Governor Alex Otti of Abia State, has declared that the State under his watch, is the turn of the masses to enjoy the dividends of democracy, arguing that politicians who presided over the affairs of the state since the return of democracy in 1999, have helped themselves enough with the common patrimony.
Otti who made the declaration while hosting a delegation of the Course 17, Syndicate 2 of the National Institute for Security Studies, Abuja, at Government House Umuahia, said he was on a mission to make the masses and not just a handful of privileged politicians, have a taste of good governance.
The Governor told his audience that his recent decision to wipe off backlog of pension arrears owed retirees since 2014, was a demonstration of his passion for the masses, who had been shortchanged by the ruling elite.
He said that “never again shall Abia pensioners be owed their pension”, adding that he had also directed that they be paid along with workers on the 28th of every month, a directive, he affirmed, had taken effect from April.
“This is the people’s time, politicians have helped themselves enough for the past 24 years”, Otti thunderered.
Commenting on the theme of the research work of his guests:”Artificial Intelligence, Security and Emerging Economies in Africa: Challenges and Prospects”, Otti said time had come for the country to embrace artificial intelligence because of its numerous advantages.
He said that AI had become very crucial in virtually every field of human development, especially in cyber security and fight against financial crimes.
” Reject AI to your peril”, Otti said, citing example of how someone working in US bank smartly deviced and installed a code that was deducting a cent daily from customers’ accounts.
He said that by the time it was discovered, the suspect had dubiously enriched himself and absconded, adding that the Authorities began to look for him to dismantle the code as nobody else knew the secret.
Gov. Otti said that youths who show apt in AI should be harnessed and engaged to develop the knowledge for positive use as the world is tilting towards Information Communication Technology, ICT.
“Your research theme is apt, particularly at this time when artificial intelligence has taken over from native intelligence. It may look esoteric at this time when you talk about robotics, artificial intelligence 3 D printing, driverless cars, electric vehicles, whether you like it or not that is the direction the world is going. And you refuse to key in and come on board at your own peril. So I like the foresight and I would like to encourage you to continue in that direction.
” This is very necessary and even more necessary in the area of technology because crime and criminality is also changing. People are using technology now to steal people’s money so if you don’t understand what they do or what they did you would not be able to solve the problem.”
Otti also informed his guests that his administration maintained a robust relationship with security agencies in the state
