Nigerian leaders who criticise predecessors are lazy – Ex-Abia governor

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The immediate past governor of Abia State, Okezie Ikpeazu, has said elected government officials who criticise their predecessors after taking over are simply lazy and corrupt.

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Mr Ikpeazu, who governed from 2015 to 2023, spoke while delivering a keynote lecture in Abuja on Thursday at the Focus Africa Leaders Forum and Awards 2025.

A video clip of the event theme: Showcasing Africa’s Developmental Capacities in the Current Multi-polar Realities,” was obtained by PREMIUM TIMES on Friday.

Speaking at the event, the former governor argued that he considers as “lady leaders” successors condemning their predecessors because they should have focused on building on the good work of their predecessors.

“Anybody who comes to leadership and starts by saying that everything that his predecessor is doing is bad is a lady leader because you must be able to see what is good and build on it if you have come in the interest of the people,” he said.

Although Mr Ikpeazu, a member of the PDP , did not mention names, he appeared to be referring to his successor and the incumbent Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti.

Mr Otti, a member of the Labour Party (LP), was elected governor during the fiercely contested 18 March Governorship Election in the state.

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He was sworn-in as governor of the South-eastern state on 29 May 2023.

Messrs Ikpeazu and Otti had repeatedly engaged in a war of words over alleged misappropriation of the Abia State finances.

In June 2023, for instance, Mr Otti accused Mr Ikpeazu of leaving a “humongous” debt burden for the state.

‘How I fought rising out-of-school children in Abia’

Also speaking during the programme in Abuja, Mr Ikpeazu boasted that, during his time as governor, he fought rising numbers of out-of-school children in Abia.

The former governor said the achievement was possible because of a feeding programme which his administration introduced from primary 1 to 6 across all public schools.

He said, before his administration, enrolment in public primary schools in Abia State was only 150,000 pupils.

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“We were to achieve (an enrolment) by 2023, 600,000 pupils in public (primary) schools,” Mr Ikpeazu said.

“How did we do it? We just used a school feeding (programme).”

The former governor said the federal government of Nigeria had announced that their feeding programme would be for pupils from primary one to three.

“But we said in Abia, we would feed (pupils) from primary one to six,” he said.

“So at the end of the day, we were able to feed 600,000 pupils and parents started taking their children to schools.”