Shettima’s Bipartisan Take on Mbah’s Efforts in Enugu

Vice President Kashim Shettima’s rise above partisan politics to commend Governor Peter Mbah’s giant strides in Enugu State is a welcome development for the Nigerian polity, writes Gideon Arinze.

The occasions were the inauguration of the Enugu State Garment and Fashion Hub situated and the opening of the 5th Expanded National Micro, Small, and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSME) Clinics by Vice President Kashim Shettima. Both initiatives were fruits of a collaborative effort by the Federal Government and Enugu State Government to boost MSMEs.

In the Vice President’s entourage were the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Benjamin Kalu; the Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, who is also an indigene of Enugu State, Chief Uche Nnamani; Leader of the South East Caucus of the National Assembly, Hon. Nnoli Nnaji and Senate Minority Whip, Senator Osita Ngwu.

Speaker of the Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon. Uchenna Ugwu; members of the State Assembly and National Assemblies, and members of the State Executive Council joined Governor Peter Mbah to receive the Vice President on arrival at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.  They were all decked in Isiagu, the Igbo traditional attire.

After the brief airport reception featuring cultural performances and a guard of honour by the Nigerian Army, the Vice President headed to the Garment and Fashion Hub located at the premises of ANAMCO, a stone throw from the airport, where he inaugurated and toured the facility to see for himself the fashion revolution going there.

Lively and free as always, Shettima interacted with minds, obliging a number of them selfies. Thereafter, he proceeded to the Old Government Lodge on Abakaliki Road, GRA, Enugu, venue of the 5th Expanded National MSME Clinics where he took nearly 30 minutes to tour the exhibition stands, admiring locally manufactured goods by the MSMEs and interacting with the entrepreneurs before the actual event in the hall.

In his address, the Vice President emphasised that MSMEs were critical to economic growth, noting that the Enugu Garment and Fashion Hub would serve as “a stepping stone to economic highways, providing an exchange in support of manufacturing in Enugu State, boosting production capacity and in enabling economy of scale.” He explained that the hub was capable of creating about 48,000 jobs and also announced a N150,000 outright grant to many MSMEs in the state.

On his part, Governor Mbah, a recipient of the 2024 MSMEs Awards by the Office of the Vice President, observed that almost 90 percent of businesses in the country were MSMEs, reiterating his administration’s commitment to boosting MSMEs, which he described as lifeblood of economic growth.

However, Shettima’s plaudits for the Mbah administration, which got many talking, have continued to reecho even nearly two weeks after the event. This is understandable, for it is not every day that a governor gets a presidential approval, especially when the governor is of the opposition party.

Speaking at the opening of the 5th National MSME Clinics, Shettima said, “Let us put politics aside, Governor Peter Mbah means well for the people of Enugu State and he is humble. I am specifically enamored of his security project. I am happy for his investment in supplying water to Enugu. Most importantly, education is the greatest changer. Within a generation, the son of a peasant can become a celebrated icon. The investment of Peter Mbah in Smart School will yield a bountiful harvest in the coming years.

“He is one of the few Chief Executive Officers, who are versatile in the potentiality of the Information Technology industry. I want to join all of us here in thanking Governor Mbah for taking charge of the opportunities that abound and incidentally the Minister for Technology is here and he is a son of Enugu. I want you to join forces to see that Enugu occupies its rightful place.

“Enugu is an equivalent of Kaduna and Ibadan. But till the emergence of Governor  Mbah, Enugu was sleeping, a town that doesn’t even have a water supply.

“Your Excellency, we want to commend you. We want to thank you. We want to identify with you. I am happy to be in your midst this afternoon. We have had some very fruitful discussions,” he stated.

The Vice President also took out time to tour some key projects of the Mbah Administration, among them the International Conference Centre (ICC) by Okpara Square. The ICC is a sprawling edifice commenced by the Senator Chimaroke Nnamani administration. It was, however, abandoned and cannibalised since the end of that administration over 17 years ago. But the Mbah administration awarded a contract in October 2023 for the completion of the 5,000-seater complex as part of his government’s effort to make Enugu State the conferencing capital of Africa and the preferred destination for business, investment, tourism, and for living. His ultimate vision is to grow the state’s economy from $4.4bn to $30bn through private sector investment and he sees assets such as the ICC one of the key enablers of tourism and economic growth.

But Mbah did not stop there. In May this year, the government also awarded a contract and flagged-off the construction of a five-star International Conference Centre Hotel to the China Communication and Construction Company (CCCC) with a May 2025 completion date. The hotel, which will be the first five-star hotel in the South East region comprises 335 rooms made up of 224 single rooms, 64 business suites, 25 diplomatic suites, two presidential suites, and every other facility that would enable the hotel to function as a five-star hotel. The idea, according to the governor, is that a 5,000-capacity conference centre could not be optimised without enough accommodation.

The Vice President also toured the Command and Control Centre and associated infrastructure set up by the governor to fight insecurity. Mbah understands that without security, the envisioned exponential economic growth will end as a pipe dream. Thus, upon his inauguration, he immediately commenced the construction and setting up of a Command and Control Centre adjudged to be among the biggest and most sophisticated in Africa to enable the security agencies to keep the state under full surveillance.

The Command and Control Centre is a technology-enabled platform offering a real-time, round-the-clock surveillance of major streets, neighbourhoods, and local governments via AI-embedded cameras placed at strategic locations and also installed on over 100 security vehicles manned by the Distress Response Squad, a special police unit created by the administration and the Nigeria Police Force. The cameras are capable of facial and number plate recognition; and once shots are taken, it supplies data to the data bank, which will now help the state to track the actual identity and location of the criminal through the help of technology. This, when fully operational, will leave criminals with no hiding place in Enugu and the state will also be able to assist other neigbouring states to prevent and solve crimes.

On the non-kinetic side of crime-fighting,  Mbah sees education as the strongest weapon with which to fight poverty and the crime that flows from it. Thus, in an unprecedented move, the administration allocated 33 per cent of the state’s N521.5bn 2024 budget to education, of which the 260 Smart Green Schools and the accompanying teachers’ quarters in all the 260 wards are getting the lion’s shares. Every smart school comprises an ICT centre, clinic, e-library, centre for robotics, science laboratories for primary and junior secondary schools, tech laboratory, studio and interactive boards. It is equipped with solar-powered standby power for an uninterrupted learning experience.

The Smart Green School initiative places the index child, aged three years, in a crèche, then equips the child through quality nursery, primary, and junior secondary school education. The pilot project at Owo is already up and running.

Mbah’s estimation is that in the next 15 years or less, no youth in Enugu who has gone through this pipeline of learning would resort to crime as he or she is already equipped with the right and modern skills to prosper. 

Little wonder the Vice President could not hide his admiration, as he heaped more commendations on the governor after the tours.  His words: “If I say I was impressed by what I saw In Enugu, it is an understatement. I was overwhelmed by the giant strides recorded by Governor Mbah and his team. He has embraced modernity. He has embraced digital technology. Most of the things I saw are avant-garde technology, state-of-the-art security infrastructure. He is doing excellently well and he is worthy to be emulated by other governors across the length and breadth of this nation.

“He is humble and a very cerebral person. He is doing well and the world needs to know what he is doing. Honestly, I have learnt a lot. I will come back to learn more about the smart education. I am obsessed with education and so is the governor.

“We will see how we can partner because we are now in the phase of development. Politics is over. We have to collate into a single force and face the challenges of under development in our nation.”

According to the Holy Book, truth is established in the mouth of two or three witnesses. Having been bestowed with several awards by media houses and even the Federal Government, this confirmation coming from no less a person than the Vice President leaves no one in doubt of the marks Mbah has made in governance in the last 16 months. But will he sustain the crescendo? Will he build on the momentum? Only time will tell.