Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has assured of the sustainability of the State 25 – year Development Plan as the legal blueprint for sustainable development for the State.
Unveiling the State economic and social roadmap covering 2025 to 2050, in Umuahia, governor Otti said the plan is a holistic development framework upon which the State’s policy direction and resource allocation outlook will be evaluated.
“The 25-Years Abia State Development Plan”, according to the governor, “which we have signed into law and unveiled, is a dynamic document that captures our resource advantages as a State, our current position on the development ladder, and where we hope to be in the next 25 years as we commit ourselves to certain decision pathways with respect to public sector spending, effective governance paradigm, process strengthening and consistency in building the competencies of our people and institutions”.
The governor explained that the former 30-year development plan was invalidated by the advent of COVID and assured
The Governor, who assured of the sustainability of the plan explained why some development plans fail, and maintained that the 25-Years Development Plan would not fail because of the legal backing, having been passed into law by the State House of Assembly and assented to.
“A number of reasons have made development plans to fail. The first is the absence of a legislative framework to instil discipline in the execution.
“The second is the inability to realistically anticipate bombs and outline mitigation measures, or as we see all the time, the reckless pursuit of private interests by political actors and the absence of a suitable framework for calling them to order.
“All these pitfalls have been carefully noted, and in line with our determination to achieve the priority targets as captured in the plan, we have anchored our aspirations on a firm legislative foundation through the State House of Assembly.
“It’s going to be very, very difficult for certain administrations to evade it, simply because it has passed the scrutiny of not only SBAS and development partners, but the State House of Assembly. So, what I did moments ago was to sign this document into a law,” Gov. Otti stated.
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