By Michael Nwabueze
The governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Abia State, Mr Alex Otti has, in his short but chequered political career, built negative reputation for himself as a bitter, malicious and uncouth perennial loser. His consistent raising of false alarms about the outcomes of the elections he has contested in in the past and the bitterness with which he talks about those who roundly defeated him at every turn of election gives him away as a sore loser whose main objective for desperately seeking to be governor of Abia State is to exert vengeance on his political conquerors.
It was so bad that Learned Justices of the Appeal Court once described Alex Otti as a “meddlesome interloper, busy body” during one of his numerous desperate voyages to the judiciary to seek electoral victory through the backdoor after suffering devastating defeats at the polls proper.
Having been roundly rejected by the people at the polls as reflected in the 2019 Abia governorship election results where Otti scored a miserly 64,366 votes compared to the winner, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu’s 261,127 votes, a whopping 60.26% of total votes cast.
Having suffered such a humiliating defeat, Alex Otti in his usual desperation jumped from APGA to APC, and when his desperation for power could not be tolerated there, he once again jumped ship to join Labour Party confirming his description as a ‘busy body’ by the Justices of the Apoeal Court. It is even worse when one remembers that he had earlier jumped from PDP to APGA. What an unstable individual!
In order to get back at his political opponents, Otti has almost always deployed derogatory and uncomplimentary words, spinning falsehood and half truths against them in the process. He has also used unprintable words on some sections of the electorate for rejecting him at the polls thereby making him come across to many as a truly resentful person lacking in character and only seeking power just for the sake of it.
Such is the character of Otti that Abians see through his bitterness, malice and mischief and shows it everywhere he goes. Unfortunately, a gentleman with profoundly contrasting character like Peter Obi will be forced to be associated with an Otti who has been loudly rejected by the people on several occasions, by the virtue of both men sharing the same LP platform
Contrary to the massive followership Mr Peter Obi commands nationwide, only few people attended the November 10 Labour Party rally in Aba, Abia State despite the well publicised information that Peter Obi would be in attendance.
It was so bad that facts have emerged that the few persons who attended the rally were rented as videos making the rounds show the rented crowd fighting over sharing formula of the rent fees. This goes a long way to show that Abians are truly tired of the antics of Alex Otti and would not want anything to do with him. Sadly, Peter Obi had to share a brunt of that humiliating outing in Aba. It was so bad that while the Labour Party presidential candidate shared his outing in Benin the following day on his verified Twitter account as he has always done, he could not share any image from the rally in Abia because it was indeed a disappointing outing. Peter Obi is a man who will never want to be associated with rented crowd for any political rally he is involved in but he did not ask questions about his Party’s governorship candidate in Abia before agreeing to participate in that flag off of November 10. If he had asked questions, he would have known that Alex Otti is a rejected politician in Abia State, and that without financial inducement, no Abian will, in good faith, attend any of his rallies.
It becomes disturbing therefore that a man of integrity and impeccable character with sterling records in both private and public offices who engages all, both friends and foes, with utmost respect and profound humility, like Mr Peter Obi finds himself in the same party as Mr Alex Otti who is glaringly attempting to ride on the goodwill of the former to warm himself back into the hearts of the people.
But it is not going to work because Abians have endured enough of Otti’s shenanigans over the years and made that abundantly clear to him by staying away from his governorship campaign flag off with only the rented crowd saving him from total disgrace. His gang of co-travellers themselves did not make the matter better as they shortchanged the rented crowd by paying them less what was agreed as seen in the videos making the rounds.
It will be highly advisable that as the campaigns advance, Mr Peter Obi should avoid such characters as Alex Otti whose character deficiency will only rub off negatively on him just as it did in Abia State recently.
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