By Mazi Dr Otti Nwaka
Coordinator/Facilitator
Abia State Senior Citizens Centre.
Leadership is easy when the account is full and the road is smooth. True leadership shows up when the treasury is empty, the debts are heavy, and the people are tired of excuses. That is why Ndi Abia owe a deep word of thanks to His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Abia State, Dr. Alex Chioma Otti, OFR.
Governor Otti inherited a State weighed down by years of accumulated loans from previous administrations. Salaries were owed. Contractors were unpaid. Pensioners were forgotten. Banks were knocking. For decades, Abians were told “there is no money” while the debt profile kept growing and infrastructure kept decaying. It was a cycle of borrowing to survive, not borrowing to build. So sad!
In less than one full term, that story is changing. Without noise, without propaganda, Governor Otti has confronted the debt head-on. Through financial discipline, blocking of leakages, and transparent budgeting, his administration has steadily paid down the inherited loan burden. Abia is not there yet, but we are close — close to breathing without creditors on our neck.
This matters for three reasons.
First, debt repayment restores dignity. A State that cannot pay its debts cannot plan its future. Every naira sent to clear old loans is a naira that frees Abia from the bondage of interest payments and from the shame of being a “debtor state.”
Second, it rebuilds trust. When salaries are now paid on time, when pensioners receive alerts again, when contractors return to site because government honors invoices, citizens begin to believe again. Trust is infrastructure too.
Third, it creates room for real development. Money that once serviced debts can now pave Aba roads, equip hospitals, fund schools, and support SMEs. That is how you move from “Abia is owing” to “Abia is working.”
Your Excellency, you campaigned on resetting Abia. Clearing these inherited loans is proof that the reset is not a slogan. It is prudence. It is courage. It is keeping your word when it would be easier to blame the past and keep borrowing.
We thank you, Dr. Alex Chioma Otti, OFR, for choosing the hard, unpopular road of financial sanity. For refusing to kick the debt down the road for the next governor. For showing that Abia’s money can work for Abia’s people if a leader fears God and respects figures.
The job is not finished. There are still roads to fix, jobs to create, and arrears to settle. But by almost clearing the loan burden you met, you have given Abia what it lacked most: a clean slate.
May history record that when Abia was gasping under debt, you came and loosened the noose.
Thank you, Your Excellency. Daalu, Oke Madu Ndi Abia. Keep going.
Seniors Citizens in Abia State are praying for your success and wellbeing.
