(Ugoachataberu)
Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah is deliberate about his passion for the growth of the Enugu economy to the heights as he proposed in his manifesto: a GDP size of $30 billion. Dr Mbah is quite strategic and at home with the roadmap. He has also identified potential ecumbrances to the attainment of zero percent poverty headcount in the state, and has taken bold steps to nip them in the board.
Mbah is barely three weeks in office, and had already taken decisive decisions aimed at clearing the coast for the take off of his lofty objectives. In the second week of his administration, Governor Mbah made a proclamation, cancelling the Monday sit-at-home in Enugu State which had been observed since August 9, 2021. He identified it as a cog in the wheel of the state's economy with its attendant insecurity and loss of trillions of naira since it began in the South East. Governor Mbah knew that it would be difficult to make Enugu State the first choice of investment destination should the Monday sit-at-home persist. No investor would find attractive a place where on the first day of the week, the entire state is shut down and movement of people, goods and services utterly restricted.
Quite another is that the said Monday sit-at-home ordered by non-state actors purportedly meant to cause the federal government to release Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), failed in toto as it did achieve nothing. Governor Mbah sought an efficacious strategy founded on political engagement of the president to appreciate the need to release Kanu in the spirit of national healing. Not only did Mbah appeal to the president to release Kanu, he also visited President Tinubu at the state house, and had a robust discussion with him on the need to release Kanu. The result of the visit shall soon crystalize in positive terms. The Monday sit-at-home syndrome this cleared paves the way for Governor Mbah to begin the growth of the Enugu economy as he had proposed.
Impatient with anything that would hamper his move of the Enugu State economy to Eldorado, Governor Mbah identified the comatose state of the international wing of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport Enugu and the Cargo Terminal as quite another elephant in the room that needs to be driven away. The fact is that Governor Mbah is poised to move agriculture from pipeline to platform, having identified the various agro-zones in the state during the electioneering campaigns when he toured the 68 development centres in the state. The agro-based industries he would establish in the state shall process agro produce not just for consumption but for exports. The international airport and the cargo terminal would help in the proposed export programme that would earn the state much revenue.
Governor Mbah, therefore, thoughtfully moved to partner with the federal government to ensure the international wing of the airport and the cargo terminal are operationalized. Recall that Mbah had paid President Tinubu a visit where he discussed inter alia with the president the way to partner with the Enugu State Government in enhancing its economy. The question of partnership was also revisited when the Senate Present, Godswill Akpabio, paid him a courtesy call at Government House, Enugu, following his visit to Enugu during the burial of the wife of the former Senate President, Ken Nnamani, on Friday 16th June, 2023. Governor Mbah means business and smartly commits to it as he seeks partnership and the needed synergy for the economic growth of Enugu State.
Aviation may not be in the concurrent list, as the attempt to move it to the concurrent list in the amendment of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in March, 2022 hit the backwaters, and so has remained in the exclusive list. Nonetheless, Governor Mbah, knowing how to navigate through the labyrinth of obstacles, creatively thought a way out. He seeks the permission of the federal government to complete work on the international terminal, build the cargo terminal, and get them operationalized. Governor Mbah is aware of the economic benefits of the operationalization of the terminals. He would envisage 3 million persons coming into Enugu annually via the international airport and the tourism potentials that holds with its economic benefits. By implication, 10,000 persons visiting Enugu on daily basis would mean that about a hundred planes would land at the airport everyday. Governor Mbah is analytical and thorough and knows the way to his proposed values.
Partnership with the federal government in the operationalization of the international airport would imply the federal government reimbursing the state of the cost of the completion of the terminals. Even if the federal government would not, it does not diminish the humongous economic benefits of getting the international wing of the airport and the cargo terminal working to the people of Enugu State and the state's economy. It should be noted that the international wing has been lying fallow for 10 years now. It was a project initiated by the Jonathan administration but which had been abandoned for too long. Governor Mbah took a tour of the international wing and the cargo terminal as he was conducted round the two places by the visiting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Kabir Yusuf Mohammed. The tour of the place enabled Governor Mbah to see for himself the level of work already done and what would require to be done to make the international and cargo terminals operable.
Governor Mbah has within this short while hit the ground running. He has left no one in doubt of the fact that he has come to turn the state around on all fronts. It is clear to everyone that Enugu is in the hope of doing great as Mbah is fully disposed to implement his manifesto to the lees. Indeed, tomorrow is here.
