On October 9, 2022, just yesterday, Prince Emeka Odo played host to Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, the PDP Guber candidate for Enugu State and Ifeanyi Ossai, his running-mate. In spite of the extra-ordinary care taken to regulate the number of people allowed into the court-yard of Emeka Odo, it soon became clear that the security agents had enormous job on their hands.
Unfazed by the masked, ferocious-looking security guys stationed at the entrance, folks surged in like wave. A large compound by every standard, yet it was bursting at the seams. Make no mistake about it! The love for Peter Mbah and Ifeanyi Ossai in Enugu North is demonstrably real, unpretended and spontaneous. In fact, if, as it is apparently the case, Enugu North controls 58% of the voting strength of the State then victory for Peter Mbah and Ossai is a fait accompli.
Of course, something is going on in Nigeria! There seems to be an unspoken consensus that the time for social revolution is now! In fact, what is happening is more than an agitation, it is even more than an uproar, it is an outcry for socio-political re-modelling. It is National, Regional and Local. It is an outcry among the Nigerian citizenry determined to do away with the old, dynastic, cabalistic, clientelist, tit-bit-for-the-poor system, where a few rich families and their closed-circle cohorts feed fat at the expense of the masses, who are left to survive any which way.
As in any other society, Nsukka Zone has suffered terrible setbacks because of the choke-hold on Power by a few Dynasties. Before the emergence of Ugwuanyi, the Dynasties, and their proxies, had chained the Zone down hand and feet. Yet in all those years they had added no value to the Zone, except self-aggrandisement and self-perpetuation in the Corridors of Power. We were like a child crippled at birth, who has to endure the pain of watching his age-mates play skip rope.
Six decades after Nnamdi Azikiwe sited University of Nigeria at Nsukka, no single public academic institution was added to the Zone, yet in all those long years we were always ‘blessed’ with Representatives at the uppermost echelon of Power. The only thing that mattered to them is self. Now that our liberation is close at hand they are agitated. It is expected. Our joy is their pain and our pain is their joy. In Achebe’s Arrow of God we are told that among the Igbo even a god is discarded when it is no longer useful.
So, when Ifeanyi Ossai warns us against dancing to the broken gramophones of the past, he is probably addressing the old Dynasties standing in the way of our liberation. They do not want to see common people like us anywhere near the levers of Power, they do not want to see ordinary people like Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, and Ifeanyi Ossai preside over the affairs of the State. They consider them too common for the uncommon positions of Power. But God pass them!
The gramophone was invented by Emile Berliner in 1887 – we will not play it in 2023! We not only need new devices and new songs, but also new players, who understand the workings of MP3s, Bluetooth, and ITunes.
Anytime I listen to Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, I am reminded of Ikem Osodi of Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah, the one for whom the community is everything; the one with extraordinary intelligence, yet very ordinary in his ways. In the novel, the old man from Abazon has this to say about Ikem Osodi: ‘the cock that crows in the morning belongs to one household, but his voice is the property of the neighbourhood’ (Achebe 122).
Peter Mbah fits into this picture. Born in Owo, Nkanu East LGA, he has been able to transcend the limits of boundary and geography to become a global citizen. He pioneered the business empire – Pinnacle Oils and Gas – that presently controls 25% of the entire shares in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry, yet he is glad to bid farewell to that blooming empire to return to serve Enugu people. It is more than an act of courage, it is a heroic labour of love.
Yesterday, Mbah said to the crowd: ‘You are the enablers of our emergence as PDP candidates for 2023’. What followed this remark was rapturous applause that included even the villagers who ringed Emeka Odo’s abode to listen to Peter Mbah. A man famed for discipline, rigour, grit and resilience, Mbah has won the hearts of the ordinary people of Nsukka Zone.
Since he emerged the flag-bearer for PDP on May 25, 2022, he has exploited every opportunity to bond with the masses. In a State that is dominated 98% by the PDP, Mbah has refused to take the goodwill of Enugu people for granted. He has demonstrated in unambiguous terms that, in the final analysis, power belongs to the people.
One of the nicknames by which Peter Ndubuisi Mbah is known is Mr Project Atuegwu – the man, who is never intimidated by projects, no matter the size. He walked into the Oil and Gas Industry at a time Mobil and Oando had colonised the industry leaving not even a crack-space for new entrants. Yet, undeterred by the looming presence of these Behemoths, he bulldozed his way through by sheer force of innovation, determination, and brilliance. Today, in sub-Saharan Africa, if Pinnacle Oils sneezes, the Oil and Gas Industry will catch cold.
Indeed the game has changed! Today, new coinages have been introduced into our vocabulary – dormant assets, disruptive innovation, transcendental values, all thanks to Peter Mbah. Our Dormant Assets – oil shale, gas, glass sands, limestone, ironstone, clay minerals - will soon come to life to give us food, to create jobs and to fund infrastructures.
What is before us, as Henry Patrick would admonish, is a question of freedom or slavery. And the choice we make in 2023 with our PVCs is important not just for our today, but for our tomorrow and all our tomorrows.
God bless and guide Peter Mbah and Ifeanyi Ossai.
Long live Enugu State.
Dr. Hyginus Eze
