Governor Otti And His Many Children

EBERE UZOUKWA, PhD

When Dr Alex Chioma Otti, OFR, addressed the graduating participants of the second cohort of the Abia Leadership Academy on August 27, 2025, he spoke less like a governor delivering a policy statement and more like a father addressing his children. His words carried warmth, hope, and responsibility. In his adoption of Abia’s young people through the Academy, Otti demonstrated that his vision of governance goes beyond roads, bridges, and infrastructure. It includes deliberately shaping a new generation of leaders who will sustain the gains of today and drive the future.

Before politics, Alex Otti had already established himself as one of Nigeria’s foremost economists and bankers. A first class graduate of economics and later the Chief Executive Officer of a leading Nigerian bank, he understood the weight of leadership in shaping institutions. His banking career cemented his reputation as a reformer who could turn organizations around through excellence, competence, and accountability.

That background has been decisive in his public service. His transition into politics and eventual election as Governor of Abia State brought him face to face with the peculiar challenges of governance in Nigeria, weak institutions, leadership deficits, and a culture of mediocrity. Confronted with these realities, Otti has come to the conviction that the greatest investment any leader can make is to prepare tomorrow’s leaders today.

The Abia Leadership Academy, now producing its second cohort, is one of the most striking outcomes of this conviction. It is not just a training programme but a family where young Abians, irrespective of background, are taught the values of responsibility, service, and courage. Some participants came from rural and semi urban communities, others from urban centres across Nigeria. Some are undergraduates, others are fresh secondary school leavers or vocational trainees. In Otti’s words, leadership is not for a select few, it is for everyone.

This is the sense in which one can speak of Governor Otti and his many children. He has chosen to see the young people of Abia not as passive bystanders but as heirs to a future that must be carefully nurtured. By requiring each graduate of the Academy to mentor at least one person every month for a year, Otti is multiplying his children across the state, building a growing community of influence rooted in discipline and excellence.

Otti’s commitment to youth is born of a realization that today’s leaders cannot afford to be complacent about tomorrow. The leadership vacuum that plagued past administrations left scars in Abia’s governance structure. To prevent a repeat, he is determined to build a reservoir of competent, ethical, and visionary young people who can stand tall when called upon to serve. By capturing them young, he is helping fix their minds against the social vices that too often derail the youth such as drug abuse, internet fraud, crime, and hopelessness. In their place, he is offering a new identity: beacons of light, custodians of Abia’s tomorrow, and ambassadors of moral and professional excellence.

Otti has already been celebrated for strides in physical infrastructure, road rehabilitation, urban renewal, and socio economic reforms. What distinguishes him is his refusal to stop there. He understands that sustainable development is incomplete without human capital investment. The Leadership Academy is therefore complemented by other youth focused initiatives such as TechRise Abia, which nurtures digital skills, the state wide football talent hunt which is unearthing sporting potential in every ward, and programmes that support fashion, creative arts, and entertainment, providing alternative career pathways for young Abians.

These initiatives represent Otti’s holistic approach to governance, building roads and bridges, yes, but also building minds and futures. Governor Alex Otti has chosen the path of a true leader, not only building for today but also preparing for tomorrow. His many children are the young men and women whose lives are being redirected through the Leadership Academy and other youth focused programmes. To them, he is not just the Governor of Abia State but the father who believes in their potential, equips them with the tools of leadership, and entrusts them with the responsibility of shaping the Abia of the future.

For a state once mocked as a failed experiment, this vision of nurturing new leaders may yet become Otti’s greatest legacy, a generation of Abians raised not just to live in the present, but to lead in the future.

– Dr Ebere Uzoukwa is the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Abia State on Public Affairs.