By Dr. Engr. Odo Ijere

While it is yet unclear whether President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will honor today’s invitation to come and commission the Portharcourt and other roads projects completed by Governor Alex Otti, it must be said that the several attempts made by Governor Alex Otti to bring the President to Abia soil to commission the long completed 6.3km Portharcourt road is first and foremost an acknowledgement of the fact that the Tinubu government granted its permission for the Alex Otti government to work on the road since it is under a federal jurisdiction.

All the three past governors, Orji Uzo Kalu, Theodore Ahamefula Orji and Okezuo Ikpeazu used the excuse of federal jurisdiction to shift blame and abandoned the road until it became a refuse dump. These three governors took the easier part by pocketing the monies they should have invested to make that road motorable for the people and promote trade commerce.

When you see that Alex Otti under two years overcame federal jurisdiction and completed the Portharcourt Road instead of looking for more innovative tricks to ferry our money like his predecessors is worthy of being praised by his cult of mammoth followers across the nooks and cranny of of the political spectrum busy today celebrating him. Alex Otti has become for many a symbol of good governance and good conscience.

By insisting that Mr. President should be part of commissioning the Portharcourt Road is part of his good governance ethics to show appreciation that the road being commissioned is a federal road before the opposition start to claim he has taken over federal roads in Abia state without due process. The same federal permit allowed him to deliver the infamous Omenuko bridge at Abam, the completion of Ohafia to Arochukwu road, section of mmuri River road abandoned by a Lebanese road contractor and turned to death trap.

I am very certain that notwithstanding the morbid propaganda of the opposition, the wild celebration in Aba at today’s commissioning of Portharcourt Road will be hysterical and outlandish around the personality of the governor himself who has become the people’s undisputed hero by toeing the path of infrastructural populism.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? whether a President Tinubu would be noticed that much if he actually attends the ceremony in Aba today? I know my Aba people that much. President Tinubu’s presence may not have made the difference and his security details might have told him the honest truth. No living person will contend with Alex Otti’s popularity in Aba today and remain the same again politically. Who wants to try?