Since the kernel of sustainable economic development lies in industrialisation strategy, it becomes pertinent to focus on what Dr. Alex Otti, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party Abia State for the 2023 Governorship contest stands for where compared with other aspirants to the same office. It becomes increasingly urgent when all progressive Nigerians considers the more serious implications of ‘OBIdient MOVEMENT’ of the Labour Party at the national level that has made Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of that party the latest rave in Nigerian and African politics. For the very first time in Nigeria, election is beginning to make sense and concern the entire world just because of the quality and content of Mr. Peter Obi which has never been seen in Nigerian political structuring before now.
The superior facts, arguments and statistical data being bandied by the Labour Party candidate and some of his counterparts and loyalists at the state levels of the party has finally jolted the rotten and lack-lustre Nigerian system.
The presence of mobile phones with its attendant consumer creation also links people up with information sharing, something that was not there a generation ago and gave crooked politicians and rogue authorities the access to suppress dissent by merely controlling the television and radio stations. But today in the digital internet world, stories of corruption spread very quickly through text messages on phone lines, facebook, Whatsaap, Instagram, twitter and others social media platforms enabling protests movements and opposition parties to organize and mobilize faster than in the past. That is when candidates like Dr. Alex Otti of Abia State comes often to the fore, considering the man’s unchallengeable background in economic management and wealth creation.
It is incontestable to state that Abia State lacks the required sustained growth that befits its status as a reputed heartland of the irrepressible Igbo race due to its unwanted pillage and economic malpractices coupled with poor official project evaluation and execution resulting from lack of visionary focus by past and present leadership.
The catastrophic urban social services sector problems facing Abians especially in Aba the Enyimba City, Umuahia the capital city and the various hinterlands of local government areas must be squarely faced inorder to find a workable solution. These social services which failed to measure up to effective public demand include state highways, streets, roads, mass transit and airport facilities, educational buildings, electricity, water supply, distribution system, water treatment facilities, security, fire, hospital facilities and a whole lot more.
The central problems of these services which are under government public sector control include financial indiscipline, political interference, organisational inefficiency and inadequate pricing policies.
Dr. Alex Otti’s agenda seeks to define and develop the state’s correct bearing and sense of economic, political, and social direction for enlightened fortification. It also incorporates hard-nosed plans to set appropriate goals and targets with a time frame for achieving the aforementioned objectives, practically fashioning out the effective strategies and institutional arrangements needed to actualize them in acceptable record time. The economic prosperity will usher in a new era of political stability prevalent in a well developed state or country.
Political consciousness for the Igbos in particular and Nigerians in general means self sufficiency nurtured through our own original ideas to be translated into efficacious practical results with indigenous raw materials and other resourceful local skills. This is only possible through an articulated, detailed and co-ordinated plan of action obtainable from well trained and tested technocrat such as Dr. Alex Otti who has supported industries and manufacturing through a long-standing banking and financing career which took him through some of Nigerian’s biggest banks in diversified top executive positions including the office of Chief Executive officer (CEO) of Diamond Bank and others.
It has been proven overtime that weak institutional and administrative capacity disrupts the effectiveness of government policy implementation at all levels. It is therefore imperative that government stops to undertake expenditure review and technically set priorities for corporate leadership spending to improve the efficiency of public and private investment as it is a known fact that in societies where contracts, law and property rights are well established, there will be lower transaction costs, promoting the realisation of the gains from trade and economic growth and general prosperity.
“Dr. Alex Otti’s agenda seeks to define and develop the state’s correct bearing and sense of economic, political, and social direction for enlightened fortification” Regina Charles