By Ohayi Ukwueze

Everyone who lives in Enugu State can see light shine in the horizon of the Enugu economy, as Governor Mbah unleashes his economic transformation agenda founded on disruptive innovation on the state. The fact is that Peter Ndubuisi Mbah's capacity inimitably unqualified is something whose reality in practical terms has been communicated into the political consciousness of the state. While the people relish the hopes of a flourishing Enugu State, Governor Mbah would trigger uncommon strategies that form the bedrock for exponential economic growth and poverty eradication in the state.

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Wednesday, 29th June, 2023 made it exactly one month Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah took oath of office as the Governor of Enugu State. Already the lines are falling in pleasant places, as Mbah takes practical steps that position the state for the values he had proposed. His Excellency has taken practical steps and strategies meant to rejig the economy of the state which is the policy thrust of his administration. Ndi Enugu can see the bright light form in the horizon. Everyone is aware it is business unusual.

Immediately after his oath of office on 29th May, 2023, Governor Mbah assumed office and issued three Executive Orders: Order 001 of 2023, which is an executive order for the development of citizens’ charter; Executive Order 002 of 2003 for the removal of unauthorized street barriers across the state within 100 days and Executive Order 003 of 2023 for the promotion of economic growth through transparency and efficiency in government. Order 001 and 003 set the foundation for the implementation of his economic value propositions.

Impatient with any cog in the wheel to the take off of his economic objectives, Governor Mbah in the second week of his administration cancelled Monday sit-at-home in Enugu State. The governor saw the sit-at-home order as an unproductive measure, as it had yielded nothing positive in its assumed objective, if an objective it really is, to get the renditioned and detained IPOB leader, our own brother, Nnamdi Kanu, released from the DSS gulag. The Buhari-led Federal Government of Nigeria turned blind eye to it and kept Nnamdi Kanu in DSS custody till the end of his administration, and bequeathed the Tinubu Administration the injustice of Kanu's rendition and incarceration. Governor Mbah saw the sit-at-home order as a kind of double jeopardy to Ndi Igbo pitiably, if ironically, self-inflicted. Quite another is the fact that Monday sit-at-home carried with it the baggage of insecurity which was inimical to the attraction of the humongous investments Mbah had proposed. Governor Mbah did not just appeal to Tinubu to release Nnamdi Kanu from the prison, he took the practical step of visiting the president, and had a hearty discussions with him on the rason d'etre of Kanu's release in the spirit of national healing as the president had proposed in his inaugural speech, something that would yield fruit in no time.

The cancellation of the Monday sit-at-home in Enugu State would be resisted by miscreants who had hijacked the situation. Cases of shootings, killings and destruction of property at the pretext of punishment for defying the sit-at-home order had been recorded in the past before Mbah came on board, and the people had out of fear reluctantly stayed at home. Governor Mbah knew that making the pronouncement of the cancellation of the illegal order was one thing, providing adequate security for the people was quite another. And indeed Mbah ensured adequate security was provided, as there was no case of insecurity on Monday week since the cancellation. Markets and banks opened and the people went about their businesses without let.

Done with the sit-at-home brouhaha, Governor Mbah yet again swung into action to make for the engagement of the state in export business as he had proposed in his manifesto. For the governor, time is of essence. Things have got to be done. Mbah had during his visit to the president sued for partnership between the Enugu State Government and the Federal Government. In view of this, knowing full well that aviation is the exclusive reserve of the Federal Government, he hosted the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, Mr Kabir Yusuf Mohammed in Enugu. They had a fruitful discussion and toured the international wing of Akanu Ibiam International Airport as well as the proposed Cargo Terminal. Mbah made a proposal to complete work on the international wing of the airport, and also build the Cargo Terminal. The idea was meant to operationalize the international wing of the airport which has been lying fallow for 10 years- in order to activate the export venture purpose of the state government. The state government has identified agro-zones where agric produce would be processed for exports. By implication, agro processing industries will be sited in these places. Getting the international wing and Cargo Terminal working is the very first step in the realization of a transformed Enugu economy in the direction of international trade and the foreign exchange earning potentials.   

In clear understanding of the place of partnership and synergy in economies of scale, Governor Mbah would not only seek partnership at the local level. He would also go international. Mbah, few days ago, hosted the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr Richard Montgomery, in the Enugu Lion Building and did ask for technical assistance and support from Britain to enable the state to achieve its economic objectives. He pointed out to the High Commissioner the need for Enugu to partner with the UK in many ways such as electricity, cyber security, and so on. He also did ask that visa facilitation centre be restored in Enugu while lamenting the departure of Department for International Development (DFID) and the British Council from the state, unlike what used to obtain in the past. He asked that vital bodies be restored to the state. The High Commissioner himself did cherish the idea of partnership with the state, and Ndi Enugu look forward to this synergy with many of its potential benefits to the citizenry.

But Mbah was not yet done within the first one month of his administration. He has taken steps to market Enugu State to Diaspora investments, and would be attracting $2 billion worth of investment in the state by April next year -2024. This would begin with the state government hosting Investment and Economic Growth Stakeholder Roundtable in September 2023 as a precursor to the launch of the first edition of the Enugu State Diaspora and Investment Forum in April, 2024. According to His Excellency, this will be a "multi-stakeholder, fully transactional platform... to match project sponsors, domestic and international financial institutions, private investors including the diaspora investment community, and development partners to viable investment opportunities in the state that can deliver optimal risk adjusted returns for the global investing community whilst also increasing Enugu State's global competitiveness and driving development outcomes in the state." Governor Mbah went on in his press briefing about this project to invite public and private project sponsors, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, private equity funds, infrastructure funds, private investors, the African diaspora, and bilateral and multilateral development financial institutions to coinvest in Enugu State. By implication, by April next year, Mbah shall have injected $2 billion into the Enugu economy. The economic benefits of this growth, who can tell? The thousands of jobs it would create, the value chian effects and developmental trajectories, and heavy impacts on the Enugu economy have yet to be contemplated. Eyes have not seen neither has it entered into the hearts of men the astronomical level of economic impacts Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah of Enugu State is about to unleash. Yet this is morning on a creation day. By the time Governor Mbah is through with Enugu State in eight years, poverty shall have been totally eradicated.

What Ndi Enugu owe this illustrious, highly cerebral and resourceful enterpreneurial governor of ours is maximum support, cooperation, and compliance with his policies towards the lofty objectives of a transformed Enugu State. The innovations he brings on board may be disruptive, if uncomfortable, but surely beneficial to the people. Alas! Tomorrow is here.