By John Billion




There are many versions of the story of the arrogant king popularly called “Eze Onye Agwalam” in Igbo folklore but I wish to adopt and copy out the version written by Oke Iroegbu in his musings with the caption “The Arrogant King”.


According to him:"Once upon a time in a land far away, there lived a king who didn’t listen to anyone. He was so stubborn that he thought he knew everything. If anyone tried to advise or share an opinion with him, he would reject it. He felt good doing this and hence earned for himself, the name Eze onye agwalam (Igbo language meaning King that doesn’t listen to others).


"One day, as he was eating ripe pawpaw, he mistakenly smeared the yellow juice on his long black beard. It gave him a ridiculous look and nasty smell. But as a king who knew all, he wasn’t bothered. He strolled proudly around his kingdom, as usual, people noticed his messy beard and went their ways. No one wanted to come close to him. So when he recognized that people moved away from him, he became concerned. He called one of his aides and asked: 'Why is everyone acting that way around me?' The aide answered: 'Your Highness, you have a filthy beard.


"'What!? And no one told me?'" He almost screamed in shame.


"'Because you will listen to no one,'" his aide retorted.


"So out of shame, the king returned to his palace and after that day, he took people’s advice and opinions first before his."


In another version of the Eze Onye Agwalam tale, he was said to have visited a public toilet with his white royal robe and stained it with faeces. Because nobody corrected or dared to point out the stain, out of fear of what the king would do to the person, he disgracefully went to the village square to dance and greet his subjects with his white royal robes stained and stinking.


In a widely circulated video, Chief Okey Amuta, a First Class degree holder in Criminology who previously worked at the Presidency, described the current Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti, as follows:


“Alex is not one man you can work with and express yourself and show what you can do. No that’s not Alex. Alex is a dictator. A man who listens to gossips. Not just listening to gossip, he uses them. He victimizes. First of all if you are not rich, you are not Alex’s friend. Alex (Otti) regards you when he thinks that you are rich. Otti does not help anybody.”


As at today, there is nobody I’ve met who worked with or is closely associated with Governor Alex Otti of Abia State that does not essentially agree with the sentiments of Dr Amuta. That includes those who worked with him in the bank and those currently serving in his government. The only difference is that those who currently have their mouths wrapped around Otti’s feeding bottle, in the midst of widespread hunger, should not be expected to shout publicly to avoid King Alex Otti snapping it away. Only those already forced to remove their mouths or scared that it would soon be removed are shouting and/or whispering about the reality of the statement made by Dr Amuta.


There is also no Abia leader, political or traditional, I’ve discussed with in the past 9 months who did not complain about the propensity for Governor Alex Otti to behave like the proverbial Eze Onye Agwalam. One of them who is currently an appointee of the Governor recently called me to bounce off a very brilliant idea and ask for my view on workability. I asked him to suggest to the Governor an alternative path to achieving the goal faster and he promptly replied “my brother, nobody suggests anything to Otti unless you want to be abused or sacked”. Continuing he said, “nobody dares question the Governor, complain or disagree with him; you don’t know what we are going through here."


Of course, I was not surprised because I’ve heard a lot more about how the self-styled Emperor of Abia State runs his cabinet. Merely watching his media engagement videos will reveal a leader who sees citizens and media practitioners as unintelligent folks who are unfit to question him or make suggestions on any issue. “Who born you to disagree with Otti” is a popular refrain in Abia.


Early reports I received about the way Governor Otti runs his administration came from someone who said he was in the room when the Deputy Governor,

Ikechukwu Emetu, asked about origin of hundreds of millions of naira reported in the state’s 3rd quarter 2023 report said to have been spent by the office of the Deputy Governor. He was promptly given a hair-raising reprimand by his boss who warned him never to ask him such question: “If I say we spent N800m it means that is what we spent and if you ever challenge me again it will be your last day in this government," he reportedly told the young man.


Available reports from the grapevine indicates that all the so called technocrats and “best brains” in his government have at one time or another been made to endure the anger of the Emperor for trying to “suggest” an idea or “question” something they don’t understand or agree with. For instance, while there are multiple allegations of financial misconduct, including installing herself as procurement officer for an international donor project,  the real reason the former Commissioner for Health was forced to resign from the government is said to be her “strong personality” which made her to loudly question a lot of things including entries made under her ministry as expenditure that she didn’t know about or signed off on. Indeed, a close friend confided in me that she is currently being blackmailed into silence even when she wants to share the truth with the people of Abia State.


Similarly, it is rumored that the crime of the former Commissioners for Agricuiture, and Science & Technology, is not far from demanding to know how and when their ministries spent billions of naira recorded in the quarterly financial reports of the state against their respective ministries. Merely asking “how do I explain the money when asked (by Abians)” got them fired, according to a source who is also a family member of one of them.


It is the full manifestation of Eze Onye Agwalam character of the Governor that is seen by many as responsible for the chaos in his government, with at least 4 senior officials forced to resign within one year, leading to obvious underachievement and consequent resort to huge media expenditure in the face of very little actual achievement. This is despite the fact that no previous adminstration in the history of Abia State received half of  the total funds available to the Otti adminstration within its first one year. 


There is also currently no segment of the coalition that brought Otti to power that is not complaining about his character and poor governance in the state. From the civil service through traders to politicians, everyone is complaining but very few have the courage to confront the King of Abia State.


What Governor Otti has failed to understand is that running a profit-driven private sector organization is totally different from running a public-interest driven one. Moreover, the first thing a good student learns in public service is simply that nothing is hidden whether done in your privately owned government house or the state-owned one. No decree or intimidation of your opponents can ever guarantee total secrecy. Everything leaks at its own time within the public sector.


Most of Otti’s opponents and even some of his hirelings that are suffering and smiling  are waiting patiently for him to ultimately dance with his stained white agbada out of power. Yet I know my abiding personal interest is for him to serve our people better hence the decision to continue confronting him publicly in the hope he will one day repent. His state broadcast today confirm that he believes we can use social media and other platforms to peacefully keep his administration in check same way he boasted he did from 2014 to 2023. 


Only a few courageous members of the opposition are seemingly doing him the favour of public criticism in expectation of improvement. Others chose to simply avoid him by pitching their political tents with political parties and individuals they earnestly hope can help sack him from office in 2027. While those members of the opposition who criticize him publicly are supposed to be his best friends because they tell him the truth that his robes are stained with excreta, our modem day Emperor hates to be criticized and consequently works to ensure that they are framed, abused and possibly destroyed. Indeed, word out in the street indicates that he recently sacked his official spokesman because he was not abusive enough to the vocal members of the political opposition and is preparing to sack his commissioner for finance and the accountant general for failing to cook better quarterly financial reports that would hide the financial atrocities his adminstration is committing against innocent citizens whose only crime was to support a man they were warned beforehand not to, all because they love their brother Peter Obi. Even his Chief of Staff and Commissioner for Education are said to be so frustrated with the way things are going that they want an early exit from the government. 


In all these, I am sure that by the time Abia’s Eze Onyeagwalam is done with his brand of “only me know all” style of governance, there will only be one major loser: Dr Alex Otti who providence smiled on after two failed attempts at being governor, and yet he frittered away all the goodwill because of his legendary disdain for those who voted for him.


Finally, at the heart of the story of Eze Onye Agealam is arrogance of those given power by the people. There is only one major marker for arrogance in leadership: lying to the people because you believe they are either unintelligent or will never find out the truth. It doesn’t matter if the lie is about investment in Geometric power company, borrowing of billions of naira using contractor finance schemes, “forensic audit” that turns out to be mere process review, N1.5b for two hilux vans and hiding billions of tax payers money taken as monthly security votes as payment for non-existent research  and development etc. No genuine leader with good intentions deliberately lies to the people unless he is arrogant and by extension Eze Onye Agealam to his people. 


Whatever be the case, the public disgrace of Eze Onye Agwalam is only a matter of time unless Mazi Otti turns a new leaf like Iroegbu’s Eze Onye Agwalam did and start listening to his aides and other well meaning Abians.






- Billion is bosom friend of Gov Otti whom he fondly gave that name in recognition of his courageous efforts to correct him publicly