Assessing Gov Mbah’s Transformation Drive In Enugu

On May 29th, 2023, Gov Peter Mbah of Enugu State was sworn in. He came with the mantra of “Tomorrow is here”. He also gave himself tasks and timeframes to accomplish some herculean promises he made during his campaign. He further projected raising the state GDP from its $4.4bn to $30bn in eight years. How far he has fared in the past two years is the focus of this assessment by Chinedu Aroh.

Water sector

The topography of Enugu metropolis makes potable water supplies to the ancient city a herculean task. 9th Mile, about 23 kilometres’ drive to Enugu, is the only water source to the Coal City right from the colonial era, no thanks to coal deposits which make water dug beneath Enugu soil unsafe for human consumption. Mbah therefore met an Enugu whose source of water was solely by commercial tanker drivers. In fact, Enugu State Government House procured its own water tankers serving the Lion Building and some government officials specifically.

Gov Mbah, during his campaign, promised to make water run in the city within 180 days in office. Most people did not believe him. True to his words, he accomplished the task. He commissioned the 9th Mile 24/7 Water Scheme which is capable of producing seventy million litres of water per day before the 180 days elapsed. He also built a 4.4mw gas powered plant to power the water scheme. He also fixed bad pipes to ensure a seamless supply of water to the city.

Dr Chima Nnanna is a hydrologist based in Enugu. He praised Gov Mbah for the records, adding, however, that, “The dilapidation of water pipes within the metropolis is the next challenge that surfaced, but it is being tackled in segments. That is why water is not running everywhere in the metropolis. But many areas now enjoy regular water supply. The capacity is already there. New pipes are being laid to replace non-functional ones. People also built structures on water pipelines. These anomalies are being corrected.”

Security

Gov Mbah met an Enugu State threatened by insecurity. Cattle herders’ attacks and rampant cases of kidnapping in almost all its LGAs were at their crescendo. Mbah’s pledge to adopt hi-tech in combating insecurity was like a fiery tale. While he kept supporting security operatives in enhancing their operations, Mbah went ahead with his techno-security plans, leading to the launch of Enugu State’s ultramodern Command and Control Centre recently. President Bola Tinubu and Police IG extolled the initiative when they visited the state. The control room accesses many parts of the state, enabling accurate security responses to emergencies. It also accesses security cameras installed in Rapid Distress Response vehicles deployed at strategic parts of the state. This technology is aiding the surveillance of conventional security agencies and local vigilantes in intelligence gathering.

Moribund Industries

Enugu State, being erstwhile headquarters of the Old Eastern Region, houses legacy public infrastructure, such as Hotel Presidential, International Conference Centre, Emenite Roofing, Nigergas, Nigercem, and Nike Lake Resort. For reasons best known to some succeeding governors of the state, these edifices were left to die. Gov Mbah, within the years under review, did the unthinkable.

Nana Ogbodo is an Enugu-based lawyer. He said, “Those things we had considered impossible were actually the issues he simply regards as low-hanging fruits. The International Conference Centre previously regarded as untenable is now one of the defining monuments in Enugu. Ditto the decrepit and abandoned Presidential Hotel and even the moribund Nike Lake Resort. These assets had diminished all administrations that had delved into reinventing them. The Enugu Palm Plantation, the Sunrise Flour Mill, and the Niger Gas have all been revitalized.”

Education

The immediate past administration in the state was considered to have broken records when it rehabilitated many dilapidated primary schools under its UBEC-counterpart funded initiative. Mbah, during his campaign, talked about building Smart Green Schools in all Enugu’s 260 wards. Two years in office, ultra-modern Smart Green Schools are dotted in every political ward in the state. The schools, homogenous in all standards, are ICT-driven, with the teachers being trained and re-trained to be ICT-complaint. Some of the schools have started operations while others are in the pipeline.
A private school proprietor, Dr Sabinus Ogbu, told THE WHISTLER, “This administration has bridged the gap between private and public schools. These smart schools are free education, boarding and feeding inclusive. They are designed to bridge the digital divide, ensuring that students in both urban and rural areas have equal access to quality education powered by technology. The partnership with e-School Africa further strengthens this initiative by bringing in technical expertise and sustainable digital education solutions.”

Health

The Mbah administration approached its health reforms holistically: from primary health care to tertiary. The same way Gov Mbah distributed 260 Smart Schools across its 260 wards is the same way he did in citing type-2 primary health centres.

The Executive Secretary, Enugu State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Ifeyinwa Ani-Osheku, said, “His Excellency is ensuring every ward in Enugu State has a brand type-2 primary health care centre. A type-2 primary health care centre functions twenty-four hours. Each of these primary health centres comes with a main clinic. Each of this facility has renewable green energy by way of solar and solar-driven boreholes to ensure constant availability of water supply. By May 29th, we would have at the very minimum completed over 200 primary health centres. We are also renovating some of our existing primary health centres. Some of them are supported via federal funding while some are still enabled by this government.”

At the tertiary level, Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Parklane, has undergone renovation both in structure and equipment. Its dwarf emergency unit has now become an ultra-modern two storey building with new adjoining structures, making it balanced for the best health delivery. The Mbah administration is also building new structures and recruiting qualified health workers, especially following the exodus of many medical personnel for greener pastures. The state is also building a state-of-the-art medical facility at Independence Layout which experts say would attract medical tourism to Enugu State.

Transportation/road infrastructure

The administration rehabilitated and reconstructed numerous dilapidated roads in the metropolis to enhance transportation of goods and services. A few months ago, the governor flagged off the reconstruction of 141 roads in the metropolis shortly after commissioning forty-one completed ones. He also built standard transport interchange centres at Holy Ghost, Gariki, Nsukka, among others. Mbah recently unveiled CNG buses which would soon become operational. The buses will be cost-friendly and cover every part of the state. That’s not all, Enugu Air is set to fly both locally and internally. He has also announced plans to establish a rail line linking all South-East states.

Agriculture

Enugu State targeted 300,000 hectares of farmland for agricultural purposes on assumption of office of the governor in 2023. The target has not been met, but Patrick Ubru, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, confirmed that a total of 187,934 hectares across the state’s 17 LGAs had been acquired. The administration also conducts continuous update and registration of farmers’ data to ensure that Enugu State has verified data of its farmers. This effort led to the capturing of 67,000 farmers’ data with over 80 farmer cooperatives registered so far, Ubru said.

The Mbah revolution has propelled Enugu among the leading cassava producing states in Nigeria. Ubru said the state had committed itself to it Cassava Ethanol Bio-Refining Project, adding that currently, 460 hectares of land had been cultivated with cassava with the construction of the industrial park ongoing at Egede/Affa communities in Udi LGA; and construction and installation of processing equipment at the Bioethanol Industrial Park at Egede.

Just as Gov Mbah is building health centres and smart schools in every political ward, his administration is also aggressively establishing 260 farm estates across the state’s 260 political wards. Through this initiative, the state targets creation of 52,000 direct jobs and an excess of 100,000 indirect jobs.

In agro-implements, the Mbah administration recently procured 1,000 tractors for mechanisation, with 100 tractors already received. The deal includes the assemblage of the remaining numbers of the tractors in Enugu by the manufacturers who would set up their factory in the state as part of the MoU. Enugu is also into rice farming, with Mbah’s launch of Enugu Rice Brand in 2023. Over 150 tons of milled rice were supplied to the Enugu State Ministry of Agriculture by local processors, Ubru confirmed. The state’s agro initiatives are being enabled through its partnerships with donor agencies such as IFAD-VCDP, APPEALS, FADAMA-CARE and ATASP-1.

Areas Needing Action

There are still areas that need urgent improvement. Mr Uchenna Nnadi is the Director General, Nsukka Chamber of Industries, Mines and Agriculture. He wants Gov Mbah to do more on insecurity following kidnap cases and herders-farmers’ clashes in some remote areas.
According to him, “The security situation is such that it should awaken the state’s unique strengths strategically to deal with our unique challenges without further delay. We should rediscover and strengthen our community-based security systems based on our clan system. We should also recreate indigenous border security and surveillance to generate intelligence and repel attacks, coordinated and funded by the communities and LGAs, and further address socio-economic drivers of insecurity using our indigenous apprenticeship system and other similar schemes. We should also strategically mobilise and build resilience through infrastructure and services using zonal integrated development plans, and then develop super efficient and effective communication strategies to counter misinformation and build social cohesion in the state with its neighbours and the world.”

Taxation

The defence by Mr Emmanuel Nnamani, the Executive Secretary, Enugu State Revenue Board, that the high taxation being imposed on traders is consolidated, as it is paid once in a year, has not convinced Enugu traders on why they should pay such amounts under Mbah.
Innocent Mama is an executive of a traders’ association in the state. He said, “It is too high for traders to be paying N36, 000 and above yearly. Keke operators pay about N400 daily. Commercial drivers pay N500 daily and so on. Even ‘pure’ water sellers are levied daily. How much do we make to pay such? The governor should look into reducing it.”

Unpaid LG Pensions, Gratuities

Enugu State is among states that owed backlogs of pensions and gratuities. Gov Mbah inherited such backlogs from his predecessors. In his bid to find a lasting solution to it, he conducted a biometric capture of state workers and pensioners. Having established their accurate figures, he is on the verge of making history to clear the arrears as well as forestall a recurrence.
But the same is not said about LG pensioners in the state. Moses Eze is a retired pensioner in Udi LGA. He said, “We are being owed many years of unpaid arrears of pensions and gratuities. I hear the federal allocation has increased, but it has not positively affected us. Let Gov Mbah and LG chairmen look into our plight. Most of us are dying. The governor is trying, but we are dying. The state and the LGAs operate joint accounts in our case. Let them save us.”

Demolition without compensation

Comrade Ibuchukwu Ezike is the Executive Director, Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO). He said Gov Mbah had not been fair to owners of property demolished by his administration.

According to him, “Demolitions everywhere, even where construction works have not gotten to! Was there any discussion between the victims of these demolitions and the government or even the contractors; or were the victims compensated? Did they prepare the lists of the victims in case a people-centred government who would want to compensate the victims emerges tomorrow?”

Assessing Gov Mbah’s Transformation Drive In Enugu is first published on The Whistler Newspaper