Abia State Governor, Alex Otti, has called on African leaders to focus on developing their people’s intellect rather than depending solely on natural resources for prosperity.
Speaking at the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference and Book Launch held in Abuja on Tuesday, Otti said Africa’s real wealth lies in the creativity and discipline of its citizens, not in the size of its mineral deposits.
“No matter how much mineral resources you have, if you don’t have the right leadership, you won’t make progress,” the governor said.
He noted that many resource-rich nations remain poor because they lack visionary leadership and effective governance, while others with limited resources thrive through innovation and discipline.
“Development is not about what lies under the ground, but what lies within our minds,” Otti added.
He urged African countries to prioritise education and human capital development, describing them as the foundation of sustainable growth. Without skilled citizens, he warned, Africa’s mineral wealth will remain untapped and wasted.
Otti also called for reforms in Nigeria’s leadership recruitment process to promote merit and competence over mediocrity, stressing that many of the country’s setbacks were the results of neglecting leadership development.
Highlighting his administration’s progress in Abia, Otti said 20 per cent of the state’s annual budget goes to education and health, leading to a 100 per cent rise in school enrolment between July and mid-October.
“We have recruited 5,000 new teachers and will employ 4,000 more,” he said. “We are also investing 15 per cent of our budget in healthcare to ensure well-equipped facilities across the state.”
According to him, more than 800 of the planned 1,200 primary healthcare centres are already operational.
Otti praised the founder of the Oxford Global Centre, Arun Mahadir, and former World Bank vice-president, Arunma Oteh, for their intellectual contributions to Africa’s development journey.
— NAN
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