Eze Chimkanayo is a former Commissioner of Information in Abia State who was privileged to have served three successive governors. In this interview, he explains how governors fuel insecurity by starving local governments of funds and why Governor Alex Otti should be transparent and accountable in the running of Abia State. JOHNCHUKS ONUANYIM reports.

What is the status of your association Abia Best Interest Association (ABIA) its reason for existence?

The Abia Best Interest Association, (ABIA), which fortunately shares the same acronym with the word ‘Abia’, is a child of necessity, borne out of the desire of ordinary Abians like myself to entrench a new era of transparency and accountability in the body polity of Abia State. Having started being around the corridors of power since 1998-99, I was among those that left Abia to to Ladikwali Hall, Sheraton Hotel, (now Continental Hotel) under the auspices of New Era Alliance, to join other bodies to form what we call the then G34 that later metamorphosed into PDP.

And then after that effort and PDP won at the national and state levels, I was privileged to have started serving since 1999 as Commissioner in Abia State. And having also been blessed by God and given the rare privilege and grace to have served three governors back-to-back, I was Commissioner under Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, I was Commissioner under TA Orji, and I was Commissioner under Governor Okezie Ikpeazu. So, I was not just a foundation member of the PDP, I served in all the PDP governments in the last almost three decades. I felt that it’s time to give back to my state by drawing from my experience with these three governors, drawing from my institutional memory to say these are the things that made us succeed and these are the things that made us fail in some areas because Abia could have been better if things were done excellently well.

But since this is a human experiment and there is always room for improvement, having served in the ruling party for almost three decades and now in opposition, that we should be able to leverage on our experience and advise the current government and act as a watchdog to the current government and ensure that the best interest of the Abia person and the Abia people is protected. That is the vision behind this organisation which I happen to convene.

In other words, if PDP was still in power and you were in government, there wouldn’t have been any need for Abia Best Interest Association?

No, it predates the current administration. It’s a non-governmental organisation. The Abia Best Interest Association has worked, only that when we were with the government, our advice and intervention were from within. But then we played an even more vitriolic, more serious role then because we were opposed to certain policies of the PDP government at the time.

But because we were all PDP members and we had unimpeded access to the powers that be, maybe, our intervention was not giving us as much publicity as it is getting now. But then, I remember we opposed many policies of the then PDP government, because the Abia Best Interest Association is not a political association. We have members of all political parties there.

It has been said that you embarked on this because Governor Alex Otti did not appoint you into his government?

Well, with every sense of responsibility, I want to say that that is a very false allegation and false notion. Number one, I could not have served in the Labour Party government. I am a believer in natural justice. If I had served in the PDP government, it was because I was part of the emergence of those governments and as it is customary, when you play a part in the emergence of a government, as a government is trying to form its team, they look inward to see the best hand in various sectors and engage them.

But you know, our party did not win the 2023 election and immediately after that, I left Abia State and went back to my legal practice and my normal love, the journalism profession, where I now publish the Nigeria Today magazine. So, I did not see myself anywhere around the Labour Party government and so it is preposterous to say because l was not engaged.

Number two is that when the governor tried to deliberately distract the people from the message by attacking the messengers, I came out and threw a challenge to him, which he has yet to take up. I said, let him show any evidence of any phone call or any text message or any form of interaction between me and him in the last seven years at least. Because I know the last time I had any interaction with him was in 2017 when I lost my mother and he was in attendance at the burial. After Governor Otti attended my mother’s burial, by 2019 he was in APC and I was in PDP and we had no political contact. And by 2023, I was in the forefront of those who were opposing his emergence as governor.

So, it’s preposterous. Over time, like you have noticed, we have continued to ask those questions and others have taken notice to the glory of God. There is need for everybody to understand what has happened. We are not accusing Governor Otti. We are rather urging him to do the needful, which is being transparent, being accountable to other people. Our challenge is that Governor Otti has refused to make himself transparent and accountable as a governor. What is public cannot be made private. Budget Performance Report, (BPR) is a public concern. It is known as IPSA. This portal is in the Federal Ministry of Finance. It is a transparency and accountability portal.

Every governor is duty bound to upload what they have done at the end of every year – State financial accountability transparency programme. Every state in Nigeria, for you to qualify to receive grants from World Bank, for you to qualify to be guaranteed by the Federal Ministry of Finance for certain things that states look for in terms of financial relationships, you must upload every quarter what you have done with budget money already received. In fact, it is so serious that the Federal Ministry of Finance in liaison with the World Bank gives a prize money of $700 million in grants to states that have actually complied with that transparency requirement as an incentive in terms of transparency rating.

Now, what are we looking at? I want you to understand this very well today and for our readers to understand, is that Governor Otti himself, voluntarily, not an allegation, published by himself in that budget performance report – it is called Budget Performance Report, not budget proposal. A budget proposal is an intention of what you are going to do in a year.

A budget proposal goes to the House of Assembly or to the Senate or National Assembly for approval. However, a proposal is a statement of intention which may or may not materialise based on the elasticity of revenue. But a performance report is a report card of what you have done. Okay, let me make it easier for our readers. When you give your wife money to go to the market, before you give her that money, she comes with a list. That list she presents to you as the father of the house is the proposal.

Then, after you have gone through the proposal, you say, ‘my wife, you have proposed to go to market with N30,000 but what is available in this house is N20,000. Please, my sweetheart, manage it.’ When she goes to market and comes back, she calls your sister or her sister or even yourself and says, come and see what I have been able to buy with the N20,000 that the head of the house has given to me. What she is now giving is a performance report. It’s not the same as the list which could be adjusted either up or down. So, the budget performance report portal in the Ministry of Finance is a report of monies already withdrawn and spent by state governments.

They are not the same as proposals of intended activity of governments. So, Governor Otti came to Abia State Budget Performance Report and said that he has spent N90 billion for the construction of 51 public schools in the last quarter of 2024. I repeat, in 2024, between January to September, which is first, second and third quarter, because every quarter is made up of three months as it were. Now, between January and March, between March and June-July, between July and September, which is three quarters, he recorded that he has spent about N8 billion on education to build public schools. And those monies, according to him, were counterpart funding given to ASUPE, State Basic Education Board. But in the last quarter, which is where we have marked red, he posted a performance of N90 billion taken away in one fell swoop for the purpose of construction of 51 public schools and 2024 ended. In this 2025, he has presented another budget, and we are already in October now. Between January 2025 and September 2025, he has equally withdrawn N14.4 billion for the same public schools. We are not asking him about ongoing projects in 2025.

We are not asking him about what he is doing with the N14.4 billion because those ones, we assume, are still ongoing. This year is still on. So, we can only ask him about anything about 2025 or the N14.4 billion or whatever he will add between now and December at the end of this financial year. Our interest is on this N90 billion for which he claimed purportedly to have built 51 smart schools.

Then our question is simple. Having withdrawn N90 billion of Abia State money, claiming to have built 51 public schools, smart schools, show us the location of the schools. Pictures don’t lie. Evidence is the end of argument. Show us the location of the schools. Let us know the names of the contractors that carried out the projects. Let us see the procurement compliance of such contractors, because we have, obviously, Public Procurement Law. Before you give contracts, bidding must happen. Bonds must be given by contractors. A lot of things must be done to protect the taxpayers’ money.

So, we say, show us the location, give us a list of those 51 schools for which N90 billion has been spent in 2024. We wrote to him in January 2025. Immediately we saw this at the end of 2024. We wrote a letter; I will give you a copy of the letter, through his Commissioner of Education. When the Commission of Education did not respond, by April we wrote again to the Secretary to State Government (SSG).

When the secretary to the state government did not respond, by August we wrote to him, the governor on August 1st. And it was only when all of them refused to respond that we now organised a press conference on August 12th, to say all we are asking the governor is, show us the location of the schools, show us the amount of money each contractor got, show us the evidence, the schools, pictures don’t lie. Those are the questions we are asking.