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By Ifeanyichukwu Jaja
By witnessing the reality of vision, Enugu State has become a place where citizens have developed a calming-down effect about governance. It was said of the power of the British Parliament that it can literally change a man into a woman by the force of legislative configuration.
After a little more than three years, such transformative essence could be equated to the Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah administration in Enugu State. And the remarkable thing about the entire industrial marvel is that while transforming the governance architecture of the state, Mbah was also reinventing himself from a well-heeled oil magnate to a CoalCity Wonderboy through superlative socio-political re-engineering and communal cohesion he instigated.
The transformation of Enugu State, which has been an incremental recalibration of old systems, spanning urban infrastructure, rural amenities, civil service bureaucracy, healthcare, education and agribusiness, now reads like a love adventure. Because, when Mbah started mouthing grandiose concepts, ranging from disruptive economic modeling that points towards a giant leap from $4billion to $30billion economy, it sounded to those without the third eyemany as daydreaming.
But, in determined and surefooted steps, the dreamer began to sound like a drummer boy when he started weaving the narrative of smart schools and experiential learning that could produce, not only tomorrow’s leaders, but also tomorrow’s solutions for a rapidly changing socio-economic challenges in a titanic world.
And, this is where the Mbah magic simulates the clever weaving of the spider, which with its silks, is able over time to put out an incredible edifice that awes the mind. The interplay of social amenities and infrastructure and efficient services in delivering modern cities could be readily seen in our Enugu State of today, just because the governor dared to dream and think out of the box.
Or, how else could this sequence have been established if not that a clear prototype existed. He designed the Enugu State he envisioned, while crying out with a figurative metal gong like a town crier that, Tomorrow-is-Here!
That Tomorrow-Is-Here reflects in the 262 Smart Green Schools scattered all across the 17 councils of the state; is evident in the many rural roads with asphalt overlay; it consists in a modernized transportation system that funnels into five bus terminals and festooned with more than 100 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses.
The governor did not forget yesterday in his innovative transformation. Subsistence farming for which the state was well known received equal dose of attention. Of special note is the establishment of a modern Seed Testing Laboratory and Seed Gallery.
Speaking recently during the kick-off of this year’s planting season, when the government extended heavily subsidized inputs to farmers, the governor reiterated the fact that the transforming Enugu State’s economy to $30billion is contingent on agriculture as driver of wealth creation.
While noting that 40 per cent of the expected growth would come from agriculture, Governor Mbah spoke about the transitioning of subsistence farmers into commercial farming, stressing that his administration had always seen agriculture as more than just a mere source of food, but as big business.
He stated: “We are looking at exports, playing in all the value chains, being able to export fresh produce from here to other parts of the world, being able to process our produce, add value, package, and then export. This is also why the airport concession and cargo terminal are important to us.”
By mainstreaming agribusiness, security and healthcare into the major planks of his administration’s development agenda, the governor successfully covered the international syllabus for sustainable growth and economic prospective.
This think-piece is not intended to sing the praises of Governor Peter Mbah, but to situate the beauty of strategic planning and meticulous implementation of project ideas in modern governance. It is this: That while politics may give you access to public office, only faithful implementation of sound policies-impactful leadership and good governance can give you peace of mind.
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But, before we go further, it needs to be pointed out that the meticulous process that Governor Mbah deployed while assembling his aides helped in so many ways to record superlative achievements in his first term.
Mbah’s appointees could be said to be the distillation method he employed to purify his vision and socio-political policies. And, with Enugu State as the available laboratory, the governor was able to transform governance from pedestrian business-as-usual approach it has always been.
This digression is necessary to put the three sides of Governor Mbah’s excellent performance in office in correct perspective. Thought leaders agree that the process of transformation is as crucial as the outcome, so as to situate growth on the basis of impact. For emphasis, achievements are remarkable to the extent that growth or impact aligns with process.
The mental construct of Mbah’s Tomorrow-Is-Here governance schemes could be summarized in the totality of what his administration has been able to leave on the ground as concrete achievements and of measurable impact on the living well-being of the people.
Governor Mbah has blended the ancient and modern in the development of the state, which historical progress spans the colonial and post-colonial periods, including the immediate post-independent era that unfolded in the first republic and its civil war strife.
The scars of the civil war era, through the interrupted second republic’s hasty reconstruction and the fits and bits of the convoluted military interregnums left debris of infrastructure and public works. Governor Mbah has systematically cleared those dilapidated structures. In their place, a new Enugu State has emerged such that the 300-bed Enugu International Hospital, the International Conference Centre, with its adjoining 5-Star Hotels have combined to redefine the skyline of the old Coal City.
In the journey from the immediate past towards a new future, Mbah’s vision of Tomorrow-Is-Here has been condensed in the making of the new Enugu Capital City, which captures the great dreams of an emergent regional economic hub ready to receive the world through tourism enhanced by the Enugu Air.
The recent good news report from far away Kenya, about the Enugu Air came as a distant endorsement of Mbah’s grandiose vision and the modernity of his entrepreneurial ideas. By admitting the Enugu Airline into its membership subset, the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) has in strong terms announced Enugu State’s entry into the comity of international destinations.
It is debatable if Dubai would have attained its huge economic stature as a prosperous business hub without the DXB International Airport. According to AFRAA, by becoming 50th member, “Enugu Air represents the kind of homegrown investment that is vital to building resilient air connectivity across our continent.”
When the CoalCity Wonderboy unveiled Enugu Air in July 2025, some naysayers did not see the rationale for a state government to get involved in Airline business. But, with the AFRAA’s observations, Governor Mbah’s twin vision of migrating Enugu State to $30billion economy and positioning the Capital City as a regional airline and global tourism destination comes alive.
And, just as the Airline’s Chief Executive Officer, Captain Tolu Ita, remarked, the AFRAA membership, “underscores Enugu Air’s commitment to safe, reliable, and affordable air travel for Nigerians, while contributing to the vision of a unified African aviation market.”
It is therefore evident that Governor Mbah’s mission-minded delivery on his four-year mandate as Enugu State governor was not premised as a political gimmick. He fulfilled his promises with a private sector mindset and, now that his job is done, it is understandable why he merits, in the forthcoming 2027 gubernatorial poll, the thank-you ballots that the generality of Enugu State voters have assured him of.
Mbah’s service delivery and performance record present rich lessons for career politicians and overzealous jobbers that fret at the prospect of another election. When achievements are this monumental, they throw a kind of calming down effect on the polity: The people own their leader as their candidate!
• Dr. Jaja, writes from Amoli, Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State.
