No Sacrifice Is Too Great To Improve The Lives Of The Abia People — Gov. Otti

Dr. Alex Otti

THE governor of Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, asserts that no sacrifice is too great to enhance the quality of life for the populace and that the welfare of the populace comes first even in the pursuit of creating a state with a thriving economy.

In his Easter speech to the Abian populace, delivered on Sunday morning, the Governor declared that “no sacrifice can be too big to improve the life of the very people for whom the Saviour paid the ultimate price”—that is, if Jesus could give up His life to deliver humanity from eternal death.

Governor Alex Otti stated in his speech titled “To live the ideals of the risen Christ” that the welfare of the populace was the main focus of his administration's initiatives and programs.

To bolster his argument even more, Otti stated: “Just three days ago, we fulfilled a very important promise made to our senior citizens at various campaign stops and repeated with firm assurance in the early days of this administration.

“Whether it is in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of long-abandoned roads; reset of the healthcare delivery system; improved security of life and property in our various communities; or in keeping to our promise of prompt and regular payment of salaries and pensions; our objective is always clear: to improve the lot of the average person who lives or does business in Abia,” he emphasised.

“Our initial plan was to offset the pension arrears accumulated since 2014 by the end of 2023, but reconciliation and verification issues made us set the end of the first quarter of 2024 as the new deadline. We duly communicated the situation in our New Year message, and pleaded for the kind understanding of our pensioners.

“I am glad that we have fulfilled that solemn promise; making it possible for thousands of pensioners and their families to celebrate this year's Easter in joy, satisfied that what they worked for, their genuine entitlements, which had been delayed for years through no fault of theirs, has finally been offset.”

The Governor stated that while it is normal for individuals to be happy when they receive their entitlements, “it is understandable that our senior citizens are so happy because this most basic of obligations was neglected for years.”

Alex Otti complimented the executives of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) and all state pensioners for their patience and expressed regret that they had to wait so long to receive their due after years of service to the state. He also thanked all pensioners in the state for their prayers, faith in the government, and kind wishes, especially in the last three days when the pension arrears were paid.

“I want to also thank members of my finance team for painstakingly hashing out the payment details and diligently doing all the hard work that got us to this satisfactory outcome. It is indeed regrettable that these great men and women (pensioners), who toiled for the State at the peak of their productive years were owed for so long. At any rate, never again shall our senior citizens be subjected to the agony of unpaid entitlements.

“I have since directed that full pensions must be paid on or before the 28th of every month, the very same day civil servants in the state get their salaries. As a rule, political office holders will only be paid after our obligations to our senior citizens and civil servants have been fulfilled, in full,” Otti affirmed.

He clarified that in order to assist people and families on fixed incomes in making plans, the government has committed to paying public employees' salaries on time by the 28th of each month. He also promised that the government would uphold its longstanding practice of providing periodic support to the state's poorest citizens, adding that plans have been made to distribute a special Easter package to the most vulnerable throughout the state.

“We are currently rehabilitating major economic roads in several parts of the State. The design is to make every part of the State attractive for productive activities which will in turn create employment opportunities, put dormant economic assets to effective use and ultimately, reduce the incidence of poverty for the masses while creating genuine wealth for investors.

“In all, we are building Abia into a giant economic ecosystem that supports various ventures from agriculture to manufacturing, ICT to transportation and so much more. Our dream, as I announced during the inauguration of the Abia Global Economic Advisory Council in January, is to build new possibilities for our people, creating multiple windows of enterprise in ways that profitable outcomes are assured, for those who dare to dream,” Governor Otti declared.