The first major sign of a failing government is its deliberate politicisation of insecurity. Sadly, this is exactly what is happening today in Abia State under the watch of Dr Alex Otti and he needs sound advice from well-meaning people across the country before he digs himself and the state further into the insecurity hole.
I read a statement dated 18th November 2024 which was credited to Governor Otti and released by his media aide with the caption “Promoters of violence and insecurity in Abia will pay a heavy price,” wherein he stated, among other things that, “following series of tip-off from patriotic citizens and reliable intelligence, it has been firmly established that some unpatriotic politicians, in connivance with some external parties are behind the current wave of violence and crime in the state since the end of May this year.”
While not providing any shred of evidence to justify its hasty and ill-advised statement, the government further made self-indicting statement to the effect that “Government wishes to strongly warn that anyone that attempts to play politics with the lives and property of innocent Abians should be ready to face the consequences, as government will no longer tolerate such acts, no matter who is behind them.”
I make bold to state that it is actually the government of Otti that is playing politics with the lives and property of the people of our dear state by failing to realise how unhelpful and crude its statement is in the quest for the search of solutions.
Similarly, the obvious panic in the statement and resort to politicisation of insecurity is also a clear sign of cluelessness and failure to understand how to effectively manage insecurity and ultimately improve the wellbeing of our people.
Mr Governor, kindly take note of the following: 1. Every preceding administration in Abia State faced multiple security challenges which were managed without attempting to politicise them. The leaders of those administrations simply understood that a crime is committed by a criminal whose ethnic, religious, and political affiliation, if any, are inconsequential.
2. Collaboration with citizens yields valuable information that helps to root out criminals and those citizens can only provide such helpful intelligence in the absence of real or threatened political and social backlash to them.
3. Working with constitutionally recognised security agencies with the tools to dispassionately investigate crimes and the required socio-political neutrality is the best approach that delivers sustainable solutions to insecurity. Attempting to turn and focus security agencies towards your political opponents is a clear sign of unmitigated failure in leadership.
4. Politically motivated allegations and insinuations do not solve security challenges, hence experienced leaders avoid such because it simply allows the real criminals to thrive and multiply while the government engages in shadow boxing with innocent people who ultimately know nothing about the insecurity and are in the main as worried as every other person but ready to offer support to the government.
5. The public posturing and body language of Governor Otti make it difficult for even his allies to provide seemingly contrary but helpful information to his publicly held view as the leader. People tend to tell the leader what he wants to hear and not necessarily the truth simply because he adopted an “Eze Onye Agwalam” (I know it all) approach to leadership.
6. A careful study of security patterns, environment and individuals or groups hitherto associated with perpetrating violent acts yields far more solutions than political name calling in managing insecurity in our state. During the administration that preceded that of Otti, we experienced far more security challenges than what he is grappling with today…, yet it was all tackled without politicisation and Abia ended up being recognised as the safest state in the South-East and among the top three in Nigeria. Governor Otti inherited the security architecture and only needed to improve on it.
7. Governor Otti is currently receiving the highest amount of money as security votes in the history of Abia State and the South-East yet he is wrongly parceling off his leadership failures to unnamed “opposition” while entertaining himself with money meant to support security services in our dear state. It is time to ask him to name those politicians in the opposition that are responsible for insecurity in Abia so that they can defend themselves before appropriate security agencies.
Finally, let me point out that Abia State was not created in May 2023 as Governor Alex Otti has tried to convince himself. Others before him efficiently managed the state with eyes on the ball and achieved great outcomes like improvements in security, youth employment and infrastructural development without having half of the resources now placed at his disposal. His personal attitude to leadership is at the heart of his failures and recourse to make-believe governance that the opposition is railing against.
I strongly doubt there is anyone in the “opposition” that will benefit from unleashing insecurity on our people for political gains. Indeed, to the best of my knowledge, nobody benefits from insecurity apart from criminal elements whose gains are usually short lived as the law ultimately catches up with them. Otti is merely distracting himself with his public statements that lack substance and empirical basis.
Governor Otti must be reading the newspapers he buys with millions of tax payers money every month and must have seen that other states in the south east region are also facing similar security challenges as Abia. I am yet to read Governors Chukwuma Soludo and Peter Mbah of Anambra and Enugu States, respectively, blame their political opponents for it even though the situation seems much more dangerous in those states. I therefore strongly recommend that Governor Otti comes down from his high horse and go for peer tutorials to help him understand how to manage insecurity without politicization.
Insecurity affects everyone and indeed nobody benefits from it. It does not even help to change political outcomes as the history of our nation and neighboring states have proved, hence, no sane person will seek to use it for political gains. That Governor Otti is bent on this ill-advised politicisation of insecurity is the surest sign of unfitness for office he has shown so far and it is important to help him quickly change course through this public advice: treat criminality as criminality and politics as politics for the sake of our people.
Our Governor, please do not set up the state for crimes to flourish through chasing political shadows while real criminals thrive and expand their operational territories within our beloved state. Change course by repudiating your ill-advised statements, pass all relevant information to the security authorities for verification and co-opt all citizens, including former leaders of Abia State, to help you fight off the current upsurge in crimes.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their loved ones. Hopefully, Governor Otti will wake up from his “sleeping slumber” to genuinely enlist the support of all citizens to protect our people in line with his oath of office. Nobody is happy that our state is facing this heightened insecurity and we must all genuinely help your government.
John Okiyi Kalu, former Commissioner for Information; Trade and Investment, Abia State
