By Samson Ezea
From Monday, Enugu will have a new face. The face is ever shining and smiling. The face is that of assurances and hope. The face is unique and embodiment of ideas and great achievements. The face’s preparedness and readiness to take Enugu to the next level is not in doubt. The face is in a hurry to hit the ground running.
The face is a disruptive innovator and an entrepreneur per excellence. The face has a verifiable track record of outstanding performance, excellence, and breakthroughs both in public and private sectors.
Even though it is the new face of Enugu today, the face is not new to Ndi Enugu, having been seen in the Enugu state government before, but not as the number one citizen of the state. The face is Enugu’s new poster boy.
The face is that of no other person than Dr. Barr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, the Owo, Nkanu East LGA born great administrator and entrepreneur per excellence, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governor elect of Enugu State that will be sworn in today as the fifth civilian governor of the state.
Mbah’s journey to the Lion Building is both smooth and tortuous. Ahead of the PDP governorship primaries, more than eighteen aspirants were in the contest for the ticket.
Among them was Mbah, who was former Chief of Staff and Ex Commissioner for Finance, who later did what was rare by leaving politics and corridors of power for more than a decade to explore and made a mark in private sector.
In private sector, Mbah diligently toiled from the scratch, broke barriers and became a major player in the country’s downstream oil industry by establishing the biggest oil tank farm in West Africa called Pinnacle Oil and Gas Ltd.
Mbah’s return to political terrain to seek for power as the number one citizen of Enugu state ushered in a new dawn in the politics of the state.
Seeing that Mbah is the best among the equals, other governorship aspirants stepped down for him ahead of the primaries. Few who insisted on contesting with him and loss like Bar. Chijioke Edeoga and others later pledged to work with him.
While others abided by their pledges of working with Mbah and for Mbah, Bar. Edeoga made a volte face along the line and jumped into Labour Party, hoping to ride on the wave of Mr. Peter Obi’s Obidient presidential movement to emerge Governor.
Following Mbah’s emergence as the PDP governorship candidate, Mbah unveiled his ambitious and achievable manifesto that is highly integrated and complementary in various sectors of the economy.
He took his vigorous, grassroot, and issue-based electioneering campaigns alongside his running mate, Barr. Ifeanyi Ossai and PDP faithful to all the 260 wards, 450 autonomous communities, 68 development centres, 17 local governments and three senatorial zones in the state, where he directly interfaced with the people at the grassroots and got first hand information on their needs, problems and challenges.
Ahead of the presidential and National Assembly elections, some PDP stakeholders connived with aggrieved PDP members who lost out in primaries and joined Labour Party to sabotage the party hiding under the bandwagon effect of Mr. Peter Obi’s presidential ambition.
It was a conspiracy and sabotage taken too far by people who have been the greatest benefactors of PDP led governments over the years. That was how and why PDP lost many National Assembly seats in the election.
With this rare and ugly development, Mbah and PDP went back to the drawing board to perfect a new strategy of overcoming sabotage, treachery, and conspiracy in the governorship and House elections.
That was how Mbah intensified his campaign, by taking it from street- to-street and door-to- door explaining his plans and programmes to the people of Enugu state. The strategy paid off as Ndi Enugu believed Mbah and saw in him the readiness and capacity to deliver on his campaign promises, taking into recognition his great achievements in the private sector.
Immediately Mbah became the choice of Ndi Enugu before the election, there was disquiet and confusion in the oppositions’ camp especially the Labour Party that has social media e-rats that are proficient in fabricating and peddling falsehoods and lies on social media platforms against Governor Ugwuanyi, Mbah and PDP in the state.
The Labour Party and its social media bandits made attacking, maligning, and impugning of Mbah’s image and integrity on social media their major campaign issues and major project. Instead of presenting their candidate’s manifesto to Ndi Enugu, they made fabricating and peddling falsehoods and lies against their manifesto, thinking that Enugu people are fools that can be easily swayed or deceived.
They have fabricated and peddled litany of phantom, libelous, and fictitious allegations against Barr. Mbah. To date, none of them has seen the light of the day or proven beyond reasonable doubt in courts with incontrovertible evidence as required by law. It has been social media allegations, judgments, and conclusions against Bar. Mbah by the Labour Party social media e-rats.
On governorship election day, Ndi Enugu went to their polling units and voted majorly in favour of Mbah. Despite the use of organised and unauthorised military personnel during the election and instigation of controversy by Labour Party during the collation of the governorship election result, in a bid to ambush or intimidate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to do their biddings, INEC stood its ground and declared Mbah who won the election winner.
While Labour Party candidate, Bar. Edeoga as expected is at the tribunal challenging Mbah’s victory, Mbah will take over the mantle as the new helmsman of Enugu State today, pending the judgment of the tribunal which will not be different or far from the popular choice of Ndi Enugu in the election that produced Mbah.
In Mbah, Ndi Enugu saw and truly believed that Tomorrow Is Here and New Enugu Is A Possibility.
