Abia State Governor Alex Otti has said he will retire from active politics after completing his second term in 2031, ruling out a bid for the Senate.
Otti spoke on Thursday in Umuahia while receiving the 2023 governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Ngozika Gladys, and her supporters, who defected to the Labour Party.
The governor said his focus was to leave a lasting legacy in the state and support the emergence of a successor capable of building on his administration’s achievements.
“What I can assure you is that by the time I’m done, the person that will succeed me will be better than me,” Otti said.
He also said he wanted younger Nigerians to take over leadership positions rather than allow politicians to remain in power indefinitely.
“Once I finish this one, I will retire. I want the young people to take over. We should stop this sit-tight system,” he said.
Otti further ruled out becoming a political godfather after leaving office, saying he would not seek to control the state’s affairs from outside government.
He said the selection of his successor should be based on collective consideration of the available candidates, adding that he had no intention of contesting for the Senate after leaving office.
On his administration’s pace of development, the governor said the government had adopted a phased approach because of the scale of challenges it inherited.
“This is just about 39 months. Everything cannot be done in one day, particularly in a place that has been badly managed in the last 24 years. It takes a lot of time, resources and planning,” he said.
Otti said the administration initially focused on restoring Aba and Umuahia before extending its projects to communities in the hinterland.
“The most important areas for us were to restore Aba and Umuahia. And I can tell you without any fear of contradiction that we have literally restored those cities.
“We are now moving into the hinterlands, and we will continue until we reach everywhere,” he added.
The governor also welcomed Gladys into the Labour Party, recalling her participation in the 2023 governorship election and describing her decision to contest on the SDP platform as courageous.
He commended her for bringing children from the School for the Blind to the event, saying attention to vulnerable people was important to building an inclusive society.
Earlier, Gladys explained that her decision to join the Labour Party was influenced by what she described as developments recorded under the Otti administration.
“It became my own divinely guided conviction that my assignment must align with this vision, hence my decision to openly and joyfully support this second-term bid; not for politics, but for posterity,” she said.
She cited the payment of salary arrears, regular payment of workers’ salaries, attention to pensioners and road rehabilitation in Aba and Umuahia as factors behind her decision.
“I saw a state that was once the dustbin of unpaid salaries: 29 months of arrears, now paying salaries on the 28th of every month.
“I saw pensioners who were left to die, now smiling again because Abia remembers them,” Gladys said.
The former SDP governorship candidate said her advocacy for vulnerable people began more than 15 years before she ventured into politics.
She said the Otti administration’s focus on vulnerable people, youths, women and social inclusion aligned with the humanitarian values she had promoted over the years.
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