Columns/Opinions/Letters

BECAUSE OF ‘OTTINDUSTROUS,’ ABIANS ARE NOW “OTTIMANIA” By Maazi Obinna Agommuo. There are governments that occupy office, and there are governments that change the trajectory of a people. For many Abians, Dr Alex Chioma Otti, OFR, belongs to the second category. Since 2023, Abia has witnessed a development drive that has placed infrastructure, enterprise, investment and industrialisation at the centre of governance. This is the foundation of what I call ’OttindustrOus’—a new culture of development driven by the belief that Abia must become a producing economy. And the political enthusiasm arising from this transformation is increasingly described by supporters as…

PENSIONS, ₦200 MILLION AND WORKERS: WHY ABIA IS BACK IN THE HEADLINES Within the last few days, three separate reports have placed the Abia State Government under renewed national media scrutiny. The issues are serious enough to deserve answers, but they must also be presented with the full facts rather than as settled indictments of the government. On 23 September 2026, Punch Newspapers, in a report by Ikenna Obianeri titled “Gratuity: Pensioners’ Forum alleges payment shortfall,” reported complaints by the Abia Pensioners’ Forum concerning alleged short-payments, delays and transparency in the ongoing gratuity exercise. Significantly, however, the same pensioners’ body…

UMUEHIM: LET THE FACTS SPEAK The attempt to portray the newly commissioned SDA Church at Umuehim-Nvosi as Governor Alex Otti’s “gift” in place of public infrastructure is misleading. The church was constructed through contributions from Governor Otti and members of the SDA Church, Umuehim-Nvosi, both at home and in the diaspora. It was not presented as an Abia State Government capital project.Read the report here The claim that Umuehim has been abandoned is also contradicted by documented government projects. On 25 May 2026, Governor Otti commissioned the Umunkpeyi–Okpokiri–Umuehim Road in Isiala Ngwa South.Abia State Government report On the same day,…

OTTI FIRES BACK AT DETRACTORS, VOWS NO RETURN TO ‘EGYPT’ …Says Abia’s Transformation Is Irreversible Abia State Governor, His Excellency, Dr. Alex Chioma Otti, OFR, has responded to his detractors, insisting that the ongoing transformation of the state is irreversible and that Abia will not return to what he described as “Egypt.” Otti spoke on Thursday, September 17, 2026, at the Labour Party State Secretariat in Umuahia, during the reception of the 2023 governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Dr. Ngozika Gladys Johnson-Chukwunenye, who formally joined the Labour Party alongside her supporters. The Governor said his administration would remain…