There is something naturally likeable, something alluringly charismatic about both Peter Mbah and Ifeanyi Ossai. The duo have an inimitable way of infusing hope into people. Once they step into an arena they electrify the place. And it is not about political demagoguery, it is their solid knowledge that electrifies. I thought it was just me, an academic, bewitched by high voltage intellectuals. But after several persons have made similar remarks, I have realised that it is a general impression.
Mbah has carried himself with exceptional dignity. In the run up to the Gubernatorial primary in May this year when brickbats, name-calling, and character slurring were the order of the day, Mbah was probably the only aspirant, whose media team was groomed not to attack other aspirants. Of all the aspirants for the Guber ticket, his posters were the fewest. Yet he worked extremely hard for the ticket.
Hard work is Peter Mbah’s second nature. Even after he secured the ticket, he did not relent. Side by side with his running-mate, Ifeanyi Ossai, he toured all the 17 LGAs in the State in what the British people would describe as hustings. After the LGA tour in which he delivered more than a hundred speeches, some of us thought that Mbah and Ossai would coast to an Island for a well-earned rest.
That kind of luxury did not seem to cross their minds. Instead they zoomed off to the US for a conversation with Enugu indigenes in Diaspora. Symbolically and tellingly too, that engagement was held in California, the richest State in the US. And the message was unmistakable, unambiguous and categorical – economic prosperity.
Mbah has startled Enugu people into a new awareness with what he calls Dormant Assets. Who knew before now that this beautiful State has Oil Shale, Gas, Glass Sands, Limestone, Ironstone, Clay Minerals locking beneath? But it is true. Mbah is waking up the Giant in all of us and stoking up the flame of action, especially in the youth.
A new State is about to be born! In May, the same month in which Mbah clinched the Guber ticket, something prophetic happened. Gas flame suddenly burst forth in Emene, Enugu. A strange sight indeed! But definitely not strange to someone like me who had lived in the Niger Delta. It was Mother Nature in affirmation and solidarity with Peter Mbah to put to rest Doubting Thomases, who could not connect with the vision of an economically independent Enugu State.
In August 2022, the US economy added 315,000 new jobs and the statistics released by the US Bureau of Labor in September 2022 showed that unemployment rate was down to 3.7%. Yet, if Americans were to choose another leader today, job creation would still be top priority. How much more those of us who come from a country with an unemployment rate of 33% or even more?
Interestingly, the person, who is foisting himself upon us as an opponent to Mbah was our former Commissioner for Environment for more than seven years, yet he had no idea that his Ministry was sitting on unexplored Gold. Ideas rule the world, and no one can give what he or she does not have. We are like people living on the river bank and bathing with spittle.
Peter Obi has warned us not to entrust a leadership position to someone who has never created wealth. I couldn’t agree more. How can someone who has been a politician all his life, and who has perpetually lived off the tax of the common man convince us that he will make us prosperous? With what skills will he accomplish that? Where is the exposure? Where is the precedence? Is it not like asking my grandmother to give a lecture on Artificial Intelligence when she cannot operate an email? Haba!
The news emanating from Anambra State is that Soludo has awarded contracts for the construction of 1, 4053 road networks. It actually sounds outlandish, doesn’t it? Whatever may be the case it betokens of a Government with an ambitious agenda. If, in spite of all the echoes of prosperity around us, we choose to chain down ourselves hand and feet, who do we blame but ourselves?
I don’t know any other contender for Lion Building who can match the likes of Soludo like Peter Mbah. God has given us our own technocrat so that we can join the match for economic prosperity. We can choose to turn a blind eye to all this. But let’s be clear: what we do with this opportunity will decide where posterity will place us.
Tomorrow is Here is not a political mantra, it is not a dream, neither is it an imagination, it is not even a vision. It is a clear-cut mission powered by modern ideas.
God bless Mbah/Ossai 2023. God bless Enugu State.
Dr Hyginus Eze
