29/11/2025
Umu Abia: I want to take this moment to share the good news coming our way in 2026 and beyond. Immediately after the election, His Excellency Dr. Alex Otti invited a group of professionals to help design and architect a roadmap for Abia’s future. I was privileged to be included in the transition council and had the honour of serving as Co-Chair, Economic Transformation.
At that time, the public sentiment was gloomy: Abia was described as broke, unable to pay polytechnic lecturers, unable to keep the state university teaching hospital functioning, with the college of education abandoned and pensioners left without hope. But a comprehensive document was submitted to the new administration, anchored on Governor Otti’s mandate. He improved it, refined it, and embedded his grand ex*****on strategy, a methodical framework built on People, Processes, and Tools.
From day one, Governor Otti understood that Abia was not poor; rather, its wealth was locked away. He began unlocking it systematically. First came the tools, fixing key roads, restoring public infrastructure, repositioning education. Then came the people, clearing pension arrears, paying salaries promptly, restoring dignity. Then the processes, reviving the courts across LGAs, digitizing bureaucracy, and building a governance architecture that works.
Abians responded. Investors responded. Confidence returned. And Governor Otti’s core doctrine came alive: if Aba, the industrial heartbeat, is revived, Aba will revive the rest of Abia. Today, Aba is back: working, producing, exporting, and creating economic velocity that is lifting the entire state. Abia’s IGR, once stuck near N20 billion a few years ago, is projected to hit N100 billion in 2025 and potentially climb to N223.4 billion in 2026!
Now, the game is elevating: in the 2026 budget, Abia will cross the ₦1 trillion mark: “For the first time in the budget history of Nigeria’s South-East, a state has crossed the trillion-naira threshold. Abia achieved that milestone on Tuesday as Governor Alex Otti presented a ₦1.016 trillion budget proposal for 2026 to the State House of Assembly". About 80% will go into capital projects; the rest into recurrent spending. Please understand that Abia is ranked #1 in Nigeria by the federal DMO as the most fiscally responsible in Nigeria.
Fellow Abians, fellow Nigerians, Abia is working. Our Governor leads with merit, pragmatism, and honesty. The 2026 budget is tagged "Budget of Acceleration and New Possibilities” because Mr. Governor wants Abia to fund platforms of commerce (social services, infrastructure, etc), accelerate growth to unlock possibilities and abundance for all. May the good Lord bless Abia, Nigeria https://www.tekedia.com/abia-breaks-the-trillion-naira-barrier-inside-the-ambitious-2026-budgets-reshaping-the-south-east/