05/12/2024
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*Governor Mbah, a Reference Point of Transformative Governance, the Presidency, a Witness*
By Reuben Onyishi
(Ugoachataberu)
For the people of Enugu State, it is a new dawn of unprecedented avant-garde brand of transformative leadership, which Governor Peter Ndubuidi Mbah has wrought. The people have a feel of what disruptive innovation, such as Mbah articulated in his manifesto, entails. Mbah is religious about the implementation of his manifesto unveiled on Thursday, 13th October 2022, at the Peter Mbah Auditorium of the Law Faculty of Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu. Not even a word from the manifesto has fallen to the ground void. What Ndi Enugu experience every now and then is the unleashing of massive projects on the state: in the area of road infrastructure, water, energy, mining, security, healthcare, education, agriculture, trade and investment, labour and employment, human capital development and poverty alleviation, revamping of the state-owned moribund assets, the building of the New Enugu Smart City, alas! To mention no more!
Mbah's development agenda for Enugu State is holistic. While the target is to rev up the GDP of the state from what he met on ground, &4.4 billion, to &30 billion, and bring poverty to the lowest ebb of zero per cent headcount index, Mbah has intentionally taken pragmatic steps to get all this fulfilled. Mbah has no pecuniary interest in governance. He was an already-made man before he came into government, a chief executive of the market leader in the downstream oil and gas sector, an oil mogul, doing excellently well for himself. Mbah is utterly driven by transcendental values. He has the key to unlock the economic potentials of Enugu State and make life more meaningful for the people. While presenting his manifesto, Mbah spoke extempore for over two hours, profiling the economy of Enugu State, providing uncommon solutions to the challenges thereof. Someone who sat by my side at the auditorium while listening to Mbah said in my hearing that if Mbah did 10% of what he had proposed, then Enugu would be one of the strongest subnational economies in Nigeria. He sounded sceptical and justifiably, too, as occasioned by perhaps the trust deficit and hopelessness Nigerians have imbibed from various administrations. It could have been interpreted by any other person in the audience as one of the promises of politicians who never believed in themselves to do what they promised but had successfully convinced the people to believe them. Today, I am sure the man who sat beside me at the auditorium can see that Mbah meant business; indeed, it is business unusual, as Mbah would say. Alas! Even the opposition believe, as everyone is alive to the unprecedented development trajectories Mbah has brought into the governance of Enugu State.
The Mbah Administration, in less than a year and a half months, has executed over 1000 projects in the state, ranging from capital infrastructure to social services. Mbah, in less than one year, commissioned 71 roads within the Enugu metropolis. Ten other roads were flagged off for construction in the three senatorial zones of the state, and work is ongoing on the roads. An example is the 40km Amechi Idodo-Owo- Amankanu-Ubahu- Isi-Uzo- Obollo dual carriage way. Another 21.7km Eha-Amufu Mgbuji road linking Benue State, nearly completed, to mention but two. Another 161 roads in the state were awarded to the tune of N183 billion. Twenty of these roads some of them with bridges are in the rural areas. The 43.7- kilometre Abakpa Nike- Penoks-Ugwuogo-Opi Nsukka Road was yesterday, 28th October, 2024, flagged off for dualization. Today, 29th October 2024, Mbah yet again flagged off for construction the 44-kilometre Amah-Eke-Oghe-Iwolo- Olo- Umulokpa Road. The target is to build 1,250 kilometres of roads per year, bringing it up to 10,000 kilometres in eight years. To make it cost effective, the Mbah Administration set up an asphalt plant in Enugu that has the capacity to generate 160 tonnes of asphalt per hour. The eagle has perched at the tip of the tree.
The Mbah Administration has awarded the construction of 260 smart schools in the 260 wards of the state. This is a project at the award cost of over N300 billion. Again, 260 type 2 hospitals have also been awarded for construction in the 260 wards of the state. This is development and health care brought to the grassroots.
Recently, the Mbah Administration gave out farm inputs worth N4.6 billion to farmers in the state. The farmers benefitted seedlings, fertilizer, grants, and other farm implement. This was geared towards abundant yield of farm produce with a view to make for food security. This is besides the counterpart funding of World Bank-assisted projects like IFAD, LPRESS, NOMAP, and so on, meant for enhanced agricultural production. Besides having enough food for the people, the Mbah Administration has an eye on exports, as the state has identified agrozones such as Uzo-Uwani, with agricultural comparative advantage, Aninri and other places where over 300 hectares of land were mapped out and cassava planted in preparation for cassava to ethanol export business. Little wonder the Ogurugu Waterways and Jetty have been revamped as a means by which the processed agropruduce is exported. The Mbah administration has also undertaken to see to the operationalization of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport and the Cargo wing thereof, despite the fact that Aviation is yet to be decoupled from the Exclusive List. This is being done with an eye on the export value chain effects. Already, Enugu State Marketing Board is exporting Enugu Garri and Cahew Nuts. Meanwhile, Governor Mbah, a few days ago, commissioned the assemblage of tractors in Enugu State. This is aimed at improving farming in the state, taking agriculture from the pipeline to the platform as he had promised in his manifesto.
In the area of transportation, the interchange terminals are being constructed at strategic places in the state: Ogige Nsukka, Ogbete, Abakpa and Gariki. Each of the terminals has an arrival and departure lounge, a cinema, a 26-bed motel, CNG, petrol and diesel filling stations, lock-up shops, and so on. Over 150 CNG buses have been procured by the Mbah Administration for operation at the terminals. The idea is to ease off the high cost of transportation for the people of the state.
Corollary to the operationalization of the international and cargo wings of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport is the setting up of Enugu Air. Already, some air planes have been purchased for the start up of the aviation business for the state, as a means of earning revenue for the state, besides the facilitation of the international trade policy of the Mbah Administration.
Mbah's Enugu Sate was the first to craft electricity bill, which the state assembly passed into law following the unbundling of electricity from the Exclusive List. Thereafter, following the devolution of regulatory power to state regulators by the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the Mbah Administration set up the Enugu Electricity Regulatory Commission (EERC) peopled by experts in the electricity industry and headed by Chijioke Okonkwo, an expert player in the electricity market. As at today, EERC has taken over the electricity regulatory power in the state as regards the three value chains: generation, transmission and distribution, even as Mainpower Electricity Distribution Limited takes over from Enugu Electricity Diatribution Company (EEDC) This no doubt has positive implications with regard to power availability, affordable tariffs and effective management. Investors in Enugu, with this development, are doubly assured of power availability for their businesses. This is one aspect of ease-of-doing-business glaringly placed before investors.
Eyes have not seen; ears have yet to hear, neither has it entered into the hearts of men that which Peter Ndubuisi Mbah prepares for Enugu State. Mbah is a fast thinker who thinks creatively ten steps ahead. He has got a lot to unleash.The small space of this piece can not contain the magnitude of massive projects Mbah has so far done. The fact is that multibillion naira projects are being done in the state. One begins to wonder from where Mbah is generating funding for these humongous projects. Go back to Mbah's manifesto where he brought his financial intelligence and creativity to the fore, articulating various financial models by which these projects would be funded, having carefully taken federal allocation out of the way. At the unveiling of his manifesto, Mbah sounded Greek to the audience, who by the widest stretch of its imagination, thought impossible Mbah's promises.Today, all have seen for themselves how good Mbah makes his uncommon promises.
The fame of the Enugu Governor is bruited abroad. Investors are flocking the state, and businesses running into billions of dollars are every now and then closed. Recently, Mbah commissioned a multibillion naira door factory at Nachi in Udi Local Government Area built by a private investor. Recall also that Mbah attracted N100 billion investment in the hitherto moribund United Palm Products Limited (UPPL). This is in addition to the revitalization and revamping of Niger Gas, Sunrise Flower Mill at Emene, ANNAMCO, Hotel Presidential, besides the International Conference Centre within which premises a 300-bed 5-star hotel is being constructed as well as the contiguous Enugu International Hospital under construction.
When the Queen of Shebe heard of King Solomon's unrivalled wisdom, she left her kingdom for Israel that she might see for herself. And for herself, she did see. When the Nigerian Presidency heard of tje unheard-of thing Mbah is doing in Enugu State, they sent the Vice President to come and see for himself. Vice President Shetima came, saw and testified.Not withstanding that Governor Mbah is an opposition governor of the Peoples Democratic Party extraction, the Nigerian Presidency doffs its cap for this highly cerebral smart and pragmatic young man with the heart of a lion. When the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon, she came with many precious gifts to celebrate wisdom. The Nigeria Presidency is enthralled. Before then, the Presidency had through the Office of the Secretary to the Federal Government bestowed on Mbah the Award of Excellence in Public Service with special emphasis on road infrastructure. In the interval of two weeks, another honour from the Presidency, this time from the Office of the Vice President, conferred yet again a Presidential Award on Mbah for his sterling and unrivalled contribution to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Enugu State.
On his arrival in Enugu to commission the Garment and Fashion Hub, employing over 1000 youth in Enugu, the Vice President was so overwhelmed with incredulity the massive projects on ground so much that he said the federal government might have to look in the direction of Mbah’s Enugu State, to see what it could do better, while testifying that Enugu State, under Peter Mbah, is a subnational reference point for transformative governance worthy of emulation.
Such things as spoken one time and we heard them seven times are those that even the opposition in the state have inadvertently confirmed. There is no denying the fact that Mbah's development trajectories are like punkin leaves that know no boundaries; like the sun that shines for both the good and the bad. If you haven't eaten it with your mouth, then you stamp it with your feet. This is the good thing that has come to Ndi Enugu, a specially-packaged gift for the people. It is a new dawn in Enugu with the people basking in the euphoria of waking up every day to one uncommon good deed or the other the Mbah Administration does. As he commissioned projects yesterday and today, praises, good wishes, kind words, and many prayers were poured on Mbah in torrents by the people of Enugu State. Even his bitterest enemy, if any, chorused Amen to the prayers while Ndi Enugu shout Hallelujah!
