By Paul Mbagwu

Dr. Peter Mbah, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the March 18 governorship election in Enugu state was declared the winner of the election, last Wednesday.

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Mbah, who became Governor-elect after the results of the controversial Nkanu East Local Government Area were collated, polled 160,895 votes to defeat the closest contender, Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party, who polled a total of 157,552 votes.

His emergence came after the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had suspended collation of results over allegations of over-voting and results manipulation in Nkanu East and Nsukka areas of the state.

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A Nigerian maritime lawyer, politician, founder, and Chief Executive Officer of Pinnacle Oil and Gas Ltd, Mbah wields influence and authority with exemplary focus. The visionary professional and financial analyst is poised to take over from Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi come May 29, to drive a desired change and deliver the best governance to the people of Enugu.
Education
Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, an accomplished professional-cum-politician, was born on March 17, 1972. He hails from Owo in Nkanu East Local Government Area of Enugu State.
Mbah attended the Army Children’s School, Bori Camp, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where he passed his First School Leaving Certificate with distinction. He subsequently gained admission into Owode High School, Owode Egba, Ogun State, where he obtained his Senior Secondary School Certificate in 1992.

He left the country to study law at the University of East London, U.K., where he earned a Bachelor of Law in 2000. He then proceeded to the Nigerian Law School and was called to the Nigerian Bar. He has a master’s degree in Maritime and Commercial Law awarded by Lagos State University in 2004. While at the University of East London, UEL, he was elected President of the Students Law Society between 1998 and 1999.

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Mbah was also a member of the Students’ Representative Council of the UEL, as well as a Member of the School of Law Board, where he represented the final year students. He won the first prize in the University of East London Mooting Competition and led the university’s team to the International Negotiation Competition.

For his postgraduate studies, Dr. Mbah acquired a Master’s degree in Maritime and Commercial Law from Lagos State University in 2004 and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the IESE Business School, Barcelona, the University of Navarra, Spain.

He attended the Chief Executive Programme at the Lagos Business School, and the Post Graduate Diploma programme in Strategy and Innovation at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

Mbah, always in pursuit of self-improvement, attended numerous other executive programmes in leading business schools across the world, including the Stanford Business School and Harvard Business School.

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Since graduation from the university, Dr. Mbah has distinguished himself in entrepreneurship and business innovation. Besides founding Pinnacle Oil and Gas Ltd., from an almost zero base worth and nil reckoning in the corporate world, he sits atop the board and management of Pinnacle Pointers, a real estate and hospitality company.

His business and professional interests traverse import trade, oil and gas sales and distributions, maritime logistics, and public service.

A Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of numerous successful companies, Mbah also sits on the boards of several establishments. Before Pinnacle Oil and Gas Ltd., he had earlier founded the Peter Mbah Investment Limited, a trading firm that served as the sole Nigerian representative to International Oil Corporation (IOC) based in Fresno, California, USA.

He also founded GILPEL Industries Ltd., a trading company involved in the import and sales of domestic electrical appliances, as well as Focus International Schools, a world-class Primary and Secondary school based in Lagos.

Pinnacle Oil and Gas Ltd. entered the Nigerian oil and gas industry in 2008 as a late entrant but has gained preeminence through revolutionising petroleum product handling by significantly reducing costs and turn-around time of operations.

The company’s ultra-modern Offshore Petroleum Products Intake and Off-take Facility in the Lekki Free Zone, Lagos, is the first of its kind in West Africa, boasting one offshore mooring system and 300,000,000-ltr capacity of petroleum storage.

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Pinnacle Oil and Gas Ltd. also operates another storage facility and jetty in Warri, as well as a fleet of trucks and a network of retail petroleum service stations with branches across the country.

Dr. Mbah’s first foray into public service was between 2003 and 2007 when he served first as the Chief of Staff in the administration of Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, and subsequently as the Enugu State Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development.

He was a member of the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee, the Enugu State Executive Council as well as a member of the State Security Council. He also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Enugu State Insurance Company, Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Enugu State Finance and Investment Company, and Chairman of the Enugu State Tenders’ Board.

Mbah is a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). On May 25, 2022, Peter Mbah emerged as the Enugu state governorship candidate of PDP ahead of Nigeria`s 2023 general elections, following the primary election held in Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu, with a total of 790 votes out of the 807 cast by the delegates.
Charity
He is also the founder of the Peter Mbah Foundation (PMF), a non-profit, non-political, humanitarian-oriented organization aimed at improving healthcare and standards of living in rural communities.

PMF has since developed a 40-bed hospital in Enugu State, built several kilometers of rural roads, defrayed hospital bills for countless patients in hospitals across the country, and funded the education of numerous students through the Foundation’s scholarship programme.

Mbah is a Fellow of the Certified Institute of Public Administration and Management, (CIPM), a member of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and holds an honorary Doctorate degree in Political Science from the Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu. He is a member of the Lagos Yacht Club and the Enugu Sports Club. He is also a member of the Governing Council of Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu.

Dr. Mbah is happily married and blessed with children.

VANGUARD