By Mike Ebuka
The name Enugu is derived from the two Igbo words Énú Ụ́gwụ́, meaning “hill top” denoting the city’s hilly geography. Enugu acquired township status in 1917 and was called Enugwu-Ngwo, but because of the rapid expansion towards areas owned by other indigenous communities, the city was renamed Enugu in 1928.
In 1900, the Southern Nigeria Protectorate was established by the colonial administration of the British Empire. The discovery of coal by the colonists led to the creation of what was then known as the Enugu Coal Camp, named after the nearby village of Enugu Ngwo, under which coal was first found.
Coal mining opportunities in Enugu State attracted people throughout the region; this marked the core of the first urban settlement of what is today known as simply Enugu. Enugu developed as one of the few cities in West Africa created entirely from European contact.
Enugu became the capital of the Eastern Region after Nigeria’s independence in 1960. On 27 August 1991, the military dictatorship of Ibrahim Babangida divided the old Anambra State into two new states, Enugu State and Anambra State. Enugu remained the capital of the newly created Enugu State, while Awka became the capital of the new Anambra State.
Since her creation, Enugu has had numerous leaders which includes: Herbert Eze (Military Administrator) 1990 – 1992, Temi Ejoor (Military Administrator) 1993 – 1994, Mike Torey (Military Administrator) 1994 – 1996, Sule Ahman (Military Administrator) 1996 – 1998, Adewunmi Agbaje (Military Administrator) 1998 – 1999. Others are: Chimaroke Nnamani (Governor) 1999 – 2007, Sullivan Chime (Governor) 2007 – 2015, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Governor) 2015 – 2023, Peter Mbah ( current Governor).
Each of these leaders have in one way or the other left their own legacies, but as it is always said, government is a continum. Where one ends, the other starts, regarding that, society must keep evolving and in every of its evolution comes with different problems to be solved by an institution made through a social contract.
Enugu as a state has for so long faced with numerous challenges calling for serious attentions. Some of which we shall be treating one after the other in regards to the promises made by the current administration before coming on board and how they have so far gone with it, enabling us to know if we (Ndi Enugu) should be hopeful or hopeless.
Insecurity
On June 1,2023, just few days after his inauguration, Governor Peter Mbah made a public announcement in clear terms that there will be no more sit-at-home in Enugu State. This statement set the social media space on fire. Everyone, immediately became a security analyst, saying that the governor has set the state on fire, describing this as a wrong approach to stopping the cankerworm (sit-at-home) which has eaten deep into the fabrics of Igbo Economy. Many were of the opinion that he is visionless as this wouldn’t have been the first thing he should have done if he had anything reasonable to bring for the people of Enugu State. Tongues wagged, and the self-acclaimed Prime Minister of Biafra living in exile, Simon Ekpa fumed, declaring a war between his faction (enforcers of sit-at-home) and the Enugu State government. Peter Mbah was undeterred. He had held many town-hall meetings with every sectors in the state and had beefed security in the state. He toured markets in Enugu round on Mondays, encouraging business men and women to come out do their businesses without fear as they will be adequately protected.
As if this would not work out, the whole streets of Enugu were flooded with security men. Armoured tanks and patrol vans stationed in all the strategic places. Mbah did not stop at that as he has sworn to make the state a preferred destination for investment, he had recently unveiled ‘Distress Response Squad’ security. A security vehicles with highly security gadgets to combat insecurity in the land. It worth celebrating that since he was inaugurated, no record of killing or attack has been witnessed in Enugu, neither has any enforcers of sit-at-home seen in Enugu metropolis as has been witnessed in the capital cities in South East.
Environment
For the past few years, the environment of Enugu State was nothing to be reckon with. The level of environmental degradation experienced in the state was much, most of which comes from the illegal coal miners and illegal waste disposal. Not only that the mineral resources in Enugu environment is being stolen unknowingly, Mbah, through an investigation was able to spot the activities of illegal coal miners in Enugu and had issued an order stopping such illicit activities. He gave an order for the mountainous heaps of dirt ravaging the city which indubitably comes as a result of the poor management of those who headed the ministry of environment.
Dr. Mbah deployed payloader machines and tippers to the streets in Enugu to evacuate dirt. He further deployed new ESWAMA buckets and trucks to help in waste evacuation. Some of the newly constructed waste dumping sites today has cameras properly installed to capture everything going on in the dumping, a system which will equally enable those handling the waste to know when the waste is due for evacuation.
Infrastructure
It is pertinent to know that some of roads in Enugu State today needs urgent attention. Not only that it needs urgent attention but because of the rapid population increase in the city, there are experiences of gridlock in some junctions and roads in Enugu which means that some roads need dualization and some junctions need flyovers.
As a person who has done his situation analysis very well before coming to serve his people, Mbah has already stated in his manifesto that he shall build 10,000 kilometers of roads in Enugu State within a period of 8 years in office and shall not rely only road as the only means of transportation in the state but shall establish a multi-modal means of transportation to link Enugu with other South-Eastern states.
Recently, he announced his readiness to build 81 roads in the state. Most of these roads he said, needs dualization and construction of flyovers. According to his Commissioner for Works, Dr. Gerald Otiji, 10 out of the 81 roads to be built shall be linking all the local governments within the three senatorial districts in the state.
Just last week, his Commissioner of Transport, Obi Ozor while addressing the press during an inspection of the ongoing project in his ministry maintained that the state government has expressed the willingness to get all motor parks in the state working, and shall equally in no distant time have mass transit buses purchased to serve the needs of the people.
To crown it, recently the government of Enugu State through the Deputy Governor, Ifeanyi Ossai led a delegation of Naval Committee to Uzo-Uwani local government area, for the establishment of Naval Base in Ogurugu where Enugu has a waterway. All these is in line with Mbah’s vision to boost the transport system of the state and ensure the viability of Enugu and South Eastern economy.
Agriculture
As a state which is well known for its rich agricultural activities, Mbah few weeks after his inauguration reached an agreement with the federal government to cultivate more than 100,000 hectares of cassava for exportation. This journey has begun as most of the local governments have already started land-clearing for that purpose.
Few days, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Patrick Ubro disclosed that the Federal Government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda Support Programme (ATASP – Phase one) will be liaising with the state government to innovatively transform agriculture.
According to Ubro, the youths and women shall take advantage of the learning, improved seedlings, good pest control method and agricultural extension services within the programme.
Mbah had during his campaign told Ndi Enugu that agricultural sector under his regime shall be to feed Enugu State and turn the State into a food-basket for Nigeria and a hub for export of cash crops. He expressed his administration’s readiness to eliminate food insecurity in the state by 2031 through massive investment in technologies for agricultural productivity in the state, technology-enabled agricultural extension services, implementation of Specialized Agro-Allied Industrial zones in all Senatorial Zones of the state, and accelerated Technologies for Agricultural Systems Transformation in Enugu State (TASTE).
Water
The problem of the perennial water scarcity in Enugu State has been a serious issue snipping the neck of every household in Enugu State especially those in the urban areas.
It has risen to the point where a 25 liter gallon of water is sold at the rate of N200 in some places in Enugu. Though, the past administrations have all done their little parts to assuage the problem but still water still poses a major challenge to residents.
Mbah, Enugu governor told us that he shall give the people of Enugu water within a period of 180 days in office. I knew that the problem of water scarcity in Enugu will be solved by this present government, but doing it within that short period was impossible as I had thought.
Yesterday, viral videos online show many taps in some areas of Abakpa Nike, GRA and some of Achara Layout gushing out water. Some of the videos also included some pipes on the streets emitting water where some residents in the area where seen washing their hands and feets in jubilation, shouting “Mbah has done as he promised o, see the tomorrow is truly here”.
To be sure of what I will be feeding to the public, I picked my phone and made some calls to friends in those areas and they confirmed that they used last night to fill up their containers and jerrycans. “So it’s true, Mbah has done it barely 90 days in office?” I muttered.
Further investigations I made revealed that though, the water has not been reticulated to all parts of Enugu, but 85% of the work has been done to enable the engineers in charge to give water to every household within few weeks to come. This is what capacity, dedication and competence entails.
As Enugu is celebrating her anniversary today, I make do to say that with the emergence of a leader like Peter Mbah who has undoubtedly shown readiness, preparedness and undeterred to ensuring the delivery of democracy dividends, the Enugu of 32 years ago shall no more be Enugu that shall be seen from today forthwith.
I agree with Peter Obi when he told the people of the state not to vote along party lines, but vote for technocrats, people who have distinguished themselves in the private sector as they will be good managers of state resources.
It’s time for Ndi Enugu to take a self-introspection, look at how long we have come since August 27, 1991, compare our states with other states in South East and know if we should join hands together and make our state one of the best in Nigeria, or do we join the enemies that be, resort to crimes and get destroyed of the only state we have where our children and the ones yet unborn would have stayed and be proud to call theirs.
From his plans and what he has done so far, I don’t have any reason to believe that we are hopeless with the current governor of Enugu State. With a man like him, Enugu has a lot in stock for us and the generations to come.
Together, we can transform the state to be our preferred destination.
