By Nnamani Arinze Darlington 

In most societies, citizens do not trust politicians. This anomaly is not only peculiar to Nigeria. So it makes no difference whether it is in an advanced democratic country or a developing country. For instance, 63 percent of Britians believed their politicians were mainly interested in themselves alone, according to the IPPR think tank poll conducted in 2021. Also, in another survey, 60 percent of Australians rank politicians very low on the issues of honesty and integrity. Similarly, in the US, a 2021 Gallup poll showed that 60 percent of Americans do not have confidence in their politicians. A 2013 study by the World Economic Forum (WEF) pointed out that the people’s trust in politicians in India hit an all-time low that year.

Expectations are high as ndi Enugu are anxious to see how Mbah will fulfill his campaign promises expecially in the area of water provision. In his acceptance speech, he said: "As I told you during the campaign, the administration we will run will bring joy to your hearts. We will make you remember March 18, 2023, with toothy smile. In infrastructure, health, tourism, education and development of our dear state in general, we will run a government that you can be proud of. We are in a hurry to dualize the Abakpa, Ugwuogo Nike-Nsukka road, build monorail from Enugu to Nsukka, Udi, and Awgu and construct a ring road to connect all the 17 local government areas of Enugu State. 

"We are in a hurry to build a world-class theme park in Enugu. We are in a hurry to establish Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in all the local government areas, as well as agro-allied processing zones and industrial parks in all our senatorial zones".

"We are in a hurry to unleash the tech talents in our young people and grow and nurture their interest in business and vocational skills. We shall build build a school of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), an innovation centre in each of the three senatorial zones."

"As we bring water to all homes in Enugu Metropolis within 180 days of our being sworn in, we shall bring water, in the shortest possible time, to Nsukka ,Oji River, Udi, Awgu and others too. We shall frontally confront the infrastructure deficits in all parts of the state and no one will be left behind."

Many campaign promises have no precise details on how they will be accomplished. Some Politicians create soundbites and colourful proclamations on massive projects they promise to build to improve the lives and material conditions of citizens. However, these politicians do not provide information on the feasibility or viability of these projects. They do not provide details on how and where they will get the funds for the project, who will oversee the project, the cost-benefit analysis, and who will benefit from it. What are the opportunity costs of the project, and how is the project linked to other projects to provide a system of infrastructure that supports economic sustainability and growth. But mbah has always told ndi Enugu what he intends to do and how he intends to do it because he is not a regular kind of politician who make mere political rhetorics. He has visibly told ndi Enugu how he will provide water in 180 days on resumption of duty as the Governor.

The promises of mbah to grow the state's economy exponentially from $4.4billion to $30 billion has been seen to be realistic because of his overwhelming outstanding antecedents and accomplishments in the private sector where he built Pinnacle Oil and Gas Ltd from scratch. Here was a startup with a N1 million capital base that commenced active operations in 2008 from a one-room studio apartment in Lagos State, and within 14 years rose to the pole position as the market leader in the Nigerian downstream petroleum industry. That company not only controls 23% of the market today but is ahead of multinational conglomerates such as Texaco, Conoil, Mobil, and other majors. Pinnacle Oil now in excess of one billion US dollars. This is why we are easily convinced that he will grow Enugu's economy because he is not only prepared, but comes with realistic and pragmatic antecedents of doing things radically differently with humongous results.

The theory of disruptive innovation first appeared in the harvard business review in 1995, with Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen coining the term in his research on disk-drive industry and also in his 1997 book The innovator's Dilemma: when New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Today, the term disruptive innovation is used broadly. It's often applied to any circumstances where a new technology ushers in significant business, industry or market changes and disrupts the status-quo. 

Some are still in doubt of Mbah's ambitious blueprint because of the dwindling revenues from the federations account. They ask vital questions of how Mbah will build over 10,000km of roads, provide water in 180 days, grow our economy seven-fold, build monorail, eradicate poverty, build agro-allied processing zones and make Enugu the most secure state in the country? They feel perplexed and uncertain  because those projects are heavily capital intensive. 

But they forgot that mbah is a progressive visionary leader with deep connections and clout in the private sector. He understands more about radical development, doing things differently by disrupting the status quo by providing the enabling environment for high influx of public private partnerships investments to the state, which will address the myriad and by mutually solving problems of unemployment, poverty, crime and insecurity. Indeed, Peter Mbah is ready to surmount all challenges to fullfil his election campaign promises to ndi Enugu.