By Tony Icheku


Abia State governor-elect, Dr Alex Otti just announced the members of his Transition Council and assigned them the task of helping "...to articulate a policy document that would forge a direction and developmental agenda for Abia, in line with his vision for the State". 


After 8 years of sitting on the reserve bench,  Abians can't wait to see Otti walk his talk, as he plays governor. It definitely won't be a stroll in the park. On his part, he knows that only hardwork, hardwork and more of the same would enable him measure up to the high standards he has already set for himself.  Of course the Governor-elect understands that much, having closely played a shadow governor for the last eight years. As a newspaper columnist, he never lost any opportunity to critique or offer another perspective to any major economic policy of out going Governor Okezie Ikpeazu


For his interloping roles, Gov Ikpeazu's attack dogs never lost any opportunity to lash out at him with the most caustic and vile words. Their desperation to paint him as the devil only showed how much they feared him, perhaps, they saw a day like this coming to be. 


If Otti choose to pluck the low hanging fruits, he may come out looking like a miracle worker, like for instance  clearing of workers salary and pensioners arrears whose homogous total is not known yet. But would he clear it at once, with a flourish immediately he is sworn in or pay it instalmentally? Abia workers are waiting 


In several ways, Otti bears uncanny resemblance to Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, Abia governor for 1999-2007. First, both do not have known godfathers and were self-driven in their ambition to govern Abia , and secondly, both bear marks of steely resoluteness and drive as lifestyle.


On the flipside, unlike Kalu who rose to power  from the School of Hardknocks, Otti journeyed  through a chequered,  orderly, plotted voyage to the top. And for the first time Abians could expect due process and a certain orderliness in the system.


Coming from the boardroom, Otti would be shocked if surbodinates fail to carry out orders. He is likely to run a tight ship. Perhaps the shape of the Transition Council hints at what Abians should expect: Technocrats at work 


The Chairman and Co-chairman of the Council,  Victor Onyenkpa and  Ifueko Omogui Okauru respectively are what the layman would call 'Taxmen'. Otti's administration would need tons and tons of money, and Lagos State has shown that there is even more money in tax than  oil


Onyenkpa,   Partner and COO, KPMG, a Chartered Accountant is a name that is synonymous with  tax: Petroleum Profit Tax, Companies Income Tax, Oil & Gas Tax, name it, he understands it.


Okauru is former Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).


Other members of the Council include Arunma Oteh, former Director General of Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); former Treasurer and Vice President of the World Bank  and currently a Director at FSD Africa, an international development agency focused primarily on financial markets in sub-Saharan Africa.


Also on board include Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe, a Nigerian-born inventor who helped Apple design a semiconductor for the iPhone; Mr Uche Orji, the immediate past CEO of Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA); Victor Okoronkwo, GMD of Aiteo Oil and Gas


 Mr. Frank Nneji, Founder of the unique transport company,  ABC Transport Company; and Ide John Udeagbala, an Aba-based business mogul are also on board. The mix of the Council indeed hints at a new dawn for Abia


The composition of the Council wets one's appetite as one imagines what  mouth watering recipe they would come up with, but caution is also in order as it will take the cook, Otti to translate that recipe into reality.


Otti has chosen  Aba, the commercial nerve centre of the State, for the inauguration of the Council. The implication is clear: The Governor-elect would, like he promised, position  Enyimba City as  the centrepiece of his government's economic and infrastructural development plan.


The outgoing governor, Ikpeazu made similar promises, but the best he did was to build for himself a massive palace in his village which has fused into  the fast growing Aba metropolis. 


Ikpeazu also abandoned Umuahia, the State capital and turned the Governor's Lodge, Aba into the alternate Government House, leading to the total neglect of Umuahia. As a matter of fact, one of the most shameful failures of the Ikpeazu administration was abandoning the uncompleted Government House his godfather, and predecessor, T A Orji started.


Ordinary Abians hope  too that the Otti administration would close the chapter on  petty bickering and fish wife quarrels between 'Old Aba and Old Bende' politics. Abia is too small to be divided along sub-ethnic divides. Politicians from the two divides had ruled as governors and their significant achievements were nourishing their egocentric, selfish and never-satisfied appetite, while the State suffered neglect and decay.


For the first time, Abians have elected their own governor. Their expectations are high. Like all human endeavours, there would be sabotages, there would be betrayals, there would be distractions, those who for 24 years feasted like vultures on Abia would not give up easily, in response,  the lion in Otti should bare  fangs and fight back with steel.