Nnenna Oti: When integrity makes all the difference
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Echoing Queen Esther of the biblical fame, “If I perish, I perish” was the statement of defiance that defined the moment for a woman of courage and faith – Prof Nnenna Oti, former Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), at a point when everything was at stake, including her own life. To look politicians, who take no prisoners, in the face and declare matter-of-factly: If I must die for this cause, rather than betray my conscience, so be it, is an uncommon value proposition in a blighted country like country.
At the point she made her now famous declaration: “I shall stand squarely on the processes and procedures of INEC. The pastor and the mother in me will not permit me to do anything that will adversely affect the future of our children. I will not compromise,” many of her professor colleagues had already mortgaged the country’s future, not minding the dire consequences.
I alluded to this in my April 9, 2026 article titled, “INEC and integrity-challenged professors” where I stated: “Today, elections under the watch of some of Nigeria’s integrity-challenged professors have become badly compromised. Rather than being the moral avatars, trained to overcome temptation by putting country first, some of them have displayed an embarrassing lack of honesty, ethical principles and moral uprightness, values that guarantee the sanctity of elections.”
But bucking the trend, Nnenna Oti stepped up to the integrity plate, aware that elections have existential consequences, a maxim which has become the lived experiences of the good people of Abia. Today, the State is throttling on the development highway at a supersonic speed simply because she refused to compromise the outcome of the 2023 governorship election despite intense pressure from powerful quarters.
As the returning officer, she did the unbelievable. Nobody reckoned with her grit. Her slim and rather delicate body frame belies a lionheartedness – that exceptionally brave, courageous, fearless and unflinching disposition in the face of danger. At a dinner on Monday night where I met her physically for the first time, she boasted cheekily, “I am not called akwaa akwuru for nothing.”
At the point where she decided to step up to the plate of integrity, the election hung in a precarious balance. Dr. Alex Otti, the Labour Party candidate, was coasting home to victory in what was his third attempt at seeking the people’s mandate to govern the State. That was before inflated figures which were purported to be results from Obingwa local government were injected into the drama.
But the strength and courage of the woman of valour came to the rescue. She refused to announce the unverified results, insisting that data from the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) must be used to authenticate the figures from Obingwa, which is the local government of the incumbent governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu.
Abia has 17 local governments. Before the collation was suspended, Otti was in a clear lead, having polled 171,747 votes from 16 local governments. His closest rival, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Okechukwu Ahiwe, had 79,477 votes in the March 18, 2023 governorship election.
Then the absurd drama ensued. The PDP claimed it had more than 100,000 votes from Obingwa despite the fact that INEC accredited only 26,884 voters on BVAS. Prof Oti’s refusal to announce the fictitious figures necessitated a high-level strategic meeting of INC’s legal team and election management committee.
The standoff lasted for almost five days but she refused to budge. In the face of her unwavering courage, the criminal electoral system that wanted to steal the people’s mandate blinked and collation resumed after proper verification. At the end of the day, Dr. Otti was declared as the duly elected governor of Abia State on March 23, 2026 having grossed a total 175,467 votes against Ahiwe’s 88,529.
Had the lionhearted woman refused to defy all odds, history would have repeated itself. To appreciate what she did on that fateful day, there is a need to cast back our minds to the 2015 election which Otti won on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) but was denied victory because a Daniel, in the person of Nnenna Oti, was yet to come to judgement.
The sad reality is that those who win elections fraudulently cannot abide by the demands of ethics and prudence while in office, a point eloquently made by Otti in his 2026 TheNiche annual lecture.
“We saw the devastations of desperate politicking firsthand in Abia in 2015 when the votes were decided, not at the polling units but by some underhand deals that eventually set the State on a difficult trajectory,” he noted.
“In the end, everything went downhill; it got so bad that basic social services like urban waste management and maintenance of public infrastructure were abandoned. Thousands of families lost their breadwinners as the party that stole the mandate of the people enacted an unofficial policy to deny workers and retirees their entitlements. In the eight years that followed, entrepreneurs suffered severe losses as social services collapsed and when they could no longer afford to live with the nightmare, they quietly packed their bags, those who found buyers sold their property, and then bid their good byes,” he reminded Nigerians.
By insisting that the legitimate votes of the Abia electorate was the sole determinant of the winner, Prof Oti halted that drift and put Abia on the path of recovery and growth because development of any hue is next to impossible on the foundation of political corruption.
Today, Otti has become the poster boy of the country’s Fourth Republic democracy and Abians are beside themselves with joy. This wouldn’t have been possible without the courage of conviction of a woman who boldly declared, “If I perish, I perish.”
Without the integrity of Nnenna Otti, there wouldn’t have been the high-flying Alex Otti administration that everyone is celebrating today. Had she looked the other way in those five days of unbearable pressure, as most of her colleagues did, the 2015 unsavoury history would have uncannily repeated itself in Abia. She chose to tread on the boulevard of honour.
It is in recognition of her heroics that a group of women under the auspices of Leading Ladies of Credibility Initiative hosted her in Lagos on Tuesday, June 30. The event was chaired by Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu, former Minister of Finance with Dr. Uma Eleazu as the father of the Day.
The Barrister Nneka Chris-Asoluka-led organizing committee with other accomplished women, including Adiya Uri Ngozichukwuka, Mrs. Ngozi Ekeoma, Dr. Ifeyinwa Nwakaego, Ms. Oby Okeke, Dr. Elizabeth Jibunoh, Dr. Rosemary Nwakaego Emmanuel, Dr. Chizor Malize, Dr. Nkechi Ali-Balogun, Dr. Kate Isa, High Chief Belinda Bobby Diei, Lolo Chikadibia Ibeneme, Dr. Uche Nwafor, among others captured the essence of the reception in their “Honouring a Legacy of Courage and Integrity” welcome note thus: “Some moments define history. Some individuals define moments. Professor Nnenna Oti’s steadfast commitment to truth, integrity and democratic values transformed a challenging moment into a powerful lesson in leadership and character.”
That theme resonated loudly in Prof Anthony Kila’s keynote speech titled, “Integrity as an asset to national development” where he amplified the nexus between a nation’s integrity quotient and its standing in the comity of nations development-wise.
Tuesday’s reception at the Admiralty Event Centre, Naval Dockyard, Victoria Island, Lagos, which was graced by many distinguished personalities including General Ike Nwachukwu, is yet one more reception in honour of an amazing woman by a grateful nation. Not all the attendees are Abia indigenes. Many are not even Igbo. Yet, they assembled to celebrate a woman whose steadfastness rescued Abia from the dungeon of misgovernance, a proof that integrity ultimately pays and handsomely too.
Prof Nnenna Oti is surprised that Nigerians are celebrating her. “Most times I pinch myself and ask the solemn question: How did I get here? Calls, Congratulations still flowing. Endless invitations, gifts flowing… Truly amazing and unprecedented… VCs are usually announced on appointment! Nobody notices their exit but mine is different! Lord I am humbled and grateful,” she reflected recently.
Well, the truth is that she got there the day she ignored mouthwatering filthy lucre to do the right thing. Most of her colleagues who did otherwise have retired unsung. The lesson is that even in a society such as ours which seems to be a lost case, integrity, that intangible asset to national development, has its reward.
This matters because we need more Nnenna Otis now than ever before. For the avoidance of doubt, the 2027 elections will be massively rigged, so much so that what happened in 2023 will be child’s play.
How do I know?
A system where one month after conducting primary elections, the political parties were busy manipulating the candidates’ list does not engender confidence. Why were the people subjected to the exertions of direct primaries? Elections in a system where the powers-that-be, afraid of competition, have imprudently weaponised the judiciary, using the courts to delegitimise credible opposition by whimsically deregistering opposition political parties is rigged beforehand.
For Nigeria to be retrieved from the poisoned claws of political desperadoes preparing for war in 2027 rather than a contest of ideas which is what a democratic process entails, many more Nnenna Otis are needed in the civic space.
If all the accolades heaped on the former FUTO Vice Chancellor and the global recognitions are what it takes to convince other Nigerians to step up to the integrity plate and save Nigeria’s democracy from the evil plots of unconscionable politicians and reprobates, then the Leading Ladies of Credibility Initiative equally deserve their flowers.
