When I tweeted a few months ago that Peter Mbah has no challenger, some people thought I was just underrating the opposition. Now two months before we march to the poll, the opposition has not only whittled down, but has basically fizzled away. Peter Mbah has smothered his political opponents with his shinning intellect. Not even on one occasion did he squander his energy chastising his opponents or generating lies, or circulating spurious videos about them, rather he has consistently spotlighted his formidable capacity for innovation and change as the pivot of his campaign.
But something else also emerged with Peter Mbah: respect for the voter, which, of course, translates to respect for common people. Some keen political analysts have described Mbah’s political philosophy as Bottom-up. Instead of the Top-down approach, where a coterie of political elite will colonise the stage, and represent the ‘views’ of their communities, Peter Mbah has adopted a different approach, a mass-based system, where the people have direct access, and can interact one-on-one with the Leader.
The days of the Emperor-style of government are gone. With Peter Mbah, gone are the days, when the needs of the people are decided in the ‘oval’ office, and cascaded down to them.
This bottom-up approach is evident in the Town-hall meetings. Of the 68 development centres in Enugu State, Peter Mbah and Ifeanyi Ossai have visited close to forty of them, and will complete the remaining ones by early January 2023. The high spot of the engagements at the development centres is to afford the people an opportunity to present their priorities for the in-coming Administration. It is now the communities articulating their needs and presenting to the Government, and not the Government ramming into the communities projects blue-printed by men in three-piece suit, who may not be sympathetic to the development peculiarities of individual communities. But at the bottom of all this is that the voter has become the all-important figure in the political chain.
Indeed first impression matters. From day one Peter Mbah and Ifeanyi Ossai showed and have continued to show that the masses are the fulcrum of politics. They have brought hard work to politics, trudging through mud and swamp to meet with Enugu people. They have made the communities the hinge-point of their agenda. This is probably the first time, the voting masses have been so spotlighted that even agenda-setting is now in the court of public opinion.
There is no gainsaying that Mbah and Ossai are new sheriffs in town. A friend of mine just returned from Lagos after visiting Ndubuisi Mbah’s Tank Farm. He described the Farm as a tourist centre. And then whispered to me: ‘Peter Mbah is the reason why there is relative stability in fuel supply in Nigeria. Not less than 300 trucks leave his Farm on daily basis’. Is that the person Chijioke Edoga is going to spar with at the poll? No way! So, the reversion to insults, sham videos and concocted corruption stories by the opposition is understandable. It is a case of: if you can’t beat them, at least you try to destroy them. But God is the greatest.
Some people think that Peter Mbah should be a Presidential Candidate not Gubernatorial. Well, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a step. At the end of the next eight years, Nigerians will likely come to Peter Mbah cap in hand to replicate at the National level what he will have accomplished in Enugu. Mbah has left an indelible footprint in the business world; it is time for the political world to take note of this uncommon breed. Surely, luck has smiled upon Enugu people!
God bless Enugu State!
May God prosper Mbah/Ossai 2023 Project!
#Tomorrowishere!
Dr Hyginus Eze
