By Tony Adibe
The Peoples Democratic Party Governorship Candidate in Enugu State, Dr Peter Mbah has again emphasised that his plans for the state were unprecedented and would usher in industrial revolution through his integrated sector-based development.
Dr Mbah said, if elected as the Governor, his administration would not only freeze the legacy debts in form of salaries, subvention, and other emoluments, but would increase the allocations due to higher institutions.
The PDP standard bearer spoke during a town hall meeting with the managements and students of two tertiary institutions – the Enugu State College of Education Technical (ESCET) and the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT). The town hall meetings came ahead of the Saturday, March 18, Gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections.
Mbah noted that the tagline of his “Tomorrow Is Here” was being driven by his desire to create a better future for the youths where they could discover their talents, explore their potentials, and create wealth from them.
He maintained that his plan was to transform the status of the state from a public sector economy to a private sector-driven economy where technology innovation and industrialisation would be the key factors that would define the development pace of the state.
He promised to build schools of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence with high-speed internet, workstations, through his incubation-innovation policy which would enable youths to operate in the digital space to make their earnings by partnering with the institutions.
“We want to create opportunities for our young ones to flourish in whatever profession you have chosen. Our administration will also set aside 100-billion-naira revolving fund for you to start your businesses. The welfare of university staff will be given ultimate priority,” he said.
Mbah, who spoke on exploring the energy and mineral resources sector as source of creative alternative financing model, added that agriculture would migrate to mechanized and agro-allied processing industry for large production and export.
Promising to partner with the different universities and other institutions in the state for the training of students, the business mogul said students would be given bursary to enable them to complete their studies. He further assured that insecurity in the state would be tackled through the eradication of poverty and unemployment.
Mbah called on the people to interrogate the background of all the candidates seeking their votes, ask them what they had achieved outside politics, and query their programmes for the state, adding that competence, capacity, character, track records should be the standard rather than sentiments and political parties.
Earlier, the managements and students of the two higher institutions – Enugu State College of Education Technical (ESCET) and Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) – have declared their support and readiness to vote for Mbah.
They said they have a special interest in Mbah’s candidacy because of his profound capacity, competence and character to deliver on his promises to the people.
They expressed satisfaction that Mbah did not only present what he was going to do when elected governor but was also able to outline convincingly how he intended to actualize his vision of disruptive innovation in the state.
Different speakers who commented on Mbah’s roadmap to a new Enugu State where education, youths, employments and critical infrastructure will be given priority, appealed to the people of the state not to miss the opportunity presented by the PDP candidate to change the narrative of the state and move it to one of the top three states in Nigeria in terms of development, gross domestic product, investment drive, industrial attraction, and youth employment.
They called on the electorate not to vote based on party sentiment but to look at competence, capacity and track records of the major candidates coming out for the election, adding that Mbah has distinguished himself to be the best among all the contenders.
The Provost of ESCET, Dr. Mrs Stella Ekwueme, while describing his administration as only weeks away, informed the gubernatorial candidate the challenges the institution was facing and enjoined Mbah to fix the problems immediately he comes into office.
The Chairman of the academic staff union, Comrade Ekwe Bertrand, said he had taken his time to carry out independent investigation on the major candidates but found out Mbah has outstanding track records and credentials both in the private and public sectors, promising that he would have their votes.
On his part, the leader of the non-academic staff union, Comrade Monday Onuchukwu, commended the ruling party candidate for making out time to present his programmes for the state, assuring that they would queue behind him at the polls.
The student’s union president, Comrade Chukwuani Daniel said lecturers’ welfare should be upgraded to enable motivation and quality education from the academic community. He urged students from the school to vote en masse for Mbah because of his robust programmes targeted at improving the lives and welfare of students and youths.
In a related development, the Vice Chancellor of ESUT, Prof Aloysius Okorie, has extolled Mbah’s leadership virtue, character and outstanding competence, noting that the institution would be glad to partner with his administration for quality education even as he urged his colleagues to give him maximum support in the election.
Prof. Chioma Oleka, Dean of Management Sciences, expressed confidence that the governorship candidate would transform the state and create a better future for the citizens through his innovative ideas.
“I’m interested in you as a person because you have the capacity, competence, character and credibility to work and move the state forward. I want you to increase the remuneration of lecturers, clear their salary arrears and provide 100% funding for ESUT,” she added.
Professor Felix Asogwa, member of the Senate, said the school was satisfied with Mbah’s precision and roadmap on how to build a new Enugu State. He called for massive support for him across the 17 local government areas in the state.
Donatus Okorieowa, president of the student’s union government, appealed to the governorship candidate to improve on the infrastructure of the school, introduce exchange programme for students and pursue deliberate policy of accreditation of some of the few pending courses.
