Tag: tinubu

When I saw Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State in a photo-ops at the presidential villa last week, with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT), I had the feeling that my state governor is grappling with the political dynamics of the emergent Tinubu era. In my piece on: “Southeast geopolitical interests” after the Supreme Court affirmed the election of PBAT beyond every reasonable doubt, I urged the opposition politicians of the south-east zone to engage in political détente with PBAT for obvious reasons.

For the first time since the present republic, we have a dyed in the wood politician at the helm of the nation’s affairs. Tinubu is unlike his predecessors, who were drafted by external forces into the presidential palace. Starting from Olusegun Obasanjo, who was moored into the presidency by the military oligarchs, to Umaru Musa Yara’Adua who was drafted military-style by Obasanjo into the office, to Goodluck Jonathan whose good luck impelled into the presidency, and finally Muhammadu Buhari whose fabricated messianic robe propelled to power, none craved and crafted his way to the presidency like Tinubu.

So, here you have someone who had desired to be a president, who has prepared for it, and whose every political move is likely to be premeditated. When I read about the nomination of veteran Dave Ogbodo, to the Nigerian National Petroleum Limited’s board of directors, I surmised that perhaps Peter Mbah is pulling the right chord in the presidency. I confirmed when I saw the pictures in the newspaper days after, showing Peter Mbah, shaking the president in an appreciative manner.

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While physically, Mbah and PBAT belong to similar species, they also share more in common. They were both successful technocrats before venturing into politics. While PBAT rose to the top management cadre in the multinational Mobil Oil company, Mbah nurtured his Pinnacle Oil and Gas company to become one of the biggest in Nigeria. So, both are wealth creators and successful human and material resources managers. Interestingly, their forte is the domain of the nation’s economy – oil and gas.

As governor, PBAT is reputed to have turned Lagos from a struggling sub-national economy, to an economic behemoth, which presently is ranked as the fifth largest economy in Africa. PBAT met Lagos’ internally generated revenue at paltry N600 million, but within eight years, raised it to N5 billion. On his part, Mbah has promised to turn Enugu State from a $4.4 billion economy to a $30 billion economy in eight years. An obviously ambitious plan for a civil service economy. But coming from the private sector, Mbah claims to know the way to achieve that quantum leap.

PBAT’s era in Lagos is reputedly transformative. Most of the big ticket projects, including the recent Blue Railway line that has taken Lagos by storm, were conceived during Tinubu’s time as governor. Mbah has promised to be transformative, and has shown signs that he meant business. The most audacious sign is the restoration of water supply to Enugu metropolis. Many considered the plan to get taps that had dried for two decades running again within 180 days from May 29, as over ambitious. Surprisingly, as the clock ticked to the promised time, some of the taps are running.

My attention to Mbah’s miracle of water started a few weeks before the 180 days. A senior cousin of mine living in Emene, a suburb of the state, called to discuss family issues, and in the cause of our discussion, he talked about how state government agents were laying water pipes in his area. Obviously excited, he looked forward to enjoying pipe borne water in Emene. But he mentioned that some people were making the right of way a tough call for the workers.

While praising Peter Mbah for the miracle of water in Enugu urban, this column urges him to also restore water supply to the villages too. For example, for many years, from Lagos, and elsewhere where the people of Ogwofia-Owa resided, my kiths and kin have contributed resources to pipe water from Ajali water scheme, to the nooks and cranny of the town. In my village Amofia, we have three community sponsored sources from the scheme, each time seeking to gain a better supply.

Each of the community effort was done without any support from the state government. But until the forceful appropriation of community lands and its resources under the Land Use Decree, Ogwofia-Owa with other communities around it owned the proprietary rights over the Ajali river which became the major source of water supply to Enugu State for years. Following the failure of other state water schemes, or perhaps the ballooning of the population, Ajali water scheme, was conceived and berthed in the 1990s. Surprisingly, after appropriating their Ajali, the state refused to extend the running water to the communities, forcing them to self-help.

In the press release by Dan Nwomeh, the Senior Special Assistant on Media to Governor Mbah, the new product was referred to as 9th Mile Water Scheme. One hopes it is not the Ajali water scheme that has been rechristened? If it is not, then one hopes the Ajali water scheme would be resuscitated, so that the communities enjoying supply from the scheme would also benefit from Mbah’s miracle of water. With multi-dimensional poverty plaguing Nigerians, exposing the Christmas returnees to the cost of buying water from the shylock tanker drivers is adding salt to a festering injury.

President Tinubu is anchoring his economic reform on attracting direct foreign investment. In the past 180 days, the president has been on economic diplomacy, shuttling the major economic centres of the world seeking investors. He has said that the Nigerian economy can be grown to a $3 trillion economy in 10 years. Specially, he has promised to increase the nation’s economy to $1 trillion by 2026. Speaking to the Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) last October, PBAT said: “Distinguished audience, a one trillion dollar Nigerian economy is possible by 2026, and a three trillion-dollar economy is possible within this decade.”

Perhaps, the Mbah’s $30 billion Enugu state economy would be a further impetus to the Tinubu’s $3 trillion national economy within the next decade. For now, the current poverty rate in Enugu State is 58.13%, while that for Nigeria is 40%. That means that Enugu State is contributing a significant portion of the poor people in Nigeria, more than the majority of other states. According to Wikipedia, Enugu state is ranked 34 on GDP amongst states in Nigeria, while Nigeria is ranked 42 in the world.

The tasks confronting PBAT and Mbah are enormous, and time is ticking and depleting the time available for the economic miracles they have both promised Nigerians and ndi Enugu respectively. This column urges collaboration between the federal and state governments, as a sine qua non to achieve the lofty promises.