By Ogazi Igbonekwu Ogazimorah
Enugu which is one of the South Eastern States, has been ruled by the PDP since 1999. Its capital was established on founding of coal deposits in the valleys of Ngwo Abor and Akegbe communities. And these form the core of the urban community.
But Enugu is one of the upland States that must struggle to have the head above water. As they say, ‘it rested on the initial laurels of yielding the erstwhile lucrative Coal revenue, and no more.’
Nigeria development analysts of old believe that only the littoral States, oil & gas bearing States; Lagos, swimming in resources of a former federal infrastructure and populations; and the boisterous Kano, with population and thousand-year old intercontinental market profile, were the only areas of Nigeria that could thrive and prosper in the economic sense. They derisively called the others ‘the upland States.’ Enugu is one.
According to the United Nations World Population Prospects report, 2022, the State sits on a land area of 7, 161 km2, with a population of 8.3 million. The capital city of Enugu, sitting on a land area of 556km2, bears a population of 820, 000 constituting just about 10 percent of the overall population.
It is this highly dense area, with this intimidating population that the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, promises to unlock its ‘tomorrow’ to reveal some astounding abundance.
Mbah, an attorney at law, comes from the background of a businessman in the oil & gas sector of the Nigeria business environment. This impresario had walked into the faculty of law auditorium of the Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu, and declared a surprisingly features-loaded manifesto. “Enugu State is wealthy, and I can grow its Gross Domestic Product, GDP, from the present USD 4.4 billion to USD30 billion’ in the next couple of years, he declared. The audience was baffled. Then he pointedly stated, “Enugu is immensely rich and what needs to be done is to take on the resources of Enugu State the way of the typical businessman. Data gathering, assessment, invitation of capable players, commitment with one single intent of succeeding as is the case in profit-oriented business, and conscious actions to permanently eradicate poverty in Enugu State,” he quietly and methodically stated.
Indeed, his manifesto is conceptualised as “building a peaceful and secure, highly developed and prosperous State for all,” with a bold outline of assurances of some good ahead, “Ndi Enugu, tomorrow is here.”
So, what anchors Mba’s boldness, which almost verges on boastfulness?
‘Enugu has been sitting on deep natural gas wells, limitless deposits of glass sands, iron stones, clay minerals, limestone, gypsum, alum, and of course coal,’ which was actually the reason colonial explorers founded and built the Enugu, the State capital. Now, clear natural gas deposits. have been found and mapped as the oil wells OPL914, OPL905 and OPL907.
Last August, a deep well of raw gas was accidentally struck at Nkwubo-Emene, eastern edge of the State Capital. It was accidental because it came by a minor private borehole drilling company in search of water for a private community. The gas burned for weeks before the hole was filled back. The implication of these is that the prestigious and high-revenue-yielding status of oil and gas bearing and producing State, is beckoning on Enugu State. Prior to this find, Enugu had been locked in battle with Anambra State in claims over the oil finds in the Ayamelum clan, formally of Uzo Uwani area of Nsukka before it was niggardly ceded to the present Anambra State by the military administration of General Bob Akonobi. It was the timely intervention of old Enugu leaders that prevented the ceding, in similar circumstances, of Ugwuoba/Oji River axis to Anambra in the early 1990s.
Thus, Mbah appears to know what he was saying when he said, ‘there are great pies to be bitten in the State, and by all. Our job is to develop them, deploy our people’s human capital, and we are on our way to prosperity.’
He further states, ”the target is to create the right environment for businesses and industries to start and grow, opportunities leading to people getting gainfully engaged, and people will start taking care of themselves.”
It was hitherto unknown, until the Manifesto arrived to declare that Enugu is one of the States with the highest endowment in natural resources, including, but not limited to the buried and the surface minerals; clear and coloured rivers and lakes, steep hills, breath-taking valleys and escarpments. It also has a good spread of arable fields and rich forests. These are surface resources, which have not, before, enjoyed government motivation to be of any enduring resource benefit to the people. Mbah said that he would reverse all in his pursuit of very high GDP for the State, if he becomes the governor.
As the Manifesto reveals, the yet to be tapped tourism sub-sector appears to be the most alluring. There are many potentials which have never been mentioned, let alone tapped. For example, the Awhum Waterfalls; Akwuke Beach; Ezimo Waterfalls; Adada Lake; 53-kilometre Enugu Colliery tunnel complex; Nike Lake cluster and its rundown hotel resort; Opi/Heneke cluster of Lakes; 48-chamber Ihuonyia Cave complex; 29-kilometre Ogwugwu Aso Valley starting at Ishiogwu-Awhum; Ngwo Pine Tree reserve, Offia-ogo Forests covering lands in Awhum, Egede, Ukana, Ebe and parts of Ezeagu; Ujoma-Nze Forest reserve; Offia Adaka forest, Amani-Awhum; Umuru forest and beach land between Onicha-Agu/Amagunze and Onicha-Ibulu, Ebonyi State, Gbakwu cave complex, 23-kilometre Iyi Ubene groove, with an expanse of beach between Inyi and Mbano (Imo State), the vast Oghe Cashew plantation; Lejja foundries, colonial Mbololo Government Station/Aerodrome, Ogurugu; old Government Station, Udi; etc.
In his Tomorrow is here Manifesto, Mbah reasons, “it should be the purpose of government to cause a relentless flow of investments for the development of the various sectors so that modern wealth would be created, made to grow, causing a gainful raise in the people’s earnings, and that is how we intend to mobilise the general resources, to be streamlined for the growth of the GDP, from &4.4 billion to &30 billion in the next decade.’
Indeed, in having many of these resources of Enugu State to languish in their natural obscurity, their unravelled potentials have fuelled the poverty of the individual citizen, and indeed the State. In some cases, these potentials have been turned to criminals who take abode in them, all season, and terrorise the people of the State
But does the GDP of a State rise on account of one burst of improved exploitation and utilisation of the natural resources?
The Manifesto says ‘no’. It envisages a deliberately designed expansion into the creative industry, which focuses on initiating some private sector powering of specialist institutions such as the proposed Enugu films and movie academy. This would be organised for training and up-skilling of citizens and other residents, in script-writing, acting, directing, production, costumes and make-ups and marketing. The emerging skilled operatives would be the active factors in establishing and running an Enugu film city, patterned after the Sun City in South Africa; Enugu Arts and Crafts village; Enugu fashion and cosmetics city; and Enugu culinary city.
In like design, the Manifesto holds that Mbah would also establish an ‘Enugu automotive city; Enugu solar city, and Enugu furniture city. These, when put together, would form the total tourism economy package as Mbah contemplates.
From the development point of view, Mbah’s tourism development and deployment plans promises to be healthy. But it is certainly not all there should be in advancing the social and economic courses of Enugu, to unravelling the abundance.
On commencement of his campaign, running on ‘Meet the people in Town Halls”, this question was posed in the Aninri Local Government area. ‘How would the people of Aninri, long trapped in poverty and squalor, climb out of the pit?’ Mbah quickly pointed that the only barrier he faces at the moment is to get elected.
He would approach the development challenges of the State like a typical business man, with the intent to succeed and make profit. Enugu people, he said, would be shown the immense ‘wealth hidden in agriculture, in Aninri and other areas with the good lands for agricultural investments, promotions and industrialisation.’ His government, he stated would pursue a broad agro-allied industrial programme in which the entire sub-sector would be activated in full swing, exactly in business form. He said that the present administration of Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi had established a commendable momentum, by successfully packaging a joint venture with Ellah Lakes Plc, which has now revived the old Enugu State rice farm at Adani, Uzo Uwani Local Government Area.
In advancing agriculture beyond and away from rustic traditional methods, Mbah said, the target would be to eliminate food insecurity, through the creation of Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones, SAPZs, in each of three Senatorial Zones. This would be followed by establishment of Technologies for Agricultural Systems Transformation, TASTE, through private players, who understand the methodologies and operations of Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation, TAAT, Initiative, of the African Development Bank, ADB.
Focuses are, ‘creation and enhancement of farm machinery sharing platforms, high yielding seeds, technical extension services and small & medium enterprises in processing, packaging, logistics and marketing within the SAPZs.
On the abundance of liquid natural resources, the Manifesto states, “government will collaborate with investors to develop the fields and use the proceeds to widen the business environment.”
Enugu, the Manifesto also reveals, has great deposits of glass sands, iron stone, clay minerals, limestone, gypsum and alum, among other commercially important minerals. Put together, it holds, ‘the right business environments would be created to promote investments, to accelerate activities in the entire economic fields.’
So, aside deploying the outcomes to fill the gaps in ‘renewable energy, development of fossil energy resources, it would create value chains in extractive sectors.
Mbah also targets ‘Industrial Parks and Special Economic Zones, SEZs, Skills Enhancement and Apprenticeship Programme, Innovation Incubators and Venture Capital Development programme,’ for youth employment and economic organisation of the society. Added to these is the proposed zest to pursue creative urban renewal and affordable housing which would be made to relate with every income group through a planned Housing Finance Schemes, flexible and appropriate administration of property tax and deployment of the GIS system to provide precise information on locations.
Previously, no government in Enugu State ever projected the development of 1,000 kilometers of roads in a regime. Mbah proposes 10, 000 kilometers. This tall ambition may not be unconnected to the poor state of the very few roads in the State. Enugu is, indeed, one of the States with the lowest network of roads. The State capital, Enugu, which is home to 820, 000 residents has only three inlet/exit points – the Ngwo/Milliken-Expressway, Abakaliki – Emene/Enugu road and Umuahia – Enugu expressway. These were colonial produce routes now made wider by the expressways built by the Obasanjo/Shagari Federal governments in the 1980s.
The problem of access roads has become so acute that it may not even matter to the citizens if these roads are mere wide earth roads, so that they can access strong economic points at all times. Many communities are less than 20 minutes away, by bush-path walk, to the State Capital, yet they travel hours through the circuitous, degraded and dangerous colonial old roads, to access the State capital. Mbah strongly believes, and he is right, that roads form a strong plank in ‘ease of doing business,’ which the manifesto professes as a central objective. So, the entire plans about public transportation package, industrialisation and access to every part of Enugu State, will depend on more roads, which must be good to power the ‘ease of doping business objective.’
One of the strongest appeals of the manifesto is what it illustrates as ‘measurable indicators,’ which pass as compulsory performance evaluation and assessment institutions. These are listed as such engagements which would stand as the evidence of performance or none of it, at each point. They include poverty eradication, multiple private sector investment and the attendant accountability, periodic investment reviews and forums, and liberal spread of specialised court systems and digitalised judiciary, among others.
The security sector, as should be expected was given a place in the keys designed by the candidate to unlock the Enugu abundance. According to Mbah, while measures to augment the operations of the security forces in the State would be accorded strong recognition, the greatest and future reliance would be immediate ‘creation of employment’ strategy, ‘business development and wealth creation’ strategy, and finally, the ‘new technology strategy’.
The development objective in the Manifesto is that jobs, businesses and opportunities will keep the young population busy, creatively and gainfully employed, to force down the number that may derail or deviate into social vices. Subsequently, ‘CCTV surveillance cameras’ will cover the State; ‘drones would be deployed for aerial surveillance’ and government would invest in the ‘modernisation of detective, preventive and investigative equipment and personnel’ of the police.
The healthcare is laden with great promises: ‘to pursue, with vigour, the attainment of the Universal Health Coverage of Enugu, by first meeting up with the obligations to the National Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, NBHPF; equipment of the Specialist Hospital, Igbo-Ano, to include trauma centre and to serve as reference facility that can leverage on nearby institutions as the UNN, UNTH, National Psychiatric Hospital,’ etc and to develop a ‘network of world class hospitals and diagnostic facilities in the three senatorial zones.’ The package, it states, will also continue with enhanced training and retraining of State healthcare staff,’ for optimal performance, across the State, and in following with the National Health Insurance Scheme Act of 2022, as well as the Enugu State Agency for Universal Health Coverage Law, provide the necessary health coverage for citizens of the State.
The Manifesto indicates that the proposed government would ‘reactivate Community Healthcare Centres for round the clock services,’ revamp the network of secondary health facilities,’ and ‘domesticate the Nigeria Disability Act, which would be added with a Disability Insurance Scheme.’ This will yield adequate data on persons living with disabilities, to ensure access to learning, healthcare and other development programmes of government.’
Its planned education sector will have its main thrust in daily healthy meals for pupils, from primary to secondary; free malarial prophylaxis and vitamin supplements; free immunisation and free health checks. The structure, it states, would aim at qualitative education, safer schools, and promotion of vocational and technical education. The all-inclusive leap would be in building of adult literacy programmes and centres, private investor powered specialised higher institutions, alumni intervention packages in schools, and collaboration with international institutions. Also, it would anchor on teacher education, improved curriculum, more rooms for physical and health education; building and equipment of physical and virtual libraries, science education, etc.
In community leadership, Mbah proposes to strengthen the existing community administration system, to initiate, plan and execute community projects as boreholes, repair of schools, maintenance of roads, bridges and culverts, as well as carry out security surveillance across the State. At present, Enugu State runs a Community Government system in which functionaries – from the President General down to the Provost – are elected on popular first ballots, for periods stated in the constitution of each town union.
Other covered sectors include ‘environmental management & sanitation, water resources, human capital development, sports and youth development, public & civil services,’ ICT, etc.
• Ogazimorah, an attorney at law, writes from Enugu.