Governor Alex Otti has reiterated that he would stay away from active participation in politics once he was done with occupying the governorship seat of Abia State.
He made the clarification on Friday December 19, 2025 following a viral video in which he was berated by somebody for visiting the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra(IPOB) in Sokoto prison.
A release signed by the Special Adviser to the Governor(Media and Publicity), Mr. Ferdinand Ekeoma, said that the critic in the video was insinuating that Otti was nursing presidential or vice presidential ambition after the end of his tenure.
But the Abia Governor has put things in the correct perspective, insisting that he has no presidential, vice presidential or senatorial ambition after occupying the governorship seat.
However, he acknowledged that divergence of opinion remain a feature of democracy, and so everyone has the freedom to hold an opinion even if such opinion may wrong.
“In the first place, that is the beauty of democracy. So people should hold their opinion, and we respect people’s opinion. And that you hold a different opinion doesn’t mean you are right.
“One of the things he talked about was my ambition after being Governor. And I had said it before, and I want to say it again, that by the time I’m done with governorship, I will retire,” Otti stated.
“So I don’t have presidential ambition, nor vice-presidential ambition. I also don’t have senatorial ambition when I finish with governorship,” he added.
It has become fashionable for State Governors to migrate to other political positions by becoming Senators, Ministers or Ambassadors on completion of their governorship tenure.
However, Otti appears uniterested in following the trend, saying that “I came on a mission and when I deliver that mission, I will give way for younger people”.
He said that the person talking of Igbo presidency in the said was not even making sense and “I don’t even understand what that means”.
According to the Abia Governor, if he was being criticised for visiting Kanu was based on an assumption that he has presidential or vice-presidential goal, “the assumption has collapsed, because he won’t see me on the ballot”.
He stressed the need for any political office holder to know when to quit, especially when he has done what he has come to do.
“When you have done what you have been asked to do, you must take the exit door and give way for other people. We’ve seen people here, after being Governor, who went back to become Local Government Chairmen. That’s not what we are here for. We are not cut out for those kind of things,” Otti said.
The Governor explained his reasons for visiting Mazi Nnamdi Kanu in Sokoto Correctional Center, saying that even though “I’m not a supporter of the disintegration of Nigeria”, there was nothing wrong in his intervention to free an Abia indigene.
He said: “The truth about it is that exactly 24 months ago, I opened up discussions at the highest level on Nnamdi Kanu.
“And going to see him is the right thing to do, because he comes from my state. In fact, he comes from this Local Government (Umuahia North – the State Capital).
“And there are always different ways to solve a problem. I don’t believe that the way to solve a problem is to ignore it. And I had written extensively, even about Nnamdi Kanu and Operation Python Dance, I think in 2017 or 2018. And I condemned it.
“And I still condemn it. I cannot vouch for some of the recordings that the gentleman put in his video, where he said Nnamdi Kanu called for mutiny, I don’t know about that. But then, I do know that two wrongs do not make a right”.
Otti further justified his interventions, saying that he was aware that when an issue has been approached from the legal point of view, there is also another window, called “the administrative point of view”.
“I’m not a lawyer. And if the judiciary says the man has been sentenced to life imprisonment, that is certainly not the end. Because that’s the court of first instance, there’s still an opportunity to appeal, and then an opportunity to even go to the Supreme Court.
“So my position is that it would be insensitive of me to sit here and say one of our own who has been convicted should die when we have an opportunity to discuss, negotiate, and sue for peace.
“Even people convicted to death can be pardoned. That’s what I’m working on. It has nothing to do with non existent presidential ambition. Everything is not politics,” Governor Otti said.
