There are projects that are executed. And there are projects that are felt. The Ovom Erosion Project in Aba belongs to the second category.
Before Governor Alex Otti came, Ovom was not just an erosion site. It was a wound. A gaping, expanding disaster that swallowed houses whole, threatened lives, destroyed livelihoods and sent families fleeing from their ancestral homes. For years, it was a monument of abandonment – visited only during election seasons when politicians came with empty promises, cameras and loudspeakers, and left with votes.
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The reclaimed, reconstructed Ovom Road previously ravaged by erosion
That politics of deceit ended on a quiet Sunday afternoon.
Governor Otti, on one of his unannounced inspections of Aba, drove into Ovom. No sirens. No prior notice. The convoy was sighted, and worshippers trooped out of churches in their numbers. Men, women, and youths – they surrounded him, not with placards, but with pain. They showed him houses half-buried and fences hanging in the air.
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As usual, he listened and promised to return.
And as has now become his trademark, he did not return with another promise. He returned with action.
In record time, what was once a death trap has been tamed. The massive gully has been reclaimed, the road restored, the neighborhood secured, lives protected and the neighbourhood lit up. No drama. No endless flag-off ceremonies. Just engineering, empathy and execution.
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That is the difference between this government and what we had in the past. In the past, disasters like Ovom were political goldmines – kept alive to be used for campaigns every four years. The worse the erosion, the better the campaign slogan. For Governor Otti, a disaster is not a campaign tool. It is an emergency that must be solved.
And that is what sets him apart. He does not just have CAPACITY. He has EMPATHY.
Empathy is why projects that used to take four years are now delivered in four months. Empathy is why a road is not just tarred, but tarred with drainage that actually drains. Empathy is why a worker is not just paid, but paid on time and with dignity. Empathy is why a market is not just demolished, but relocated with a human face, and lands taken for development get compensation.
Ovom is another proof that Abia is now in the hands of a man who sees the people first, and politics last.
For the people of Ovom who fled and have now returned, for the children who can now go to school without fear of being swallowed by the gully, for the landlords who thought they had lost everything, this is not just erosion control. It is hope restored.
And that is the Otti story: Capacity with a human heart.
Ferdinand Ekeoma is the Special Adviser Media and Publicity to the Governor Alex Otti of Abia State
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