Beyond Party affiliations, there is the centrepetal force that naturally draws Governor Mbah of Enugu State and President Tinubu to the centre of a set, the circle of transformational governance. It is apparently the spirit of achievement that gravitates the two leaders to the centre point of governance deliverables such as unbowed before the ferocious tempest of partisan politics. As President Tinubu puts it, it really does not matter to which party any of the leaders belong. After all, elections are over, and now is the time for governance.
President Tinubu is a known achiever. Modern Lagos is today what he made of it. As a matter of fact, Tinubu's template of development is a working tool that has paid off in the hands of the successive administrations of Lagos State from 1999 to date. Even when, for whatever political reason, statutory federal allocations to Lagos State local governments were stopped by the federal government, Tinubu remained unfazed in his developmental strides. He continued with his developmental agenda for the state up until when the Supreme Court ordered that the allocations be released to Lagos State. His was a standard reference for good governance that revved up the GDP of Lagos State to what it is today - N41.17 trillion, that is, &102.1 billion. Thinking of development, Tinubu is an archytpe of it with such huge consciousness in Lagos State. President Tinubu has also brought this same spirit to the governance of Nigeria, introducing reforms and transformational policies that would engeder the future prosperity of the nation despite the immediate natural pains that go with economic reformation.
What Tinubu began and achieved in Lagos State is what Mbah has begun in Enugu State. Incidentally, both Mbah and Tinubu have private sector backgrounds.There is the entrepreneurial spirit in both leaders that drives them to giant development strides, which, of course, have huge positive impacts in the lives of their people.
What Peter Mbah has begun in Enugu State targets the revving up of the GDP of Enugu State from paltry &4.4 billion to &30 billion in four to eight years with a view to reduce the state's poverty headcount index to zero per cent.The target is to make the state the first choice of investment destination in Nigeria, thereby driving the state to the level of one of the three biggest subnational economies in Nigeria.
The preponderance of infrastructure unleashed on the state: the road infrastructure; the setting up of the Distress Response Squad, building of Command and Control Centre with its appurtenaces of AI-embedded surveillance cameras, thereby bringing to bear a world class security infrastructure in the state; the giant strides in the social sector: 260 smart schools, 260 type 2 primary healthcare centres, the construction of Enugu International Hospital; the bullish reactivation of the state-owned dormant assets: International Conference Centre, Hotel Presidential, United Palm Product Limited with the attracted investment of N100 billion, Niger Gas, Sunrise Flour Mills, and so on; the ongoing construction of New Enugu Smart City to rank with any known city in the world with its huge revenue and tourism potentials; the attraction of foreign direct investment in the downstream water management system to the tune of &1 million and the trail-blazing achievement of daily generation of 120 million litres of water at the upstream level, and many other projects in the energy, agriculture, trade and investment, to mention no more. As a matter of fact, the Mbah Administration has over 1000 multi-sectoral projects currently being executed in the state.
The 2024 budget of Enugu State recorded 100% performance with its 79/21 capital expenditure ratio to recurrent expenditure. It was an unprecedented big ticket budget of "Disruptive Economic Growth" to the tune of N521.5 billion. This points to the development policy of the Mbah Administration. While the 2024 budget was amazing, Mbah came up with a stunning unheard-of huge ticket of yet another budget tagged "Budget of Exponential Growth and Inclusive Prosperity" with a whooping N971.84 billion. The budget is structured in such a way that capital expenditure got 86 per cent of the entire sum, while recurrent expenditure got 14 per cent. Education alone, as it was in the previous year's budget, got over 33 per cent of the entire budget sum. This shows Mbah priortizes capital projects in line with his development agenda as contained in his manifesto, which is being implemented with puritanical resoluteness.
Mbah is impatient with the development of Enugu State. He has literally turned Enugu State into a construction site. As a matter of fact, he has an eye on foreign and local investors, and if you would attract bees, plant flowers. It takes courage and such entrepreneurial spirit such as found in Tinubu and Mbah for a non-oil-producing state with relative and comparative paltry allocation from the federation account to take such audacious moves as Mbah has done. It takes thoughtful financial intelligence to device alternative finance models that have the capacity to shoulder the astronomical volume of development strides Mbah has unleashed, given that federal allocation can only scratch the surface. Yet Mbah does not flag off any project whose funding has not been secured. All contractors working for the state can attest to the fact that they are paid five days after handing in their certificates.
Mbah, like Tinubu, is a trailblazer. He has within one and a half years of his ascenderance to the governance throne of Enugu State laid the strong foundation on which the strong Enugu economy of his dream stands, just like what Tinubu did in Lagos State that has sustainably held Lagos to the Olympian heights of economic prosperity.
In Enugu, on January 4, 2025, President Tinubu commissioned many of the Mbah projects. Mbah could not have asked for anyone else, but a leader of the same hue of antecedents of good governance. It is this shared estate of the spirit of selfless governance and unprecedented development strides that inform the centrepetal cord that pulls Mbah and Tinubu to the gravitational centre of uncommon achievements unbowed to the infernal hands of partisan politics.
