let me start there.

😂😂😂

The attempt to diminish me because I am a professor is particularly amusing.

Yes, professors have committed offences before. Doctors have committed offences. Lawyers have committed offences. Judges have committed offences. Politicians have committed offences.

What exactly is the argument?

That because one professor somewhere committed electoral fraud, therefore every professor who disagrees with you should surrender his intellect?

That is not reasoning.

That is desperation wearing slippers.

😂

My academic status is not what makes an argument correct. Evidence does.

So if I am wrong, defeat my argument.

Do not go to Calabar, arrest one professor, bring him to Abia and use him as evidence against me.

That alone tells me how badly the argument is struggling.

Now to the substantive issue.

The 2024 Accountant-General’s report is quite clear that Abia’s financial statements were prepared in compliance with national and international standards, specifically IPSAS, using the state’s financial management system.

And this is where the misinformation begins.

The figure of ₦7,857,597,449.09 under “Construction/Provision of Recreational Facilities” appears in the 2024 report with ₦0.00 recorded as 2024 expenditure and the same cumulative figure carried forward.

That distinction is fundamental.

It means that pointing to that line in the 2024 financial statement and shouting that Otti “spent ₦7.8 billion on recreational facilities in 2024” would be misleading.

The document itself shows:

Opening/cumulative amount: ₦7.857 billion.
2024 expenditure: ₦0.00.
Closing/cumulative amount: ₦7.857 billion.

So where exactly is the famous 2024 spending?

😂😂😂

Zero is now ₦7.8 billion?

We have entered advanced mathematics.

And there is another difficulty.

The 2023 audited accounts themselves cover the entire financial year ended 31 December 2023.

Otti assumed office on 29 May 2023, yes.

But simply seeing a cumulative capital figure in a later statement does not, by itself, establish the date, beneficiary, contractor or precise project on which every naira was spent.

That requires tracing the underlying ledger, schedules, vouchers and project classification.

That is what accounting investigation means.

It does not mean:

“I saw ₦7.8 billion beside recreational facilities; therefore Otti stole ₦7.8 billion.”

That is not audit.

That is Facebook arithmetic.

😂

The proper question is:

What transactions make up the cumulative figure?

That is a legitimate question.

But the conclusion cannot be manufactured before the evidence.

The same caution applies to AIIP.

The Abia State Government has stated that compensation processes commenced for the Abia Industrial and Innovation Park in Ukwa West LGA.

So saying nothing was happening there, or that no compensation process existed, is not consistent with the government’s published record.

If someone alleges that ₦6.7 billion was claimed as compensation but only about ₦900 million reached landowners, then that is a very serious allegation.

Fine.

Where is the audited payment schedule?

Where is the authenticated list of recipients?

Where are the bank records?

Where is the formal report of the landowners?

Where is the reconciliation showing ₦6.7 billion less ₦900 million?

Bring those documents.

I will read them.

But I will not convert an allegation into a conviction merely because somebody typed it confidently.

That is precisely the standard a professor should insist upon.

😂

And the claim that the government rushed to begin fencing only because a video went viral is also a causal claim.

Prove it.

A project can have planning, land acquisition, compensation, surveying, design, approvals and site preparation before visible vertical construction begins.

One may criticise the pace.

One may demand value for money.

One may ask why physical progress is slow.

All legitimate.

But to say, “I did not see a factory, therefore the money disappeared,” is not an accounting method known to IPSAS, IFRS, ISA or common sense.

Then we hear the dramatic declaration:

“This government has not attracted a single investor since 2023.”

Again, that requires evidence.

Which investment register was examined?

Which MoUs?

Which private capital commitments?

Which projects?

Which industrial enquiries?

Which investment promotion records?

Or are we now defining “investor” as somebody who personally came to your house to introduce himself?

😂😂😂

The pension argument is another example of mixing legitimate concern with careless comparison.

Yes, pensions are paid in naira.

Yes, pensioners deserve dignity.

Yes, any very low pension deserves review.

But saying today’s larger nominal federation allocations automatically mean government now possesses limitless discretionary cash ignores inflation, salary obligations, inherited liabilities, capital commitments, debt servicing and the massive increase in the naira cost of construction and public services.

A billion naira in 2015 and a billion naira today do not purchase the same quantity of asphalt, cement, diesel, vehicles, medicines or labour.

That is Economics 101.

I should not need to explain that to people lecturing me about academia.

😂

And the hypothetical:

“If Otti had won in 2015, we would have seen hell.”

What am I supposed to do with that?

Run a regression on an imaginary government?

😂😂😂

That is not evidence.

That is fiction.

We can assess Otti on what he actually did.

We can assess Ikpeazu on what he actually did.

We can assess Orji on what he actually did.

But I cannot audit a government that existed only in somebody’s imagination.

My position remains simple.

I will defend Abia when misinformation is thrown at Abia.

I will criticise Abia when the evidence demands criticism.

I will not manufacture guilt to satisfy political anger.

And I will certainly not abandon elementary accounting principles because somebody thinks shouting “fraud!” three times converts an allegation into an audited finding.

😂

So, please, no intimidation with stories about professors in prison.

I am a professor.

I understand the weight of evidence.

I understand the difference between an allegation and a finding.

I understand the difference between a cumulative balance and current-year expenditure.

And I understand perfectly well that ₦0.00 expenditure in 2024 remains ₦0.00 no matter how passionately anyone types ₦7.8 billion.

If there is fraud, bring the evidence.

If there is diversion, trace the payment.

If there is an inflated contract, identify the contract.

If compensation disappeared, produce the schedule and the bank trail.

But please do not bring me political arithmetic and expect me, because I am a professor, to clap for it.