’Ikonne lacks moral right to criticise Otti’

August 27, 2025 by Our Reporter

Former Adviser on Housing to Abia State, Nwabueze Onwuneme, has told a former Commissioner for Lands and Urban Planning, Paul Ikonne, to desist from “cheap and selfish criticism of Governor Alex Otti.”

Onwuneme said Ikonne has no moral right to criticise Otti, who he described as an action governor and the best thing to happen to Aba, Ikonne’s community and to Abia State.

In an article: ‘N54b for Schools: Budgets are estimates, expenditures are facts,’ Ikonne, a chieftain of All Progressive Congress, through his Chief Press Secretary, Ujo Justice, said Otti should “provide evidence of the schools renovated under the huge expenditure.”

Reacting to the criticism, Onwuneme, a youth and good governance advocate, noted importance of putting governors and other leaders under checks through genuine demand for accountability.

He, however, said such role should be left to people with the moral right to do so.

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”Take the case of Prince Paul Ikonne currently playing to the gallery by criticising the governor over a government project across Abia State.

”I think he, Ikonne, has no moral standing for this criticism of Governor Otti.”

Onwuneme recalled that in 2008, he as special adviser to the then governor on Housing had arranged for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Digital Mapping of Aba, Umuahia and Ohafia, between the state and United Nations Habitat, led by the then Nigerian Programme Manager, Prof Johnson Falade.

He blamed Ikonne, who was then commissioner for Lands and Urban Planning, for the signing not happening.

He claimed that Ikonne insisted he was not carried along.

Onwuneme said: “The MoU was designed to project the physical development of Aba, Umuahia and Ohafia, all in Abia State, for the next 20 years.

”As part of the package for Abia, the UN Habitat was to help, not just to carry out the master and structural plan, and digital mapping but also to help get funding and expertise from partner bodies for the developmental projects that will be offshoots of the plans.

”As we know, such offshoots include quality roads, bridges, power infrastructure, etc.

”But I recall that at the point of signing, he, Ikonne, ‘the Prince of Aba,’ called me…”

He said Ikonne allegedly rejected the signing “simply because he was not carried along during the arrangements.”

‎Onwuneme said Ikonne was therefore not in a position to criticise a performing governor.

‎“My advise to the former commissioner is that as a Prince of Aba, he should be careful over his unwarranted attacks on Governor Alex Otti, so that Aba people, when they come to know the truth, will not attack him or denounce him as a leader,” Onwuneme added.