Mbah’s Focused Educational Rebirth Initiative’s Worth Emulating

Oguejiofo Ujam writes that the new educational rebirth initiative introduced in Enugu State by Governor Peter Mbah is worthy of emulation by other sub-national governments for sustainable development.

At a time when the issue of local Government autonomy has become a source of distraction to many state governors, some state chief executives are steeped in multi-sectorial expression of their mandates.

In Enugu State, the nature of salient socio-economic developments, particularly in the education sector, being initiated by Governor Peter Mbah has caught public attention. Indeed, objective observers would see the imperatives of the signature policies and programmes for national emulation.

It is refreshing that some state chief executives in the current dispensation are taking positive initiatives in a bid to change the governance narratives and improve the living well-being of their citizens. That is why  Mbah’s passion and intentional determination to revitalise and refocus the educational sector resonates with current growth-related realities.

At a point in time, the talk in town was about the 260 Green Smart Schools being constructed by the government in the various communities in the state. Many a resident in the state thought the initiative was the usual partisan noise made by new administrations to create the impression that they were up to something big.

But, 15 months down the line, the buzz has taken a new decibel as the Smart School initiative has begun to win public acclaim. At least, denizens now feel that the Mbah administration was very intentional and bold rather than engaged in any initial gragra, in the street parlance.

From professional and deep insight into the operation of Mbah’s educational policy objectives, particularly as one involved in the academia, one could rightly decipher the rich tapestry of the government’s design aimed at revolutionising the education sector in the state.

The picture presents as a five dimensional outline that captures basic, post-basic, junior secondary, tertiary and technological incubation. Of course, opening the five-fold book is the wave-making Smart Schools programme.

With the challenge of access being confronted head on, the Enugu State government has already succeeded in winning over the enthusiasm of pupils to pursue not only literacy and numeracy, but also environmental wakefulness.

Right from early in their formative years, pupils are being exposed to the knowledge and realities of environmental sustainability, particularly the current concerns about climate change and energy transition. 

Ever since Nigeria enacted the Climate Change Law also known as Sam Onuigbo Climate Change Act 2021, the issue of climate change has become a ready topic pursued by various levels of government in the country.

With what is going on in Enugu State, one dare say that the state is laying the critical foundation for citizen participation in the global effort to tame the depletion of the ozone layer through energy transition.

By catching them young and softly encoding green environmental consciousness in them, Enugu State seems to be setting the stage for the provision of future leaders with robust knowledge in environmental sustainability.

This fact caught my attention when recently the state government released a public statement in which it outlined the basic criteria for locating the Smart Green Schools in the state. 

In the statement released by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, the government harped on size of plot, proximity and accessibility of expected beneficiaries within the host communities.

Part of the statement read: “To be clear, the criteria for the location of an Enugu Smart Green School are as follows: Firstly, they must be central and easily accessible. This means they must be situated within or very close to the residential areas of the host communities.

“Secondly, there must be no dispute or litigation over the land. Thirdly, the topography must be flat. And fourthly, the proposed site must be large enough to accommodate the school, the staff quarters, and the playground (three hectares), with an additional one hectare for the school farm.

“Where the land is not large enough for the facilities to be in one contiguous space, the land(s) for the other facilities must be properly identified and be in walking-distance proximity to the school.”

The inferences to be drawn from the government’s public announcement are many. First of all, it means that communities have bought into the Green Smart School initiative and therefore want to be part of it after seeing the impact of the pilot prototypes on pupils and teachers.

More importantly, it could be seen that the Enugu State Government is in the process of weaning young people back to agriculture in a conscious effort to scale up food production, engender food security and generate employment, while increasing the internally generated revenue of the state.

Recall that in the former Eastern Nigeria Regional Government School farms or what was known as demonstration farms helped to boost food production and stimulate the interest of children and youths in agricultural activities. Now, Mbah is subtly introducing the young ones into Agribusiness so that they could grow to become Agripreneurs.

Thus, being embedded in Mbah’s educational renovation programme, there is no doubt that Enugu State would in no distant time achieve food sufficiency in the state and become a prime player in the freedom from hunger campaign.

It is also a mark of courageous leadership that the Green Smart School initiative has been nurtured to the current stage where communities now desire to own the projects. Indeed, the saying that great oaks from little acorns grow holds very true under Governor  Mbah’s lion-sized courage.

When in 2023 the governor awarded contracts for the construction of 127 number Smart Green Schools, cynics and sceptical partisan commentators expressed the mistaken belief that the programme would not survive the test of time. From that pilot stage, another set of 133 such schools were approved, thereby making up a total of 260, which translates to one smart school per each electoral ward of Enugu State.

From the Green Smart Schools, the government has dovetailed the policy into developing a sustainable feeder to other ancillary institutions to guarantee skill acquisition and provision of tech-savvy manpower in the state.

Within the emerging loop could be found the Government Technical Schools, School of Health Technology, the College of Education Technical, the prestigious Institute of Management and Technology (IMT) as well as the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT). 

With time, zest and continued faithfully implementation of these technologically advancing schemes, the revolutionary introduction of the basics of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the basic education curriculum through Green Smart Schools will form the focus of further examination.

But, in the short and medium term, the net effect could translate to the provision of high quality technical manpower and competitive 21st century graduates of the universities, polytechnics and monotechnics in the state.

Of course, the way that the Mbah administration is wired, this educational development strategy will no doubt raise a pool of relevant manpower and professionals that are in hot demand to manage and sustain AI systems and sundry modernisation going on in other sectors of the economy, including healthcare, transportation, telemedicine, vetrinary and animal husbandry.

The Enugu State governor’s focus on technology and scientific innovations shows that he is not only forward-looking, but possesses the right vision to reposition the state as the centre of futuristic learning, which revolves around Artificial Intelligence, Block Chain Technology, Cybersecurity and Robotics.

Taken together, these initiatives should be seen as the tangible reasons that inform the governor’s bragging rights whenever he declares that, ‘Tomorrow in Here in Enugu State’.

To a good measure, under Governor Mbah, Enugu State could be said to possess practical ideas worthy of imitation by other sub-national government as far as the reformation of education for sustainable development is concerned.

-Prof. Ujam writes from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.