…Says Nigerians Suffering Because Best Minds Avoid Public Service
Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has revealed how a question from an American classmate at Harvard Business School in 2009 redirected his life from banking to politics.
Speaking at the 2025 dinner and award presentation ceremony of the Harvard Business School Association of Nigeria in Onikan, Lagos on Saturday, Governor Otti recounted how his classmate’s question led him to abandon a lucrative banking career to pursue public service.
Otti, at the time, was participating in the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard.
The governor said the classmate, Samvit Raina, an American of Indian descent, posed a question that would haunt him for years.
Raina had asked Otti why many Nigerians he had met were successful, brilliant and hardworking, but the country where they come from was backwards economically and development wise
“I did not respond promptly in order not to be seen as endorsing an uncomplimentary remark against my country by a foreigner but within me, I knew that he may not be the only one asking the question,” Otti told the gathering of Harvard alumni and business leaders.
The question, Otti explained, forced him into deep reflection during his time in Boston where the school is situated.
“I spent the rest of my time at Boston reflecting on the poser raised by my course mate: how do you explain the paradox of very successful people operating from a country that is everything but successful?” he said.
The introspection, Otti said, led him to confront uncomfortable truths about Nigeria’s development challenges.
Otti said he thought about his home state of Abia and its development challenges at the time.
“The more deeply I thought, the more worried I became. Nigeria is a nation of multiple constituencies and wherever you go, there are no shortage of intelligent, hardworking and passionate individuals. The question then is: why are we failing at even the most basic matters of civilisation? Why are elementary concerns like waste disposal, access to potable water, electricity, roads, primary healthcare and basic education still a challenge here?” he asked.
After examining the foundational structures that propelled other nations to greatness, Otti said he arrived at a disturbing conclusion.
“I realised that our problem was never about the size of the treasury box nor the appetite for progress but in the fact that those who ought to have taken the lead were often absent in the decision-making room. Like myself, they were busy chasing after career success, looking to hit the next million dollar or to publish their paper in a reputable journal. To these incredibly-smart people, government is treated as a minor irritation,” he noted.
“Ultimately, while we were at Harvard, Cambridge, MIT, Oxford and in other elite universities topping the result charts and winning all the laurels, barely-educated individuals were taking decisions that influence how the world sees Nigeria in our various local government headquarters, state capitals and in Abuja.”
Otti challenged the gathering to find out where the majority of result-driven leaders are most likely to be found to understand where the country’s challenges was coming from.
“Where are you most likely to find a superior number of ethical and result-driven leaders: at the board meeting of an NSE-listed company or at a gathering of political stakeholders in our states? You can probe further to ask: where would a First-Class graduate from an elite university be keener to start his professional life: at a regular government agency in Umuahia or in a blue-chip company?”he asked.
According to the governor, the disinterest in public affairs by the country’s best minds has had negative consequences on its economy and development.
“The summary of it is that our disinterest in public affairs offered an extended invitation to persons of questionable development orientation to step in and produce outcomes that are generally unsatisfactory,” he said.
“After carefully evaluating the intriguing paradox of dominantly-successful people coming from a largely-unsuccessful country, it occurred to me that I would be putting my conscience through interminable misery if I refused to do something, at least in my home State knowing how bad things had become at the time.
“I appreciate that I am not perfect but I was also certain that at the very least, I could lead the charge in the restoration of collapsed public infrastructure, human capital development and the resuscitation of the education and health sectors which lay in ruins. Again, nothing is ever certain but I knew that it would be impossible for me to be the governor of a state where salaries are left unpaid— where refuse heaps accumulate until entire roads are blocked as was the case at the time.”
The governor wondered why it took a foreigner to point him to something he should have paid closer attention to.
“At any rate, I was grateful that the conversation stirred something in me and my life never remained the same,” he said.
Upon returning to Nigeria, Governor Otti said he sought advice from a political confidant regarding his ambition to govern Abia.
“The big man listened and agreed that indeed, I would make a difference in the public sector but advised that I spend some more time in banking to reach the top and then make a smooth transition into the political arena. His advice was logical so I went back to my regular job, became the Group Managing Director (GMD) and when the window for the 2015 gubernatorial campaign opened, I quietly informed my board that the time had come for me to move on to something else,” he recounted.
Otti contested three times before finally emerging victorious in 2023 amidst plot to manipulate the outcome of the election
“Our own journey could have also ended in the same way but for God’s direct interventions at several occasion when assassins came knocking or when they attempted to take me out through poisoning and other heinous plots,” he said.
Reflecting on his 30 months in office, the governor shared his achievements in security, infrastructure, education, and healthcare.
He also announced that beginning this month, his administration would start defraying gratuity arrears accumulated from 2001 amounting to more than N60 billion.
The Abia governor also disclosed that his government had recently disbursed N150m to graduates of Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic to enable beneficiaries set up businesses and create employment.
Otti attributed the achievements not to abundant resources but to prudent management.
“At this point, it may be necessary to inform us that these achievements are recorded, not because we have access to limitless supply of funds because if you check all the revenue charts, even after we had raised the State IGR profile — from around N20 billion per annum only a few years ago to about N100 billion in the 2025 fiscal year — you will still not find Abia in the list of top 18 revenue earners. Our modest success comes in large part from a conscious decision to commit every penny that comes into the treasury to programmes and projects that are connected to our development objectives,” he explained.
The governor added that more than 40 percent of the 600 kilometres of roads fixed in the last 30 months were done through direct labour by engineers and technical officers from the State Ministry of Works.
He said this helped the state save tens of billions in project costs.
Otti further appealed to the Harvard alumni, “My dear friends, my message to you today is a simple one: let us begin to redirect our interpretation of success for the best cars are useless without good road networks, a functional primary health centre in the neighbourhood could be of greater use in the event of an emergency than the biggest mansion just like a functional public school would yield greater return to the community in the long run than a private jet owned by one individual.
“Again, let us think beyond self and focus more on the community for the community defines all of us,” he said, adding that individual successes do not insulate Nigerians from the shame of collective failure.
Otti added, “If I had remained in the banking industry, maybe I could have made more money, had more freedom and perhaps less political enemies but forsaking all of those to work for the common man in remote communities gives me more fulfilment than any material privilege ever would.”