Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, has described the infrastructure and fiscal gains of his first three years as only the foundation of a longer project, telling residents that the next four and a half years will be spent making his reforms permanent. He spoke on Sunday in Aba at the South-East Conference of Dominion City Global, where he called the work done so far a dress rehearsal.
Otti, who took office in May 2023 as Abia’s fifth elected governor, said his government was not interested in unrealistic promises but in practical projects, and that it was working towards constant electricity supply across the state. He said the consolidation ahead would bring changes that are irreversible, and repeated his position that appointments in Abia are made on merit, with every resident treated equally regardless of state of origin.
The four-and-a-half-year horizon is itself telling. It stretches well beyond the roughly six months left in his current term, which ends in May 2027, and points to a second term that the next general election would have to deliver. Otti has not formally declared, but he is widely expected to seek re-election on the Labour Party platform.
The claims rest on a measurable record. At the administration’s third anniversary in May, Otti put the number of completed road projects at 414, covering about 864 kilometres, and said the state had cut its debt burden by more than 70 per cent. His government says it has spent over N40 billion clearing inherited salary and pension arrears, met a backlog of around 30 months of unpaid wages, and now pays workers by the 28th of each month.
A verification exercise early in the tenure removed about 2,300 ghost names from the payroll, saving roughly N220 million a month, according to the state. Abia has also begun phased payment of N61.8 billion in gratuities owed to retirees stretching back more than two decades, and in 2024 Otti signed a law ending pensions for former governors and their deputies.
The fiscal turnaround has drawn outside notice. An analysis of state finances by the civic organisation BudgIT put Abia’s internally generated revenue at N66.86 billion in 2025, up from N14.67 billion in 2022, a rise of about 356 per cent that ranked the state third nationally for revenue growth. For 2026, Otti presented a N1.016 trillion budget, titled the Budget of Acceleration and New Possibilities, weighted heavily towards capital projects, with an internal revenue target of N223.4 billion.
Power has been central to the Aba pitch. The Geometric Power project, an integrated generation and distribution scheme serving the commercial city and financed in part by Afreximbank, has improved supply in a place where energy costs have long weighed on manufacturers. The state has also set up its own electricity regulator under the 2023 Electricity Act and restored power to communities in Ukwa West after a blackout of about nine years.
Not every problem has been solved. Major Aba arteries such as the Port Harcourt and Osisioma corridors remain works in progress, the gratuity backlog is being cleared in instalments rather than at once, and the early move to trim the payroll drew disputes with sections of the workforce. Independent assessments, including the 2026 Phillips Consulting State Performance Index that placed Abia among the most improved states, have tended to credit the direction while noting that the harder gains lie ahead.
At the Aba gathering, the president of Dominion City Church, Pastor David Ogbueli, praised the governor’s style of leadership and urged him not to relent. Otti, for his part, framed the coming years as the real test, suggesting that what has been built so far was only the rehearsal, with the performance still to come.