17/09/2026
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Abia Voters Will Pick My Successor, I Won't Be A Godfather — Otti
Abia State Governor Alex Otti has declared that he will not become a political godfather and that the state’s voters, not any personal anointing will determine his successor after he completes a potential second term in 2031.
Speaking on Thursday, September 17, 2026, at the Labour Party State Secretariat in Umuahia while formally receiving the 2023 Social Democratic Party governorship candidate, Dr. Ngozika Gladys Johnson-Chukwunenye, into the Labour Party, Otti rejected the long-standing Nigerian political practice of sitting governors handpicking and imposing successors to maintain influence after leaving office.
“What I can assure you is that by the time I am done, the person that will succeed me will be better than me. I don’t want to be a godfather. I don’t tolerate godfathers,” Otti said.
He described a collaborative, merit-based process in which stakeholders would evaluate candidates, agree on the strongest contender, campaign for that person, and then step back. “We will all sit down, look at everybody and say, who is the best person for this job? And then all of us would agree. And we will campaign for him. He will win. We will take a back seat.”
The governor also ruled out further elective office, including a Senate seat. “I am not interested in any other thing. I don’t even want to go to Senate. I am not interested. Once I finish this one, I will retire,” he stated, explaining that his priority is opening space for a younger generation.
He pointed to the state’s Leadership Academy, which he said had recently graduated 1,080 young people aged 16 to 25, describing them as smart, well-trained and ready to take over. “You will see young people between the ages of 16 and 25. You will see how smart our children are. So, these are the people that will take over from us. And they are being trained now for tomorrow. So, we can never go back. We should stop this sit-tight syndrome. There are smarter, more trained, better trained, better equipped younger people, our children. We need to give them opportunity. And that is what is important to us. It is not about money.”
Otti framed good governance itself as the strongest safeguard against any return to past patterns of leadership. “The most important thing you can give a people is good governance. And once people take good governance, it will be very difficult. So if you are afraid that we will go back to Egypt, it will never happen.”
He linked the statement to his administration’s record of restoring infrastructure and services in Aba and Umuahia and expanding work into the hinterlands, while dismissing opposition critics as “dogs that are barking” who would eventually lose their voices.
Johnson-Chukwunenye, who contested the 2023 governorship election on the SDP platform, said she decided to join the Labour Party after observing improvements under Otti, including payment of salary arrears, regular payment of workers’ salaries, attention to pensioners, and road rehabilitation in major cities. Otti described her earlier candidacy as courageous, particularly as a woman seeking elective office.
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