The candidates who qualify for the Noah’s Ark are those who have excelled either in public or private space or in both. Peter Obi is the handrail of the Movement because he excelled in both private and public space. As a business man, he is a billionaire. He is a leading importer of various goods. Yet, in all these accomplishments he has led a largely simple, noiseless life.
As an undergraduate at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Peter Obi was already winning contracts. In fact, he built a house at Nsukka, while he was an undergraduate.
In public life, he equally proved his mettle. In one clean sweep, he took Anambra State to a different pedestal. Till date, his achievement in education has no equal; he swept away the criminals, and laid the solid foundation upon which subsequent leaders are building.
So, there is a track record! Obi this! Obi that! It is not without a reason.
Does he have anything in common with Peter Mbah? Let’s check. Peter Mbah is fifty years old. By 1992, that is about thirty-one years ago (he was barely nineteen years) he already had a house in Lagos.
When Democracy returned, he was appointed Commissioner for Finance by the Government of Chimaroke Nnamani. Mbah soon gained public attention. He pioneered the poverty alleviation drive of the Government, and was ultimately rated as one of the ten best Commissioners nation-wide.
I have met a number of Nsukka persons, who were on the State Exco. Council at the same time as Mbah. They all describe him as soft-spoken and extraordinarily brilliant. The benchmark is track record.
Afterwards, he returned to business, this time in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry. Again his brilliance came to the fore. He began from scratch in a studio apartment with a staff strength of three. Fourteen years after, he has overtaken all the behemoths in the industry and now controls 25% of the entire shares in the industry.
He pushed Oando, Mobil, Texaco etc., to the background and took the centre-stage. A gold fish has no hiding place.
Just like in the case of Peter Obi, all this has been happening quietly, noiselessly. Until he emerged the guber ticket holder for PDP, many of us had no idea that an Enugu man was the knight in shining armour of Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry.
We are now aware that he has been investing his personal money in public infrastructures: magnificent auditoriums in some of our public and private universities, including an auditorium for Enugu Catholic Diocese; schools and hospitals in Nkanu East even when he probably had no political intentions. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah!
And now my dear Edoga! Where can we factor him in? An entrepreneur or public servant? His stinct in journalism was uneventful; and his record in public service is worse than abysmal. Did he leave any legacy as Isi-Uzo LGA Chairman? Any legacy as a House of Rep. Member? Or as Commissioner for Environment? Pray, what is his selling-point apart from emotional blackmail?
I have definitely gone past the stage of running from pillar to post in search of job, but I feel for the thousands of youths, who have to trek around on daily basis clutching their CVs; I feel for the millions of Nigerian youths who have to make do with jobs that are beneath their status; I feel for the millions of youths, who are leaving our universities in droves with fine degrees, yet unsure of where they are headed for.
Now, we have a chance to change the obnoxious destiny foisted upon us by career politicians, at least in our own sub-unit (Enugu State). Peter Mbah has been in the business of creating wealth and generating jobs. And God has blessed us with him. Let’s seize the day!
God bless Enugu State!
May God bless Mbah/Ossai 2023 Project!
Dr Hyginus Eze
