NEWS
THE WATCH, THE SHOE AND THE WRONG ARGUMENT: ROBERTO CHIBUEZE’S CURIOUS OBSESSION WITH GOV. ALEX OTTI’S WRIST
There is a difference between legitimate scrutiny of a public official and an argument built around appearances, assumptions and the price tag of a wristwatch.
That distinction becomes necessary following a recent Facebook intervention by one Hon. Roberto Chibueze over a photograph of Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Chioma Otti, OFR, during a recent engagement with a Federal Government delegation led by the Special Adviser to the President on Trade and Investment, Hon. John Uwajumogu.
The photograph itself was rather straightforward.
Governor Otti was displaying an Aba-made shoe, drawing attention to the quality and potential of locally manufactured products from Abia’s commercial capital. The visit itself was connected to discussions around Aba’s industrial capacity and possible Federal Government support for the state’s textile and garment sector. The Federal Government delegation said it was exploring ways to support businesses in Aba and address constraints affecting the sector.
But Chibueze chose to look elsewhere. Instead of interrogating the industrial message behind the photograph, the economic significance of Aba-made products or the broader question of how locally manufactured goods can compete in domestic and international markets, his attention shifted to Governor Otti’s wrist.
His argument, as presented, focused on what he identified as an “IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar” wrist watch allegedly worth about $56,700, accompanied by a broader suggestion that politicians should not be trusted and that the public should look beyond the Aba-made shoe to the Governor’s expensive wristwatch.
And this is where the argument deserves considerably more scrutiny than the wristwatch itself. If the question is whether a public official’s personal wealth should be scrutinised, the answer is obviously yes. Public officials should be subjected to legitimate questions about assets, income, conflicts of interest, procurement, public expenditure and compliance with the law.
But if the argument is simply that an expensive watch automatically proves corruption, then the argument has a serious evidentiary problem.
A watch is not a forensic audit. A photograph is not an EFCC investigation. A luxury possession is not, by itself, evidence of stolen public funds. And the fact that somebody is wearing an expensive timepiece does not establish when it was purchased, who purchased it, whether it was purchased personally, whether it was a gift, or whether the wearer acquired it before or after entering public office.
Indeed, there is an even bigger historical problem with attempting to present Governor Otti’s personal wealth as something that suddenly appeared after May 29, 2023.
Alex Otti did not enter public life as an unknown man who suddenly became wealthy because he became Governor of Abia State.
Long before the governorship, he had already spent decades in Nigeria’s banking industry. His documented career included positions at Nigerian International Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Societe Bancaire Nigeria, UBA and First Bank before he became Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Bank in 2011.
He voluntarily retired from Diamond Bank in October 2014, almost nine years before his inauguration as governor.
That timeline matters. It matters because any serious discussion of Governor Otti’s wealth must begin with the man he was before becoming Governor, not with a photograph taken after he assumed office.
In fact, the official biography of Governor Alex Otti describes him as an economist, banker, investor, philanthropist and writer, while documenting his rise through some of Nigeria’s major financial institutions. His tenure at Diamond Bank was particularly significant. A profile published by the Abia State Government noted that Dr. Alex Otti transformed Diamond Bank from a struggling institution into one of Nigeria’s major profitable banks, while the bank’s former chairman, the Obi of Onitsha, described Otti’s tenure as the “brightest years of Diamond Bank’s 24-year history.”
So when Roberto Chibueze points at a luxury wristwatch and seemingly asks the public to marvel at the cost, there is a basic question that should come first:
Was Alex Otti already a financially successful corporate executive before he became Governor?
The available public record says YES.
Whether one chooses to describe him specifically as a “billionaire” before becoming governor is another matter. That assertion requires reliable evidence of his net worth and should not simply be presented as an established fact. But there is ample documented evidence that he had achieved considerable professional and financial standing long before he entered the Abia Government House. And that is precisely why the watch argument requires more sophistication.
Interestingly, the IWC Portugieser Perpetual Calendar is not an imaginary luxury category. A rose-gold version of the Portugieser Perpetual Calendar listed by an authorised concessionaire is priced at $56,700, while another current Portugieser Perpetual Calendar 44 model is listed by IWC at $60,000 before tax.
So, yes, the watch being discussed is expensive. But expensive does not equal illegal. The same logic applies to the photograph of Dr. Alex Otti wearing an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Offshore in an earlier period before his governorship. The Royal Oak Offshore is unquestionably a high-end luxury watch family.
Audemars Piguet currently lists a pink-gold Royal Oak Offshore model at $66,200. That historical photograph, if correctly identified and dated, is actually more relevant to the discussion than Roberto’s attempt to make the Governor’s present wristwatch look like evidence of sudden post-office enrichment.
Why?
Because it demonstrates the obvious point that needs to be made: the luxury-watch conversation did not begin with the Abia Government House.
If Governor Otti was already wearing high-end watches during the period between 2015 and 2019, then the simplistic narrative that his ability to possess expensive personal items is somehow a product of becoming Governor in 2023 becomes much harder to sustain. The central issue, therefore, should not be whether Alex Otti can afford an expensive watch. The real issue should be whether anyone can establish, with evidence, that any of his personal possessions were acquired through unlawful enrichment or public resources.
That is a completely different question. And it is a question that deserves evidence rather than insinuation.
There is also something particularly curious about the timing and context of Chibueze’s criticism. The photograph was not presented to advertise a Swiss watch. It was presented in the context of an Aba-made shoe.
That distinction is important. The shoe represents precisely the kind of local manufacturing story that Abia has been trying to project: that products made in Aba can be showcased with confidence, attract investment and compete beyond the local market.
The Federal Government’s September 30, 2026 engagement with Governor Otti reinforces that point. The delegation led by John Uwajumogu said the Federal Government was exploring support for Aba’s textile and garment cluster and looking at ways to address constraints affecting businesses in the sector.
So the photograph could reasonably generate questions about Aba manufacturing, industrial policy, investment, electricity, access to finance, export capacity, quality control and the future of local production. But Chibueze’s intervention essentially turned an industrial photograph into a watch examination.
That raises another question: When the Governor deliberately puts an Aba-made product in the centre of a photograph, why should the price of the Governor’s wristwatch become more important than the economic message of the product he is displaying?
If the shoe is cheap, as Chibueze suggests, then the answer should not be to ridicule it. The better question is why an Aba-made shoe should not be good enough to command premium value.
A serious critic could ask whether the Governor’s administration has done enough to support Aba manufacturers. A serious critic could ask how many local manufacturers have benefited from government programmes. A serious critic could interrogate electricity supply, roads, taxation, access to credit, industrial infrastructure and export opportunities.
Those are substantive questions. Those questions can produce accountability. But staring at a politician’s wrist and calculating the price of his watch is not, by itself, a substitute for financial investigation.
And perhaps this is the biggest weakness in the argument.
If Roberto Chibueze believes politicians are thieves, then the burden should be to identify the politician, the transaction, the public money, the alleged diversion, the evidence and the applicable law.
“All politicians are thieves” is not evidence. It is a sweeping assertion. And sweeping assertions are particularly dangerous in public discourse because they can replace facts with suspicion.
Governor Otti should absolutely be scrutinised. Every governor should. Every minister should. Every senator should. Every public official should. But scrutiny should be about records, contracts, declarations, expenditures, procurement, businesses, conflicts of interest and verifiable financial transactions not merely whether the person wears a Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Patek Philippe, IWC or any other luxury timepiece.
Otherwise, we risk creating a bizarre standard in which a successful businessman must hide every symbol of his previous economic life the moment he enters politics. That standard would be especially difficult to apply to somebody like Otti, whose corporate career predates his political career by decades.
Alex Otti was a banker before he was a governor. He was a bank executive before he was a politician. He was already a high-profile corporate figure before he occupied Government House.
He left Diamond Bank in 2014 and subsequently contested the governorship in 2015 and again in 2019 before eventually winning in 2023. That history cannot simply be erased because somebody spotted an expensive watch in a photograph.
So perhaps the more intellectually honest question for Roberto Chibueze is not: “Why is Otti wearing a $56,700 watch?”
It should be: “What evidence do I have that the watch was acquired with public money or that its ownership is connected to corruption?”
If there is evidence, publish it. If there is a transaction, identify it. If there is a procurement trail, expose it. If there is an unexplained acquisition after assumption of office, document it. If there is a contradiction in the Governor’s asset declaration, demonstrate it.
That is how serious accountability journalism and political criticism work. But if the entire argument begins and ends with a photograph of a wristwatch, then the watch may be expensive, but the argument is considerably cheaper. And as for the Aba-made shoe, perhaps the irony is that the photograph Chibueze tried to turn into a controversy may actually have been making a much larger statement:
A Governor who spent decades building a career in the private sector was standing before a Federal Government delegation displaying a product made by an Aba entrepreneur.
The watch may tell us something about the wearer’s taste. The shoe may tell us something about Abia’s industrial ambition.
The real political question is what the government is doing to ensure that the Aba entrepreneur who made that shoe can build a business large enough to employ hundreds or thousands of people, pay taxes, export products and create wealth.
That is a conversation worth having.
And if Roberto Chibueze wants to challenge Governor Otti, there is certainly room for robust criticism.
But let the challenge be about evidence, records and measurable performance. Not merely the circumference of a man’s wrist.
I am @TheKELVINATOR
(THE EYES OPENER)