Governor Otti’s march to rebuild Abia

Just as this column came up last week with the title “Wanted: Entrepreneurial Governors,” Abia State governor, Alex Otti, excited Abians and their well-wishers with the inauguration of a world-class body, Abia Global Economic Advisory Council.   Otti drew from the rich pool of Nigeria’s best professionals in diverse disciplines or fields, not just from the […]

Just as this column came up last week with the title “Wanted: Entrepreneurial Governors,” Abia State governor, Alex Otti, excited Abians and their well-wishers with the inauguration of a world-class body, Abia Global Economic Advisory Council. 

 Otti drew from the rich pool of Nigeria’s best professionals in diverse disciplines or fields, not just from the state or South East but across the country. He pulled tested hands from the North, the South West, and of course the South East, among others. From global financial and economic management to central banking, and private-sector engagement, the governor assembled a team with an uncommon mix of expertise and experience that cannot be wowed by any problem situation. 

This is the act of an entrepreneurial leader. Real entrepreneurs are not lone rangers. They are team players. They are people of vision, who set goals and then raise teams to help them articulate plans and strategies to achieve such goals. It begins with this acknowledgement by the governor: 

“As a government, we do not know it all and that is why we are seeking guidance from those who know. This day marks the beginning of a new era and we shall never look back,” Otti admitted. 

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In these days when emphasis is on governance as one of the key drivers of human development, it can no longer be left in the hands of a few individuals who claim to know it all. This makes the establishment of those committees quite significant. 

Otti’s step is a break from the unwritten tradition that characterised governance in Abia until now. Of all Nigeria’s 36 states, it is almost incontestable that Abia has been the most unfortunate in terms of the leadership quality of those who have governed the state from its creation by General Ibrahim Babangida in 1991. Except for one or two administrations, those who have ruled or governed the state had no vision. 

And without vision, there were no long-term plans that could have guided the state’s development and progress. That is why Abia cannot measure up to its peers, despite the resourcefulness of its people and its material endowment. 

 Governance in the state had been reduced to a family affair in some cases. Some former Abia governors turned out to be executive governors of the worst order. They were lone rangers, each having his pockets of supporters that worked for his interest. Some ended up leaving the state poorer than they met it. This explains the pervading feeling that this is the first time that in the real sense Abia, God’s own state, has been fortunate to have a governor. 

Discussing the qualities of the members of this team is almost impossible here, but a few will suffice. As a reporter I have had the opportunity of meeting with or interviewing many of them: from Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to HRH Muhammad Sanusi II, Arunma Oteh, Prof. Benedict Oramah, among others. I have also been following the trail-blazing activities of others, including Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe, the entrepreneur, and Bolaji Balogun of the FCMB. 

Today, Okonjo-Iweala, the honorary adviser to the team (alongside Oramah), sits atop the World Trade Organisation, where she is helping a globalising world to fashion a new trading model that can benefit both rich and poor nations.  This global economist will surely bring to bear on the task for the team her long years of experience. 

When I first saw her in July 1997 at the Global Knowledge Conference in Toronto, Canada, she was the highest-ranking Nigerian at the World Bank as of when she was a Vice-President at the global financial body. She later rose to the position of managing director of the bank. 

On his part, Sanusi II is perhaps the priciest addition to the list, both in terms of his comments during the unveiling of the team and his experience and voice on socioeconomic issues in Nigeria. Sanusi is a banker, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. It was on this turf that his and Otti’s paths crossed. Both of them worked at First Bank of Nigeria Plc, where the state governor once served as an Executive Director before he moved to Diamond Bank Plc as Chief Executive. Sanusi himself rose to the position of FBN’s CEO from where he was appointed CBN governor. 

As a reporter for Bloomberg News, I had an exclusive interview with him early in his tenure in 2009 as central bank governor, right inside his office at the Lagos Office of the CBN. That was during the second phase of the global financial crisis that was decimating the local financial system.

Sanusi came to complete the banking sector reforms that Charles Soludo had started. In answer to one of my questions, the then-newly appointed governor answered that the reforms or resolution of the financial crisis would not take a “shotgun approach”. 

I believe it will be the same for the search for Abia State’s industrial and economic development. It will not be a sprint; it will be a long race. The most important thing is for the journey to begin with unquestionable commitment and clarity of purpose. This explains why this journey must be planned with a lot of inputs coming from such a highly diversified body of experts. 

Sanusi can talk to power, and he does that quite well. He has done that ever since he emerged as CBN governor. He told banks and stockbrokers that they took unrealistic risks which led to a build-up of toxic assets that jolted the Nigerian banking sector. He regularly challenges the establishment, blaming the powers that be for Nigeria’s paradox, our unfortunate backwardness amid plenty. 

He knows that economic reforms require tough decisions, which he took, sacking bank chief executives, among other unpopular but necessary actions. And, more importantly, he knows and believes that economies must planned or guided to perform optimally to the benefit of all. His appointment and acceptance to serve on such a committee for a state far from his northern Nigeria region have once more identified him as a Nigerian indeed.   

As he declared to Governor Otti, his – and I dare say- the others’ appointments to the committee will not be taken as one of window dressing. Their opinions must count.  Having called these men and women to serve as his advisers, governor Otti has to listen to them.