In the humid haze of Umuahia, where Abia State’s Government House stands as a sentinel of slow-blooming renewal, the air crackles not with the thunder of mismanagement but the static of unchecked ambition.
Gone are the days when power changed hands in Abia like a hot potato, passed from one scandal-scarred predecessor to the next amid cries of “bad governance” – the Orji Uzor Kalu era of debt traps and ghost projects, or Ikpeazu’s tenure of unfinished roads and unpaid salaries that left the state gasping like a fish on dry land.
Enter Governor Alex Otti, the Labour Party banker-turned-reformer whose two years in office have scripted a quiet revolution: ₦125 billion in FAAC allocations judiciously deployed into 100-plus kilometers of resurfaced roads, a civil service purge that axed 1,500 ghosts while hiking minimum wages from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000-₦74,000, and healthcare hubs rising from the rubble of neglect.
Abia, once the butt of fiscal jokes, now boasts IGR surges and exchange-rate savvy that turns naira woes into infrastructure wins.
Yet, into this tableau of tangible toil strides Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and Bende’s APC bulldog, not with olive branches but barbs laced with gubernatorial hunger.
His recent broadsides – dismissing Otti’s strides as “propaganda” despite record inflows – reek less of oversight and more of opportunism, a desperate bid to vault from Abuja’s podium to Umuahia’s throne, even as the incumbent toils.
Kalu’s playbook is as old as Nigerian politics itself: inflate the ledger, deflate the leader, and declare yourself the savior.
At a Renewed Hope Partners rally in Umuahia last Sunday, he thundered that Abia’s monthly windfall – a inflated ₦38 billion from FAAC, IGR, and federal lifelines – yields “crumbling schools, dilapidated roads, unpaid pensions, and a collapsing healthcare system.”
He credited President Tinubu as the “real miracle worker,” slyly crediting federal subsidies for Otti’s gains while vowing APC’s 2027 takeover – a not-so-subtle audition for the top job he’s “repeatedly spoken of” pursuing.
This isn’t critique born of concern; it’s calculus from a man whose federal perch has funneled little beyond rhetoric back home.
As Abia Liaison Officer Iheanyi Chinasa quipped, Kalu lacks the “capacity, track record, and political standing” to challenge Otti, yet here he is, inflating Q2 inflows to ₦114 billion (per his own citations) while ignoring the exchange-rate apocalypse that ballooned project costs from ₦460/$ in 2023 to over ₦1,600 today.
Neighboring states like Enugu and Anambra? Sure, they shine, but Abia’s starting from a deeper ditch – one Kalu helped dig during his Assembly days under less visionary regimes.
The desperation drips from every syllable. Kalu’s office, in a Tuesday retort, doubled down: Otti’s team peddles “blatant propaganda and personal attacks” instead of transparency on AfDB loans and nurse salaries stuck at ₦80,000 against CONHESS benchmarks.
Fair points, perhaps, on paper – Abia isn’t utopia, with gratuities lingering and floods still a specter. But peel the onion: This is a man who skipped critiquing his “former boss and benefactor” Orji Uzor Kalu in his predecessor roast, a glaring omission that screams selective amnesia.
As Otti’s camp notes, if Kalu’s math held – ₦38 billion monthly for eight months – Abia would’ve pocketed ₦304 billion, not the actual ₦125 billion (including LGAs), a “bare-faced lie” unbecoming a deputy speaker.
Tinubu, Otti fires back, “knows traitors and sycophants when he sees them,” a velvet-gloved slap at Kalu’s Tinubu-flattery during the president’s Enyimba Stadium visit.
It’s not governance critique; it’s gubernatorial foreplay, a 2027 trailer where power’s allure trumps performance’s proof.
And Otti’s riposte? A masterclass in measured mic-drop. Through Special Adviser Ferdinand Ekeoma’s statement – “Governance in Abia: Benjamin Kalu Needs Tutorial More Than He Needs a Microphone” – the governor didn’t descend to mud-slinging; he schooled with spreadsheets.
“Relax, wait for the appropriate time to launch your governorship bid,” it advised, urging financial literacy before fiscal fictions.
Rightly so – this isn’t pettiness; it’s precision, reminding Kalu that Abians, weary of the old “change for change’s sake,” now demand delivery over drama.
Otti’s Abia rebuilds: minimum wage hikes for 20,000+ workers, ₦10 billion in pension validations, and Aba’s geometric power lines flickering to life.
Kalu’s? A federal soapbox with scant state souvenirs.
Abia’s crossroads isn’t about ousting a failure; it’s about shielding a success from sabotage. Kalu’s desperation – that itch for the seat overriding the evidence of the eye – signals a politics past its prime, where “I want it” eclipses “we need it.” Otti’s tutorial? Spot on: Less microphone, more mastery.
As 2027 looms, Ndi Abia, choose wisely – not the climber, but the constructor. The throne isn’t a prize; it’s a plow. And Otti’s already tilling the soil.
Pamela O. writes from Lagos.
