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By Uche Anichukwu
For those who are not familiar with the history of Enugu State, the creation of the state, which happened only 33 years ago, can be misleading.
The truth, however, is that Enugu State has always been a consequential entity for nearly 120 years.
The discovery of the first coal in Nigeria at the Udi Ridge in 1909, the completion of the 243km Eastern Rail Line from the coastal city of Port Harcourt to Enugu in 1916, and the economic wonders wrought by Dr. Michael Okpara, among others, all combine to stand Enugu out and put it ahead.
From the Coal City, as the state’s capital is known, coal was transported by rail to the sea in Port Harcourt for onward journey to Europe where it powered their industries.
Furthermore, the defunct Eastern Region, with Enugu as its capital, was rated as the world’s fastest growing and industrialising economy between 1954 and 1964. It was well ahead of the economies of Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, and Indonesia, among others. Thanks to the visionary leadership of Dr. Okpara, driven by his principle of “Pragmatic Socialism.”
Politically, the entire southern Nigeria, which excludes only Lagos as a colony, was administered from Enugu at some point, starting from 1929.
Again, as the capital of the defunct Eastern Region, Enugu was also one of the three olden and major regional political capitals, the rest being Ibadan and Kaduna. Following the declaration of Biafra, it became the capital of the defunct republic before serving as the capital of the defunct East Central State, old Anambra State, old Enugu State.
So, when Ndi Enugu and the founding fathers like Chief Christian Chukwuma Onoh, HRH Igwe Edward Nnaji, Chief Enechi Onyia, HRH Igwe Charles Abangwu, Chief Basil Okwu, HRH Igwe John Ugwu Nwodo, among others, pressed for the creation of Enugu State, it was to reenact the lost glories of this entity and expand social, political, and economic growth and opportunities for its people.
Thus, when the General Ibrahim Babangida Administration announced the birth of the new state on August 27, 1991, they understood that as profound as that announcement was, the state creation was not an end in itself. Instead, it marked the beginning of the journey to the Promised Land of social, economic, and political prosperity.
For the past 33 years, Ndi Enugu have matched on, resolutely, with several military and democratically elected leaders, starting from Lt. Col. Herbert Obieze, leading the way and contributing their quota in the process. But in the life of a people, there is always that one person, thrown up by Providence, to lead them to the Promised Land.
Lee Kuan Yew literally transformed Singapore from a poor, Third World nation to a developed economy in one generation after it was unceremoniously ejected from the Malaysian Federation.
Park Chung Hee engineered the Miracle on the Han River, as South Korea’s phenomenon of rapid economic growth and industrialisation is known. Deng Xiaoping lifted millions out of poverty by opening up China. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ‘New Deal’ rescued the USA from the Great Depression.
Thus, Enugu’s time came during the 2023 gubernatorial election when Dr. Peter Mbah emerged with his message of Disruptive Innovation.
His 64-page manifesto painted an incredible vision to grow the state’s economy from $4.4bn to $30bn, raise the state to one of the top three economies in Nigeria by GDP, eradicate poverty, and make the state the premier destination for business, investment, tourism, and for living in four to eight years. Just about 15 months after he assumed office, the state is beginning to live up to the dreams of its founding fathers.
Understating that his monumental vision would amount to a pipe dream without security, Governor Mbah declared war on sit-at-home, its enforcers, and other criminals that held the state by the jugular. He went on to invest heavily in security, especially technology.
In a few weeks, the newly constructed ultra-modern Command and Control Centre and its associated hi-tech surveillance cameras that are being installed around the state will be commissioned. These cameras, which are equally being installed on the Distress Response Squad vehicles, are capable of number plate and facial recognition. Once the face is captured, the suspect can be tracked down via the databanks.
The administration is collaborating with the Nigerian Navy to set up a naval base at Ogurugu in Uzo Uwani LGA, while also collaborating with the Nigerian Army to build Army barracks in Isi-Uzo both in the northern borders of Enugu State.
Mbah amended and activated the Enugu State Security Trust Fund Law, 2020, and executed the Deed of Trust to pave the way for the appointment and inauguration of a Board of Trustees (BOT) chaired by Ike Chioke. Today, the administration is implementing the hitherto fallow Section 315 of the state’s Criminal Code Law by demolishing houses linked to kidnapping in the state to send a strong signal to criminal elements.
Mbah has also caused a paradigm shift in the management of Enugu State’s resources in order to rally funds to develop the state. He expanded the tax net without raising the rate and introduced mandatory e-payment to check sharp practices that hitherto characterised revenue collection in the state.
Before now, the Enugu State budget hovered around N100bn and N120bn with capital expenditure of about N30bn, representing a capital expenditure to budget ratio of about 25 to 35 per cent.
Today, the 2024 budget is N521.5bn, with a capital expenditure of over N400bn, which represents about 80 per cent and 20 per cent of capital and recurrent expenditure to the budget, respectively. A website supported by BugIT also rated Enugu State as the most prudent of the 36 states in the first quarter of 2024 in terms of cost of governance/recurrent expenditure.
Mbah believes in making life better for rural dwellers as well as ensuring that agriculture and agro-industrialisation investments are de-risked such that commercial farmers and smallholder farmers have access to the farmlands and convey farm produce and processed products to the market with ease.
In October 2023, he flagged off the construction and reconstruction of 71 urban roads and the construction of 10 rural roads. Recently, the government approved the release of N183bn for the construction of 141 urban roads and 20 rural roads, which cut across the three senatorial districts of the state.
In the power sector, the governor was quick to initiate and sign the Enugu State Electricity Law and also establish the Enugu State Electricity Regulatory Commission. Consequently, Enugu became the first to benefit from the transfer of regulatory/oversight powers of the local electricity market to any state by the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in line with the amendments to the 1999 Constitution and the Electricity Act. This will now attract investments in power generation, transmission, and distribution in the state.
In the water sector, the administration broke the decades-old jinx of perennial water scarcity in Enugu metropolis, increasing production from occasional three million litres to 120 million litre per day; in the education sector, he is constructing 260 Smart Green Schools in the 260 wards of Enugu State and eight science, technical, and science colleges to properly equip Enugu children and youth with contemporary knowledge to fit into the envisioned Enugu economy and the global economy.
In the health sector, the administration is building 260 ultra-modern Type 2 Primary Healthcare Centres. In land administration, the government is close to reducing the waiting time to obtain a C-of-O to 72 hours maximum, while the Enugu State Properties Protection Law and the Enugu State Geographic Information Service Law have been put in place to sanitise land administration and checkmate the menace of land grabbing. In the justice sector, specialised courts such as the Commercial Court, Lands (or Real Estate) Court, and the Small Claim Court are in place for quick resolution of business disputes.
In the transportation space, Mbah is simultaneously constructing world-class transport interchanges/terminals at Ogbete/Holy Ghost, Gariki, Abakpa and Nsukka.
Likewise, the International Conference Centre (ICC), Hotel Presidential, Nigergas, etc. are coming back to life, while a five-star hotel is rising at the ICC to boost investment and
tourism. The Mbah-led administration is also working to have the international wing of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport completed and operationalised and also to construct a cargo terminal.
Currently, the government is catalysing an agricultural and agro-industrialisation revolution like in the Okpara days. It has garnered over 300,000 hectares of land as a landbank to boost agriculture and agro-industrialisation across its Produce Cities in the 17 LGAs.
Investors like Ugwu Anama Farms Enugu SPV Limited, Atlantico Farms and Agro Concepts Limited, Sujimoto Group, Fungtai Company Limited, among others, have all keyed in to engage in the planting of economic trees, crop farming, animal husbandry, and establishment of agro-allied industrial parks, among others.
Apart from the N100bn deal where investors are already putting in their own money to revive the moribund United Palm Products Limited, the administration is equally reviving the Songhai Farms Heneke in Ezeagu LGA in partnership with Britednuel Agro Limited. It has cultivated 1,000 hectres of cassava farm to support the cassava-to-ethanol-value chain development initiative of the federal government.
This is equally a government that sees MSMEs as the lifeblood of economic development. A fortnight ago, the government distributed inputs and grants worth over N4.6bn to farmers, communities, and IT startups in the state.
We have not yet reached our destination. By the way, state-building is always a journey in progress. But one thing is sure: Governor Mbah has shown that with the right vision, planning, execution and the right attitude, the immensely prosperous Enugu State that our founding fathers dreamed about is not only possible but also within reach. The long-awaited tomorrow is here.
Anichukwu writes from Enugu
