Abia State Governor Alex Otti has urged residents to prepare for an economy driven by creativity, skills and value creation rather than dependence on natural resources.
Otti made the call in a statewide broadcast marking the 35th anniversary of the creation of Abia State.
The address, titled Abia and the Miracle of Resilience, reflected on the state’s development since 1991 and set out what the governor described as the responsibility of the current generation to prepare young people for a rapidly changing economy.
He said Abia could not afford to hand over a broken society to future generations and argued that education, technology, enterprise and innovation would increasingly determine economic relevance.
The governor also announced the commencement of payment of long outstanding gratuity arrears dating back to 2001.
He said his administration had decided that retirees should no longer wait indefinitely for benefits earned during public service.
Otti directed that going forward, workers leaving service should receive their gratuities once the required documentation was completed.
The state government has already said the historic backlog would be cleared in phases because of the scale of the liability.
Otti also highlighted what he described as major achievements of his administration over the past three years.
He said more than 1,000 kilometers of roads had been repaired or reconstructed in urban and rural communities.
In education and healthcare, the governor said thousands of teachers and health workers had been recruited and trained, while the government had invested in smart schools and primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities.
He said the administration was also strengthening health insurance and developing primary healthcare centers across all 184 wards.
Otti reaffirmed free and compulsory basic education and said no child should be denied opportunity because of family background.
On the economy, the governor said the state was expanding investment in agriculture, housing, land administration and information technology.
He said thousands of young people had participated in structured digital skills programmes.
The governor paid tribute to figures associated with the struggle for the creation of Abia and acknowledged the contributions of former civilian governors and military administrators.
He urged residents to pay taxes, support security agencies and resist attempts by political or criminal interests to destabilise the state. Otti said the task ahead was to build an Abia capable of creating opportunity and handing a stronger society to the next generation
