One major crisis plaguing the world today is severe hunger. Gone are the days that we used to take our daily meals for granted. The same way our parents used to worry about school fees and house rent is the way we worry today about food. Several factors account for this: desert encroachment has diminished the amount of land available for agriculture, environmental degradation, war, terrorism and consequent displacement and humanitarian crisis have all conspired to render millions of people all over the world food insecure.
Yesterday, Peter Ndubuisi Mbah presented his ‘Statement of Purpose’. It is not for nothing that Mbah devoted ample space during his presentation detailing his plans on how he will achieve zero hunger for Enugu indigenes. We should take him seriously. He is exposed, and knows where the world is going. He is like a sage looking into the future, and pointing out potential challenges.
For example, South Sudan in East Africa has a population of about 11.5 million, just about the size of two States in the South-East. 8.3 million Sudanese, which is about 75% of the entire population of the country are facing severe hunger. According to FAO, about 346 million people in Africa are currently menaced by hunger. Three countries of Eastern Africa: Ethiopa, Kenya and Somalia are in extremely dire situations as, according to reports, people are already dying from starvation.
The situation in the world today is extremely grim. The only thing that can insulate us from this global challenge is to cast our votes for someone whose ideas are as innovative as they are radical, someone that has the capacity to catapult us into prosperity, someone, who is exposed to the best practices, who can transport us into an amazing world of opportunities. If we make the mistake to recycle a regular politician with pedestrian ideas, who would we blame but ourselves?
During the presentation, Peter Ndubuisi Mbah literally cast a spell on the audience in the auditorium of Godfrey Okoye University. For close to two hours, there was pin-drop silence only interpolated occasionally by bursts of music. The atmosphere was magical. Of course, I had known that Peter Mbah is super brilliant, but what he demonstrated yesterday before Enugu people was, to say the least, exceptional. His knowledge has depth and volume. It is no exaggeration to sum him as an encyclopaedia.
There is hardly an aspect of our socio-economic life that Mbah left unaddressed: peace and security, agro-allied industrialisation, e-governance, energy and mineral resources, creative industry, housing, ICT, infrastructure, tourism, health services, education, sports, just name them. And in each of these areas he is masterfully at home. He refers to his presentation as an almanac, which will he enjoined his audience to hang by their bedsides as a handy reminder of his social contract with Enugu people.
But nothing seems to have excited the audience more than when he said thus: ‘We are going to have zero hunger, and completely eradicate poverty in Enugu State’. Mbah is capable of accomplishing whatever he says he will do. He does not use any State in Nigeria or Africa as a benchmark. His benchmark is the West.
America is called a country of surplus. In Britain, most of the big super markets like TESCO, SAINTSBURY, ASDA etc have food banks, where anybody who was in need could go to rummage for food items. These things are possible with Peter Mbah.
Hunger and insecurity go pari passu. It is a total squander of time to work to achieve peace and security in a hungry society. It is simply not possible! Hunger and desperation are like Siamese twins. A hungry man is not only an angry man but a desperate person. Ndubuisi Mbah is poised to take away desperation from our people and in that way arrest insecurity and enthrone peace.
Those who have monitored the rhythm of Nigerian society are not surprised at the monsters of banditry, terrorism, dare-devil armed robbery, kidnapping etc that have come to set up tent in our society. It is simply a consequence of decades of economic enslavement. But our freedom neareth!
Peter Ndubuisi Mbah embodies ‘competence and character’. I don’t need to be told, neither do you. The magic called PINNACLE vindicates him. As the Chinese would say, ‘Don’t be a slave, be a citizen’. If my elder brother was contesting against Peter Mbah, I would never be double-minded about where to cast my vote. Because prosperity is like rain, it does not fall on one house and leave the other.
My countrymen and women! Good people of Coal City State! Let us band our energies and bond our hearts to deliver en masse our PVCs to Peter Ndubuisi Mbah. And having done that we would be able join men of goodwill on May 29, 2023 to sing ‘Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last!’
Long live Enugu State!
May God guide and prosper the Mbah/Ossai Project!
Dr Hyginus Eze
