Abia State Governor Alex Otti yesterday kicked against the agitation for the return of fuel subsidy and said those rooting for it don’t mean well for the country.
According to him, subsidising what people consume can only encourage laziness and corruption instead of supporting production and efficiency.
‘When you subsidise consumption rather than production, you are just subsidising laziness. You are subsidising, sometimes, corruption. You know, because there’s just no way that people will not want to take advantage of the system,’ the governor said on Arise News.
He said that instead of subsiding the price of fuel,government should focus on creating reliable systems that allow businesses and individuals to produce as people tend to use resources more efficiently when they have to pay for them.
‘When you have to pay, you are much more efficient. And anyhow you slice and dice it, it’s still cheaper than darkness. And if you have to run a generator, buy the diesel, provide for the maintenance, you will find that you are paying a whole lot more than public power supply,’ he said.
He added: ‘for the people who use it for production, for their factories, those people, they really don’t need the subsidy. They just need the constant power supply. And once you’re able to guarantee them constant power supply, they’ll pay. So businesses don’t need subsidy.’
‘Low-income earners can always manage. And I’ve given you an idea of how they can manage. Well, in many parts of the world, they turn off the electricity to save power.’
He described the removal of petrol subsidy as a right decision and warned:’You know, as election approaches, people will be making all sorts of arguments. But removing the subsidy was the right thing to be done.’
Asked who he would vote for in next year’s presidential election between President Bola Tinubu and the NDC presidential candidate,Peter Obi,Otti said:’ I will not speak on who I will vote for here, but it must be somebody that will win.
Pressed whether he was supporting President Tinubu for the election, Otti said:’For the 2027 election, I have said that I have a presidential candidate.’
When he was asked again whether he was supporting Tinubu, Otti said:’What do you expect me to say? To say I’m not supporting him?’
On his decision to remain in the Labour Party even after the exit of the party’s presidential candidate in 2023,peter Obi,the governor hinged his decision on the need to resolve the internal disputes and court cases facing the party.
Those issues,according to him,have now been resolved.
He said:’But you have seen that we’ve solved the problem. There is a saying that you don’t relocate from your house because armed robbers came.
‘Armed robbers came and attacked the house, so tomorrow you move and go to your neighbor’s house? You need to solve the problem, so I remained, and I’m sure you agree with me that we have solved the problem.
He spoke of his efforts to stop Obi from dumping the LP.
His words: ‘He came and met with me, and I told him that for me, I was staying back. But he said he was leaving.
‘I also predicted some of the things that happened, particularly where he went to first, and then he left that place again. Is it for me to tell him where he will be? Absolutely no, but at least I offered him my own piece of advice based on my understanding.
‘You know he’s a more senior person, so there are things he could have seen that I didn’t see.’
Responding to Obi’s claim that the Labour Party’s problems would not have been resolved if he had remained in the party, Otti said the resolution process was already underway.
‘Okay, but the process of resolution was already on. So for me, I could see that resolution.
‘Like I said, he could have seen what I wasn’t seeing, and I’m not in a position to-I don’t even have a superior idea or knowledge.
‘But what I could see at that time, including what I saw where he was headed, eventually turned out to be right. Otherwise, he would have stayed there, but he now left to where he is now.
‘So it’s a matter of debate whether the problem could have been resolved with him there or not; I don’t know,’he said.
How God saved me from assassination attempt in 2015 – Otti
And speaking during the ‘Abia Solemn Assembly and Covenant Renewal Service’ in Umuahia,on Thursdayy evening, Otti narrated his journey into politics, saying his decision to serve God sustained him through life-threatening political challenges.
He gave a vivid account of an ‘assassination attempt’ on him.
He said that a friend recently reminded him of events surrounding his journey in politics, particularly an incident in July 2015 which, according to him, could have claimed his life.
Otti recalled that he contested the 2015 Governorship Election and went to the tribunal to contest the election result when the victory was given to the Peoples Democratic Party’s Governorship Candidate, Okezie Ikpeazu.
He said that he was in Abuja trying to hold a meeting with someone, who repeatedly shifted the dates, until the meeting still did not take place.
Otti said that he subsequently informed his friends that he would leave Abuja the following day since the meeting didn’t hold, in spite their objections.
‘There was only one flight from Abuja to Owerri then.
‘All my friends objected. I said, well, I have received a message that I must leave Abuja.
‘So, to make it make sense, I told them I wanted to be at the tribunal on Friday, so they grudgingly accepted.
‘That night, assassins attacked my residence in Abuja, shot two policemen dead, and they were looking for me.
‘Of course, God had taken me away,’ he said.
Otti said the attackers, after failing to find him, apparently believed he was still within the premises and proceeded to search the adjoining compound.
He said: ‘When they finished and couldn’t find me. They were convinced I was there.
‘They had so much time. By the way, this was Maitama.
‘They jumped into the next compound, and I learnt that they were up to 12.
‘They jumped into the next compound, and stripped the whole building.’
Reflecting on the incident, Otti said there had been no obvious reason for him to leave Abuja at that particular time, but he believed that his departure was divinely directed.
‘They thought I jumped first, but I left.
‘There was no reason for me not to be there but God had taken me away from there,’ he said.
The governor also recounted how some friends tried to discourage him from entering politics, while others advised him to seek protection through traditional or other means.
‘A lot of friends, after trying to dissuade me, found I couldn’t be dissuaded.
‘They said, okay, if you decided to do this thing, you can’t go in there empty-handed.
‘You can’t go there without belonging to some societies.
‘You can’t go there without going to some native doctors for protection and you will be shocked at the kind of people that are making these suggestions and some of them are leaders in churches.’