Former Minister of Aviation and Founder of the Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership, Osita Chidoka, will deliver the keynote lecture marking the 35th anniversary of the creation of Abia State on Thursday, August 27.
The lecture, titled “Abia at 35: The Rise of a New Abia,” is one of the activities commemorating the state’s creation on August 27, 1991.
According to a statement issued by Paul Liam, Media and Communications Officer of the Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership, the event follows an inaugural lecture Chidoka delivered at the Abia State Leadership Academy Executive Education Series, where he called for stronger institutions capable of sustaining good governance beyond the tenure of elected officials and political appointees.
Speaking on the theme “The State and Those Who Make It Work: Public Service, State Capacity and the Abia Opportunity,” Chidoka argued that effective governance depends on state capacity, which he defined as “the ability of a government to convert intention into execution.”
According to him, high-capacity states are built by high-capacity people and institutions.
Giving examples from China, Britain, Singapore and Rwanda, he identified merit, competence, administrative capability, disciplined execution and accountability as critical elements of effective government.
Chidoka also questioned the conventional debate around recurrent expenditure in Nigeria, saying governments often prioritize visible infrastructure while neglecting the operational systems needed to make public assets effective.
“A government may build a police station without the basic materials required to serve citizens, a school without giving inspectors the mobility to supervise it, or a diagnostic laboratory without reliable power,” he said. “In each case, we have acquired an asset, but not necessarily the capability it was built to provide.”
The former Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps said political office holders and career public servants operate on what he described as “two calendars of government” involving the urgency of electoral cycles and the continuity of public administration. “The task is not to choose one calendar. It is to align them,” he said.
Drawing on reforms implemented during his tenure at the FRSC, Chidoka highlighted performance measurement, management rhythm, visible results, consequences, capability-building and institutionalisation as key drivers of sustainable reform.
“Reform changes what government does. Institutionalisation changes how government behaves after the reformer has gone. State capacity is what remains when individual heroism is no longer required,” he said.
He also emphasized the importance of investing in leadership development through institutions such as the Abia State Leadership Academy, arguing that states must simultaneously build infrastructure, institutions and human capital.
“An academy is an intention. Its graduates will be the evidence,” he said.
Governor Alex Otti, in his remarks at the event, described the lecture as timely and relevant. He said the administration’s governance model is anchored on merit, execution and citizens’ welfare.
The governor cited the abolition of state-of-origin considerations in appointments and the appointment of a Head of Service from Edo State through a mandatory examination process as examples of the government’s commitment to merit-based leadership.
Earlier, President of the Abia State Leadership Academy, Prof. Kenneth Kalu, said the academy was established to help prepare future leaders and strengthen governance in the state.
Chidoka concluded by urging Abia to complement investments in roads, schools and hospitals with strong systems, standards, skilled personnel and institutional memory.
“Build infrastructure. Build systems. Build standards. Build people. Build memory. Build the state,” he said.
He illustrated the point with a story about a government commissioning ceremony where every arrangement had been made except for the scissors needed to cut the ribbon.
The anecdote, he said, underscored the gap between intention and execution and the importance of building institutions that function effectively regardless of who occupies office.
The Athena Centre for Policy and Leadership is an independent, non-partisan think tank focused on governance, policy innovation and leadership development in Nigeria.
