Patience LeornardThe Ariam-Usaka Professionals (AUP), an international umbrella association of professionals of Ariam-Usaka clan of Abia State, has congratulated Dr. Alex Otti on his emergence as Governor-elect of Abia State.
In a press statement on Saturday, the association said the wild jubilation across the state following the Independent National Electoral Commission’s announcement of Dr. Otti as winner of the keenly contested gubernatorial election was evident that Abians had witnessed the arrival of the long awaited Messiah of the state.
The Ariam-Usaka Professionals equally congratulated Engr Boniface Isienyi who was elected into the Abia State House of Assembly, Chief Obi Aguocha, Federal House of Representatives and Hon Darlington Nwokeocha, Senate, respectively, all under the Ikwuano-Umuahia Constituency.
The statement which was signed by the President, Prince Innocent Eleogu, Director of Secretariat, Mazi Ferdinand Ibezim and AUP Director of Media, Mazi Ifeanyi Ibe, on Saturday, 25 March, 2023, said,
“This is a formidable team which did not come by accident but by design. It is rare to achieve this unique party lineup in one state, and Abia State for that matter. The development speaks to the deliberate and concerted efforts of Ndi Ariam-Usaka and all Ndi Abia to say good riddance to bad rubbish of 24 years.
“In the buildup to the election, all Abians placed their hands on the plough and never looked back on the election days. All that mattered was a vote for the Labour Party. And the result is outstandingly exciting”.
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The statement further said, “Since March 18 across Abia State, it has been jubilation resulting from the conviction and confidence that Abians did the right thing. For Abians, the commitment for change was huge and taken to the bank that Labour Party would triumph. And so it came to pass. This commitment reflected in policing the ballot, policing INEC, and all agents of evil that were bent on taking the state backward.
“It was little surprise that wild jubilation rent the air across all communities of the state as parties were held everywhere in total appreciation for a long awaited change that had come”.
The association also noted that Dr. Otti’s emergence as Governor-elect “was engendered by the people’s collective realisation that it was time for the ultimate act of pressing forward resolutely for unprecedented electoral revolution and divine liberation from a whopping 24 years of unfounded, directionless, inhuman, unquantifiable and inexplicable leadership failure that stagnated growth and development.
“In those 24 years what Abia State had was leadership deluded and bereft of vision and strategy to the extent that various dispensations of government since 1999 couldn’t attract a thing as simple as a state-of-the-art eatery into the state, talk less of big investments. The governments cumulatively used 24 years to build only one flyover bridge in the state.
“To add salt to injury the last government rolled out the drum to celebrate an embarrassing allowance of ₦500 to pregnant mothers. Abia State was nationally scandalised when this news broke. But that’s one of the kind of achievements Abia was known for in 24 years.
“For 24 years Abia communities did not know what rural development looked like. Most communities have no access roads, no electricity, no hospital, no water. Everything you find in most communities is self-help project. It was 24 years of wickedness, selfishness and stealing Abia blind”.
The association lamented that “Abia, in spite of its oil-producing status, is in shambles, beggarly and hopeless. All indices of development are nowhere to be found. In thes years, there had been non accountability of the oil and internally generated revenues”.
It described the people’s experience as, “Years of locust, caterpillar, cankerworm and palmerworm. Everything eaten up and the state raped. 24 years of not being bothered about neighbouring states overtaking Abia in all spheres of human development.
“All the governments cared was a stranglehold on all levers of power. They empowered brigandage and poverty to keep the people silenced.
“Most pathetic is that civil servants would not get paid. Their achievement was therefore in the avalanche of salaries owed across ministries and the non accreditation of courses by federal education authorities”.
With Dr. Otti’s election, the group noted that, “Today God has clothed Abia with the mantle of the remembered one by giving the state a sound and deeply committed technocrat, an economist, a former banker, an investor and a philanthropist. Dr. Otti’s wealth of experience over the years shall certainly play out in the governance of the state. State resources will experience the dexterity of private entrepreneurial management which comes with profitability and accountability. This is unlike those that took over governance by happenstance, having served as PA to this, PA to that. That history is wiped out today with this election”.
Ariam-Usaka Professionals and the people of the Ancient Kingdom of Ariam-Usaka therefore used this occasion of Abia’s liberation to call on all Abians to give Dr. Otti and his team of Labour Party Representatives, at state and national levels, the necessary support to reinvent the state.
It said Abians must realise that the sorry circumstance in which the state had found itself would take time, hardworking and cooperation to put Abia on development pedestal.
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