That Tinubu’s stamp on Gov Peter Mbah administration!
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Gov Mbah
On 4th January, 2025, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu paid a one-day official visit to Enugu State where he performed the inauguration of numerous impactful infrastructural projects built by the Dr. Peter Mbah Administration in the state. Projects commissioned include the International Conference Centre, 90 completed urban roads; 30 completed Smart Green Schools out of 260 under construction; an avant-garde Command and Control Centre along with 150 AI-embedded patrol vehicles for efficient security service to the people of Enugu; and 60 completed and equipped Type-2 Primary Healthcare Centres across 260 electoral Wards in Enugu.
The Mbah Administration has, within 19 months, awarded the construction of 260 smart schools in the state’s 260 wards. This alone is an investment in education in each ward to the tune of about about N1.2 billion, meaning that a total sum of N312 billion has been awarded for the construction smart schools.
By Nnamani Arinze Darlington
On 4th January, 2025, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu paid a one-day official visit to Enugu State where he performed the inauguration of numerous impactful infrastructural projects built by the Dr. Peter Mbah Administration in the state. Projects commissioned include the International Conference Centre, 90 completed urban roads; 30 completed Smart Green Schools out of 260 under construction; an avant-garde Command and Control Centre along with 150 AI-embedded patrol vehicles for efficient security service to the people of Enugu; and 60 completed and equipped Type-2 Primary Healthcare Centres across 260 electoral Wards in Enugu.
The Mbah Administration has, within 19 months, awarded the construction of 260 smart schools in the state’s 260 wards. This alone is an investment in education in each ward to the tune of about about N1.2 billion, meaning that a total sum of N312 billion has been awarded for the construction smart schools.
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It is recalled that the state went further to allocate over 30 per cent of its N521.5bn 2024 budget and over 33 per cent of the N971bn 2025 budget to education. Enugu, under Mbah, has therefore consecutively made news as the highest in Nigeria in terms of education to budget ratio, beating the UNESCO recommendation of 15-20 percent of the public annual budget to fund education. This is rare in Africa, let alone Nigeria.
Each Smart Green School is a state-of-the-art structure, fully equipped with modern experiential tools with which the pupils from age 4 to JSS3, are taught robotics, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, mechatronics, modern ICT and vocational skills, science and technology, mathematics, and other aspects of cognitive education. This will mould the Enugu child into a person of high modern and technological intellect to compete effectively in the global market. According to Mbah, the doors of the remaining 200 Smart Green Schools will be open to every child in Enugu free of charge by September 2025.
Mbah’s giant strides and deliverables in education, infrastructure, healthcare sector, transportation, security, tourism, and transportation have pontificated the true meaning of the dividends of democracy for the people of Enugu State.
When Governor Mbah was campaigning, he conspicuously stated that he would raise the state’s GDP from the current $4.4bn to $30bn economy in the next four to eight years. He equally promised to make Enugu one of the top three economies in Nigeria and the premier destination for investment, business, tourism, and living. Many naysayers said it would not be achievable because that was too audacious.
But the administration has continued to attract and seal one investment after the other, both local and foreign. It sealed a N40bn deal with Jelfah Group in 2024 towards the revitalisation of the moribund Sunrise Flour Mills, N100bn deal with Pragmatic Palms Limited (of the Diamond Stripes Group) for the ongoing revitalisation of the Enugu’s United Palm Products Ltd. Not leaving out the deal with a Danish company known as ODK tractors, which target to assemble 1,200tractors in Enugu before the end of 2025. In November last year, the government signed a $100m Final Investment Decision (FID) document with Austrian investors under the auspices of Wande NEXUS, who are investing in the downstream of the water sector to hasten and sustain government’s effort to take water to the last man in the state. Only a few days ago, the administration entered into a partnership with the Landmark Africa Group to revitalise and reposition the Nike Lake Resort. These are just a few.
President Tinubu has always told the 36 state governors that they are the most important link to Nigeria’s prosperity. He has always asked for their collaboration and support to move the nation forward, irrespective of party affliction tribe, and tongue. Obviously, therefore, in Gov. Mbah Tinubu has seen a leader and governor, who understands that real development comes from the subnational. Mbah has not also mounted it, but has walked the talk. So, Tinubu’s visit became inevitable with all these projects, programmes, and policies.
Reflecting on Mbah’s leadership journey and achievement in the last 19 months, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu expressed confidence in the governor’s capacity to thrive, given the resilience and leadership demonstrated by the administration.
He said: ”When we have characters and committed leaders like Peter Ndubuisi Mbah taking Enugu on the path of 21st-century development, greater heights, building our tomorrow today. I don’t care which party you come from because you are very well and very focused. He explicitly stated that the governor was doing great things in Enugu and has become a symbol of good governance in the southeast and Nigeria at largeYou are a good leader. Mbah, you are my friend. We can go places together, in harmony, building Nigeria, and building the future. You have demonstrated irrevocable commitment towards human development.
“I am very proud of Nigeria. Mbah is proud of Nigeria. He is doing everything to provide security, attracting foreign investors, and other investors locally. There’s no better investment than the investment to secure lives. I saw those cars, the Distress Response Squad. It is the way to go.”
For emphasis, the governor of Enugu State is a member of the PDP, while the president is a member of the APC. Thus, the visit and encomium from the President not only convey and proclaim a strong validation of the performances of Governor Peter Mbah, but also speaks volumes about Mr. President’s dispositions as a federalist, pan-Nigerian, and bipartisan inclinations.
Finally, Mbah is a dreamer, who defies the words of Liberia’s ex-President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf. According Sirleaf, ”if your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” Mbah’s dreams don’t scare him. They instead scare the bystanders. He comes with a fierce sense of urgency to give meaning and energy to leadership and governance, obviously inspired by his uncommon accomplishments in the private sector. Here, he Founded and took Pinnacle Oil and Gas from a small fry and late entrant in the industry, operating from just a one-room apartment and two staff in Lagos to a multi-billion dollar corporate unicorn controlling about 23 per cent of the market share ahead of the hitherto entrenched and major distributors in the downstream petroleum subsector in a record time. Undoubtedly, Governor Mbah, in the words of the President, is “doing fantastically well” and Ndi Enugu are happier for it. With just 19 months gone by in his four-year term, one cannot agree that he is indeed the poster boy of good governance at the subnational level in Nigeria today.
•Nnamani, a Public Affairs Analyst, writes from Enugu
Source :Vanguard
