By Foster Obi
“Nothing in life is worthwhile unless it’s kind of hard to get there.”.. Carli Lloyd
According to Amelia Earhart “The most difficult thing in life is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.”
When Alex Otti joined the race in 2015 to become the governor of Abia state, most of his fans received it with mixed feelings.
While some people were ecstatic that the solution to Abia state problem has come at last, others felt sorry for him, wondering how a dashing and brilliant banker at the apogee of his profession should want to mire in the murky waters of politics.
For Otti, it was a tough decision because then as the managing director of Diamond Bank he has made a huge difference in the bottom line thrusting him forward as a prodigy.
By default he would have gone to the world bank or contend for the nation’s top banking job because of his level of brilliance and acumen.
But he chose to throw away this allure to jump into politics.
Looking back, the greatest thing that made Otti to leave all the comfort to jump into Abia state politics is self sacrifice.
Abia state since creation has been unfortunate with the kind governors it has had.
Although the state boasts of high net worth individuals who have performed in many professions, it has been unfortunate with leaders who have turned the supposed Commonwealth to their personal estates thereby elevating cronyism and mindboggling malfeasance.
It is a state where people are hungry, highly depressed and hopeless and seemingly caged by its oppressors with no saviour in sight .
While there are those who has continually shown interest to rule the state, most Abians see them as pretenders who has nothing to offer.
This is why among the larger populace, the coming of Otti in 2015 was greeted with so much enthusiasm, more like the Shakespearean, “Daniel coming to judgement.”
But as dirty as Nigerian politics is, he was highly checkmated by political marauders who saw him as coming to take away food from their mouth.
These political gangsters are not interested in the welfare of the masses. What they do is to share the supposed spoils of state among families and friends while rest of the citizens look helpless..
Otti came to change the scenario, to liberate the people but they did not allow him. 2019 was even worse as they had their strategy marked out.
But Otti, a go-getter and achiever par-excellence has remained tenacious with eyes on the ball. He wants to prove to the people that Abia which has remained backward in all fronts can rise from the ashes of hopelessness to become the leading state in the country.
This is why his popularity rating is rising daily. His tenacity of purpose.
Analysts believe that among the aspirants contesting for Abia governorship seat, nobody is as passionate as Otti. He has the joker to turn Abia around.
While the PDP has succeeded in impoverishing Abia, the time has come for the APC to take over.
The APC however can only achieve this if they choose Alex Otti. Anything other than this will amount to building castles in the air.
It is like deciding to wait for another four years to try again.
Foster Obi is Editor, DFCnewsng.com
Pic: Dr Alex Otti
