Enugu State Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, has described his recognition as The Sun Governor of the Year 2023 as an elixir to do more in order to achieve the goal set by his administration.
He noted that the honour coming less than a year into his tenure meant that the modest strides his government has recorded had attracted attention of credible and unbiased individuals and bodies.
Speaking when the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of The Sun Publishing Limited, Mr. Onuoha Ukeh, led a delegation to present him with the letter announcing him as winner of Governor of the Year Award, in Enugu, Mbah said the full implementation of his governmen’s programme would transform the state.
The governor and 33 others will receive different categories of awards at The Sun Awards ceremony billed to hold on February 17, 2024 in Lagos.
Commending The Sun for remaining consistent in reporting truth, Governor Mbah said his recognition will spur him to work assiduously to bring to fruition the dream and target of his government for the state.
He said: “I want to thank you most sincerely for this honour. We cannot thank you enough. First of all, for identifying our humble achievement and giving us further obligation to do more because I believe that the reward for hard work is more hard work.
“I want to put it on record that this humble achievement could not have been possible without the team that I have, the workforce. These are people who have worked tirelessly to ensure that the things that we have envisioned, the lofty dreams that we have, are being realised. These men and women continue to make us proud; so, I thank you and I also dedicate this award to them.”
Mbah outlined where he hopes to take Enugu to in the next couple of years, vowing to continue to deliver democracy dividends and an enabling environment for the growth of the state.
He disclosed that the ultimate goal of his administration was to build a robust and resilient private sector-driven economy; growing it to sevenfold from the current $4.4billion to 30billion in eight years.
In line with this objective, the governor explained that on assumption of office, his administration executed a social contract with Enugu people, followed it up with some creative initiatives, particularly in provision of security, infrastructure and ease of doing business.
He said: “If you took a trend analysis of our growth pattern or you look at the data we had at the time we were making these pronouncements, you would as well have fallen into the doubters and the naysayers because it was difficult for any reasonable man to give us any chance or to even agree to the things we were saying because as I said, judgment as to what you are going to do in the future is usually predicated on what had happened in the past.
“We believe that a new Enugu State is possible and so in order for us to do that, we have to task ourselves. We first of all felt it was important to basically interrogate our revenue model to question how we as a people would continue to rely on revenue just from the federal revenue account and because if you don’t have sufficient funds, every other thing you are talking about, doing roads, providing water and addressing challenges of insecurity will be difficult. So, we knew that we needed to disrupt the pattern and the trend of our revenue and we also recognised that a lot of the growth we had projected would come from private sector investment, so we set out on a mission of making Enugu the premier destination for investment for business and tourism.”
He disclosed that the administration has built a water scheme that is capable of generating 120 million litres of water daily from scratch to the point of operation. It was also supported with 4.4 megawatt of electricity so as not to rely on the national grid.
“Today in Enugu, we can produce 120 million litres of water which is 150 per cent more than our daily consumption. Basically, as Enugu metropolis, we need 80 million litres to survive daily and we are happy to say that we are producing 150 per cent of that. We are doing 120 million daily. And we intend to deal squarely with all teething problems that we have experienced since we unlocked the valve.”
Earlier in his speech, The Sun MD said the governor’s selection was based on merit because of his outstanding performance within the short period he has been governor of Enugu State.
He noted that in less than a year in office Mba has warmed himself into the hearts of the people with his spectacular leadership style, which he said thrived “on action unhindered by bureaucracy.”
Ukeh recalled that prior to Mbah becoming governor, scarcity of safe and clean water made Enugu an uncomfortable place to live, but that the governor has kept his promise of delivering potable water to Enugu metropolis within 180 days he promised during his electioneering.
In addition, the MD stated that the governor had initiated action to stop Monday sit-at-homes in Enugu as well as working hard to restore normalcy to pave the way for businesses to flourish once in the state.
Among other achievement of the governor that Ukeh listed were the signing of the State Power Bill into law, which domesticates the Electricity Act 2023, giving the state regulatory power to establish an Enugu State Electricity Market to attract investors, reposition of the state in its relationship with development partners, like the World Bank, AFD (the French Development Agency), and opened the door to new funding for projects; full automation of all the key functions of the state government and has addressed the issue of fiscal energy and environmental cleanliness.
Apart from Mbah, others to be honoured are, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President, Dangote Group and Mr. Tony Elumelu, Chairman, Heirs Holdings; and Chief Innocent Chukwuma of Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing Ltd (Man of the Year); Governors Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State and Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State (Governor of the Year); Chief Ayo Adebanjo; Rev. Uma Ukpai and Prof Awa Kalu, SAN (Lifetime Achievement Award); HRM Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ooni of Ife and HRM Ogiame Atuwatse III, Olu of Warri (Most Impactful Royal Father).
Others are Mr. Peter Obi, Presidential Candidate, Labour Party (LP) (Political Icon); Dr. Ifeanyi Nwachukwu, Chairman/CEO, Richland Property and Homes Limited, Lagos; Chief Kenneth Ifekudu (Agbalanze), Chairman, Diamond Leeds Ltd and Chief Peter Oge Obih, Chairman, Sea Map Group of Companies (Businessman of the Year); High Chief Christopher Ndubuisi, Chairman, Pinnatech Engineering Nigeria Limited; Dr. Oludare Akande
Chairman, Bellagio Airlines Limited and Dr. Jayne Onwumere, MD, Property World Africa Network (PWAN) Group (Investor of the Year); Dr. Uche Ogah, President, Masters Energy Group, Chief Celestine Ebubeogu, Chairman, Tiger Foods and Chief James Uzuh, Chairman, J_Jumac Industries Ltd (Industrialist of the Year); Chief Ikenna Okafor, Chairman, Kevs Global Leasing Ltd; Lady Adaora Umeoji, DMD, Zenith Bank Plc and Archbishop Dr. Emeka Agwu
President, Voice of Evangelism International
Houston, Texas, USA (Humanitarian Service Icon); Amb. Dr. Olufolake Abdulrazaq, First Lady, Kwara State and Founder, Ajike People Support Centre (First Lady of the Year); Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo), Chairman, Tantita Security (Courage in Leadership Award).
Other award winners are, Mr. Robert Azibaola, Founder; Zeetin Engineering Limited; Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, CEO, Nigerian Upstream Petroluem Regulatory Commission and Mr. Charles Odii, DG, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) (Public Service Award); Moruf Oseni, MD/CEO, Wema Bank and Mr. Femi Bakre, Managing Director, Parallex Bank (Banker of the Year); Bukola Olopade, MD/CEO, Nilayo Sports Management Ltd. (Sport Personality of the Year); Lady Ngozi Ezeonu and Tobi Bakre (Nollywood Icon of the Year).