Dr Alex Otti, who emerged as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) on Monday, December 8, 2014, granted this interview as soon as he resigned his position as the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive of Diamond Bank PLC in October 2014. A first class (hons) economics graduate, best graduating student/valedictorian of the University of Port Harcourt in 1988, explains why he left his plum job for the rough and tumble of partisan politics and, in particular, jostling to be the governor Abia State come 2015.
When you started your governorship aspiration there was this curiosity about your ancestry, particularly whether you are from Ngwa or Arochukwu. Can you clarify it once again?
Ancestrally, my great grandfather moved from Arochukwu and came to settle at Umu-Uru in Nvosi in the present Isiala Ngwa. When he died he was buried there. My grandfather also died and was buried there. My father was a teacher and a pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. When he died it was my duty to bury him. God revealed to him, three weeks before he died, that it was time for him to go. He called me and told me that his time was up.
I asked him: “if you die now, where do I bury you?” He asked me what kind of question was that. I told him that some have been saying that our ancestral home is Arochukwu. He replied, saying, since he did not live in Arochukwu in life is it in death he would he buried there? He said this was where his father and forefather were buried, that I should bury him there. The same thing happened. When my mother died we also buried her here in Umu-Uru.
Alex Otti
Alex Otti
It is not that this is of great importance to me, but you know, once politics comes into anything, any simple thing will be made to look complex just to score political points. There is no one from Isi ala Ngwa that can say I am not from Ngwa. When it comes to financial contributions which every grown-up mandatorily pays I do pay. That is by the way, not important. But it is important to note that I have also not forgotten the roots, Arochukwu, where my forefathers originally came from.
I need to mention that a prominent professor from Ngwaland made it clear that most of the people in Ngwa migrated to settle there. If we begin to trace the roots of all of us, nobody will hail from their current hometown. We all came from somewhere to settle where we now belong. If we begin to trace everybody’s roots all of us will go back to the Garden of Eden.
What matters to me is not where does he come from. What matters, and what I want us to focus on is capacity to deliver on the job. We are interested in meritocracy, rather than mediocrity. And that will quickly take me to the issue of zoning. Let me say it upfront, that I don’t believe in zoning. But I understand zoning. It simply means that the people who crafted it don’t want domination of one part over the other.
But when you want to practicalise it, it falls flat on its face. Because Orji Uzor Kalu who is from Igbere has occupied the governorship position, my brothers who come from Abiriba, if they have capacity and a burning ambition they should just forget it. So, where is the equity? The practice of zoning creates confusion and division, so I don’t like it. We need our best on the job. That is the only way we can start developing Abia State.
So, what are you bringing to the race? What core competence are you bringing?
I have been managing people’s money for the past 26 years. I have been in different parts of banking and in different banks, up till when I resigned as the Group Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Bank PLC. And what people can tell you about me is that I am very trustworthy and I have integrity. If I tell you it is yes, that is what it will be, even if you wake me up in the middle of the night. But I am also flexible, in the sense that if you bring a superior argument, I will listen to it.
And I will change my mind, even if I had made up my mind based on the information that was available as at the time I took the decision. I will run it through mind, and if I think it makes sense I will review my stand. There was a time I took a decision to sack eleven people from the bank. But when superior information came, I was happy to swallow the humble pie and recall all of them.
Why are you in the race, and what makes you think you are the best man for the job?
I have gone to the best schools in the world: Harvard, Cambridge, Columbia, just name it. I have that exposure. It is important that when you want to take a decision about who will lead you, think about the person who has exposure. Because if the person does not have exposure, it is a problem because the environment has a way of shaping the mind. If this room is hot, if you stay here long enough you will begin to think is it cool. So, why am I coming out? It is a dangerous game and a big risk. Some of my friend called me when they got to know about my decision to go into the race.
In fact, a very bid person in society called me and told me before taking a final decision I must see him. I told him I would see him, but as for the decision, it has already been taken. The fear that people close to me had was that as CEO Diamond Bank I still had six years to serve. I did a very good job of it, which was why the Board of the Bank gave me a new three-year term only in March 2014. The bank was my comfort zone. I was not looking for work. It was not about money because as CEO of a bank I determined my salary. A brewer will tell you that his raw material to produce beer is malt. My own raw material is money. So, we are not coming to look for money.
This risk we are taking is because of our future, our children and our people. There was a gentleman called Edmund Burke. Am sure many people are familiar with his saying that the only condition on which evil will triumph over good is for good people to keep quiet and do nothing. We can all sit in our comfort zones, working and making money for ourselves. But if you don’t show interest things will continue to deteriorate.
A lot of good people came out for this race, but we want the best. We have seen situations when people shied away and said politics is a dangerous game, I don’t want to go there. When you sit apart and second rate people come into the race, one of them will become governor, and whether you like it or not, he will be your governor. I am sure all of us know Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu. He is an engineer and once owned a construction company called Hardel and Enic. He told a story of one day when he went to the US. One of the senators decided to give him a dinner.
While the dinner was on, the senator asked him: “Chief how is politics in your country?” He told the senator: “Politics? I am not a politician. I just face my business”. The man laughed at him. He told him: “a politician can decide, and with a simple tweak of policy, all your business will collapse”. Iwuanyanwu said after that discussion that was when he decided to become involved in politics. Kwame Nkrumah said, “seek ye first the political kingdom and every other thing will be added unto ye”. It is not appropriate to say we are not politicians because, even at the Board where we sit, it is all politics. If you don’t play your politics well you don’t get your approval. You may be the best worker, but if you have a habit of not guarding your utterances, they will say this one cannot be trusted with sensitive issues. It can deny you a great deal.
Aba is almost a failed city. What can you do about it?
I will go back to talk about our entrepreneurial citizens, men and women, who are so skilled. I am sure most of us will remember in the 1980’s when “Aba Made” products were known all over Nigeria and beyond. I am not sure Aba Made is there anymore, because Aba is not making anything anymore. We need to make Aba work again, because if you fix Aba you will have fixed Abia. Why do I say so? When I was in the university, every weekend the whole of Port Harcourt emptied into Aba, to buy shoes, clothes, food – everything was in Aba. We need to go back to those good old days in a bigger, more high tech way.
It is going to be difficult, but we have what it takes and we are determined to tackle it. We have to totally reconfigure Aba for big business, world class business and industry. We need to resume building the quality of roads that Dr Michael Okpara and Dr Sam Mbakwe built in their time, which lasted more than thirty years, not these days when roads built this year cannot lost longer than the current dry season. I have a blueprint on how to get the Aba of our dreams, and the Abia of our cherished visions. Aba is the production hub, the workshop of Eastern Nigeria; South East and South-South. Onitsha is a mere trading port, but Aba is epicenter of industry.
They come to Aba, buy and go to all parts of Nigeria and beyond to sell. We must restore that. When we were talking about Aba Made, nobody was talking about countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. They had not started. Today, major manufacturing outfits like Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Marks and Spencer, you name it – have set up plants in Indonesia and Malaysia. Even in Pakistan – ordinary Pakistan! Why can’t they set up in Aba? We will get them to come.
All you need is to organise yourself and things will start to happen. I am not blaming anybody because there is a saying that you can’t give what you don’t have. We need to get to the level when people who have the capacity and reach can assume leadership, not only in Abia State but in Nigeria as a whole. What Fashola has done in Lagos is very instructive. He is doing the work and leaving Tinubu to do the politics because he is a technocrat first of all. And that is what I am bringing to Abia State. I will do the work. I will leave the politicians to play their game while I do the work without distraction.
Some people have been saying, this man; first class, doctor; when he comes in he will chase away everybody and surround himself professors. Am I going to import those professors from China? The people of Abia State will be the ones to do this job. I will merely provide the compass and leadership. And there is a lot to be done to reorient our people. Our people have lost heart. They are now easily susceptible to fear and intimidation. We will reorient our people to regain our original spirit of fearlessness and self-pride.
We are a state of great warriors both ancient and modern. The first military head of state, the first General of the Nigerian Army, General Aguiyi-Ironsi, the great Ironside, was from our state. Ebitu Ukiwe, former Number two in the regime of General Babangida, is from our state. We have General Ike Nwachukwu, Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, General Azubuike Ihejirika and a host of others. There is no reason for us not to regain our “manhood”, and I will lead our people to achieve it.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/12/ill-make-aba-industrial-workshop-nigeria-otti-apga-flagbearer/

He needs to penetrate the rural areas of the state as it seems he is known in the urban areas.