2027 governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State, Sir Mascot Uzor-Kalu, has delivered a stinging verdict on Governor Alex Otti’s administration, scoring it low on institutional governance and declaring that the government’s operations are shrouded in secrecy
Speaking on Sun FM, Igbere, during the political affairs programme ‘The Legislature,’ exclusively monitored by MUK TV, the former Abia State Chief of Staff said the much-touted promise of ‘New-Abia’ has not translated into a new style of governance.
“I have not seen the kind of change I expected, or the kind of change I would want to see. The government is shrouded in secrecy and is still doing things the old way,” he said.
While conceding that the Otti administration has recorded visible gains in infrastructure, Kalu argued that this was largely due to the volume of funds available to the state, not necessarily superior governance.
He raised concerns over transparency and accountability in contract awards.
“Road constructions are done, but nobody knows how much the roads cost; nobody knows how the contracts are awarded. Sometimes, we don’t even know who the companies are. We don’t know exactly what is going on.”
He also faulted the government’s treatment of the civil service, warning that the sack of the Head of Service and several Permanent Secretaries created a dangerous vacuum in governance.
“The Governor came in, fired the Head of Service, and removed Permanent Secretaries and Directors. It took years to train and bring up these people.
“If you look at the leadership of the system from the civil service, you’ll see a vacuum.
“As a man who has been in government, some of the mistakes I see the government making is because the Permanent Secretaries now were supposed to maybe still be Deputy Directors. So, they lack the courage to bring certain things to the table, and say to the Governor, these are not rights, these are not rights,” he said.
He further warned that the current revenue boom being enjoyed by states would not last forever, urging the Abia government to manage resources with greater prudence.
“Almost every state has money now. For the first time in the history of Nigeria, we see states having budgets of over N1trillion in the South East.
“But we need to maximize the resources, because part of what is killing Nigeria now is that we did not maximize the resources during the oil windfalls of previous years. The Federal Government thought the oil revenue would keep going up.”
Kalu, therefore, urged the governments across boards to learn from the mistakes of those past years.
