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“The heat of the battle is as sweet as the victory.” —Bob Marley
By Omoniyi Salaudeen
Victory is sweet, but it comes with pains. For the Governor of Enugu State, Dr Peter Mbah, whose mandate has just been affirmed by the Supreme Court judgment delivered on Friday, his hard-won victory combines physical and emotional pains. From the very onset of the defence of the legitimacy of his mandate at the governorship election petition tribunal all through the appeal, eventually terminating at the apex court, it’s been a lot of anxiety and suspense. It’s a big relief that the wheel of justice has finally drudged to a halt.
The Labour Party and its candidate, Hon. Chijioke Edeoga, had approached the Election Petitions Tribunal to challenge the outcome of the governorship election held on March 18, 2023. But both the Tribunal and the Appeal Court upheld the declaration of Mbah as the winner of the poll conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Still not satisfied, Edeoga and LP went further to challenge the victory at the apex court.
The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision delivered by a five-member panel of justices on Friday, finally dismissed the suit bordering on the non-qualification of Mbah for allegedly forging his National Youth Service Corps discharge certificate. And that finally laid to rest six months of intense fire legal works between the councels to the two parties.
Reacting to the judgment, Mbah said: “This judicial journey has been a huge emotional, physical, and spiritual investment for you the people of Enugu. First, our case was heard and examined during an exhaustive process at the Enugu State Election Petitions Tribunal, and in the end your mandate was upheld.
“The appellate court sitting in Lagos again upheld the previous decision via a unanimous decision. Today, the Supreme Court has again upheld this victory for the people of Enugu State.
“Ndi Enugu, you are the victors of this judicial journey. I salute your dogged belief in us. Your unalloyed support and prayers at every attempt to subvert your man. The Supreme Court on Friday affirmed the election of Peter Mbah as the governor of Enugu State.”
By the judgment, it can rightly be said that Governor Mbah has put all the distractions behind him. It is now time for him to concentrate his energies on the delivery of his electoral promises.
Topmost on the agenda of the administration is to grow the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the current $4.4 billion to $30 billion in the next four to eight years.
Now is the time to work the talk. And time is of the essence, especially considering the precious time and energies that had been dissipated on pursuing the case to its logical conclusion. Six months of distraction in a four-year tenure is a great deal of loss to the government and the people.
What that implies is for the governor and his team to redouble their effort to cover the lost ground. Otherwise, the tall ambition to achieve $30 billion in GDP growth in an economy that is full of uncertainty would turn out to be a rope of sand.
It is a task for all and sundry, but the government must be seen leading the charge by creating an enabling environment for industries to thrive, as well as the necessary incentive for the youths to be a part of the vision to boost productivity.
The good news here is that the Southeast Zone of the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN) has already indicated its readiness to align with the government’s agenda to expand the state’s GDP.
This was made known recently by the association’s zonal Chairman, Mrs Ada Chukwudozie, when she led a delegation of the group to visit the governor in his office at the Government House, Enugu.
She said: “We are very proud and happy that Enugu State has gotten it so well by electing you as governor. We know your antecedents and achievements in the oil and gas sector, your sound background as a lawyer, finance expert, and astute businessman. We have no doubt that you will bring your innovative and strategic way of thinking and principles to bear in the governance of the state.
“We have seen what you have done so far, and we have no doubt that they are steps in the right direction. We have come to align ourselves with your transformative agenda. You want Enugu State to be peaceful, secure, prosperous, and highly developed.”
With MAN’s commitment, it is now left for the government to identify the areas of comparative advantage and harness the resources in the state for the benefit of all.
It is equally apt and auspicious that the governor has included an aggressive revenue drive as part of the cardinal agenda of his administration. This has become imperative as the right way to reduce over-dependence on revenue allocation from the Federal Government. Only recently, the Annual State Viability Index using state Internally Revenue Generating capacity as a percentage of its federal accounts allocation for 2023 declared Bayelsa, Katsina, Jigawa, Niger, Adamawa, Yobe and Taraba, among others, as insolvent.
According to the report conducted by Economic Confidential, the states are insolvent due to the IGR of less than 10 per cent of the total receipts of their federal allocation.
On the flip side, Enugu is currently not among the top states that can confidently survive without any federal allocation. Lagos, Rivers, Ogun, Kaduna, Oyo, and Anambra constitute the league of states that have the highest percentage of IGR to federal allocation and, therefore, can sustain themselves without the support of the centre.
Enugu too needs to step up its game. And this is where Mbah’s promise to digitalise tax collection to raise the state’s revenue-generating capacity would be put to test. It is only by so doing that his pledge to transform the infrastructural landscape of Enugu State and provide potable water to every nook and cranny of the state can be achieved.
It is not enough to mouth massive infrastructural development funded through an aggressive revenue drive via the electronic ticketing system (e-ticket) of taxation, the drive must be backed by action.
As the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) savours the sweet victory of Governor Mbah so also must it keep an eye on the performance of the administration to sustain itself as a ruling party in the state beyond the present tenure of four years.
