An economist and renowned banker, Dr. Alex Otti, has disclosed that a branch of Signature Bank will soon open shop in Abia State.
Otti, a former chief executive of the defunct Diamond Bank, is the founder and promoter of Signature Bank, Nigeria’s newest deposit money bank and lender, with head office in Abuja.
He spoke in Umuahia at the weekend, during a youth summit organised by the Reimaginning Abia Group.
Responding to a question from one of the female youth participants who appealed to him to use his influence to site a branch of the bank at Olokoro, her home town, Otti said it is not up to him to decide for the bank.
He said: “It is not my decision to make on whether to locate Signature Bank in Olokoro, but what I can assure you is that Signature Bank is coming to Umuahia this year.”
Otti, who is the Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate in the State, told the youths that he decided to join the political fray not because he wants a career in politics, but because Abia is in such a decadent state that people often wonder if any good thing can come out of it.
Besides, he said that Abia people have underdeveloped themselves “through our wrong leadership selection process”, which has resulted in the entrenchment of godfather factor, where certain political actors impose incompetent and unwilling leaders on the people.
He described himself as an interventionist, who wants to help solve the problem of underdevelopment in Abia, and after he is done in eight years, he would leave the stage and return to his business.
Otti told the youths that it is high time they began to ask critical questions about the character and capacity of those who seek to lead the State, especially in the forthcoming general election – February 25 and March 11 – saying their future depends on the outcome.
“Any time you’re looking for a leader, there are seven Cs you should look out for, and the most important one is character. Even in the bank they say character is the most important C. You may have capacity and you don’t have character. You have capacity to pay back your loan and because you don’t have character you wouldn’t want to pay it.
“So, you should ask questions about the character and capacity of the individual who is asking you to vote for him,” Otti enjoined the youths, who posed probing questions to him.
He enumerated the other Cs to include consistency, courage, capital, construct and culture.
According to Otti, the issue of leadership of Abia State is not a job for the apprentice or the faint-hearted, but for someone who truly understands governance and has a good grasp of economics and how economies work.
He said his interest to serve Abia people is not to enrich himself, as God has already blessed him. However, he said he is coming to create jobs and wealth and thereby solve the problems of poverty, crime and insecurity in the State.
“We will use Abia money to work for Abia people,” he gave assurance.