THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT THIS PETER MBAH

By Dr. Collins Ogbu, SSA to the Governor on Strategic Communications

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Before Mbah’s administration, insecurity and illegal sit-at-home orders had become a crippling feature of life in parts of the South-East. Whatever one’s political interpretation of the security crisis, its economic consequences were undeniable: businesses closed, movements were restricted, schools suffered and ordinary people lived with fear.

Mbah’s response was not simply to make speeches about security. He invested heavily in security infrastructure.

The state established a Command and Control Centre, deployed AI-enabled surveillance patrol vehicles, expanded fibre-enabled cameras, drones and a mobile distress-response system, and established the 112 emergency line. In 2025, the administration reported a more than 80 per cent decline in violent crime, while in 2026 the state’s security architecture continued to attract commendation from senior police leadership.

In June 2026, Inspector-General of Police Tunji Disu visited the Command and Control Centre and reportedly urged other states to emulate Enugu’s model. He described the centre as a state-of-the-art security facility.

The significance of this should not be lost in political arguments. Security is not only about preventing deaths. Security is economic infrastructure. A trader cannot trade in an insecure environment. A factory cannot operate efficiently where workers fear movement. Investors cannot confidently deploy capital where property and personnel are unsafe. Tourism cannot flourish where visitors are afraid.
Mbah appears to understand that equation.
This is why his security strategy and economic strategy are inseparable.

Then came transportation.

Enugu had an unusual problem for a state aspiring to become a regional economic hub: its transport infrastructure was not commensurate with that ambition. Mbah’s administration responded by developing five modern transport terminals: Holy Ghost Terminal 1, Holy Ghost Terminal 2, Gariki, Abakpa and Nsukka.

Then, almost audaciously, came Enugu Air.

On July 7, 2025, the state-owned airline was inaugurated with three Embraer aircraft, initially connecting Enugu with Abuja and Lagos, with plans to expand its network. The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, described Mbah as an “incredible” governor and praised his persistence in pushing the project forward.

The story did not end with a ceremonial launch. In March 2026, Enugu Air received its Air Operator Certificate from the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority after completing its certification process in five months and three weeks, substantially faster than the typical 15-to-24-month industry timeline cited by the NCAA. The airline had also expanded to six aircraft.

And in August 2026, Enugu Air was admitted into the African Airlines Association, AFRAA, another step toward its ambition of becoming part of a wider African aviation network.

Again, the point is not that an airline by itself makes a state prosperous. The point is that Mbah is trying to build an integrated transport ecosystem in which roads, terminals, aviation and commerce reinforce one another.

That brings us to one of the most intriguing dimensions of his administration: the revival of dead assets.

For years, Enugu carried the burden of valuable public assets that had become symbols of institutional decay. The International Conference Centre, Hotel Presidential and Nigergas are among the most prominent examples. Under Mbah, the International Conference Centre was completed and commissioned; Hotel Presidential was revived; and Nigergas, which had remained moribund for decades, was brought back into productive use. BusinessDay’s States Competitiveness award reporting specifically highlighted these revivals.

The philosophy is straightforward: government should not merely own assets; government should make assets productive.

That philosophy extends to the New Enugu Smart City.

A 10,000-hectare new urban development is being built as an expansion of the state’s urban and economic geography. It is intended to provide a modern environment for residential, commercial and investment activity and to relieve pressure on the existing Enugu metropolis. The administration has linked the project directly to its economic transformation strategy.

The project is important not merely because of its size but because of what it represents: a government attempting to plan Enugu’s next several decades rather than merely patching the problems of yesterday.

Housing is another part of that picture.
The administration has pursued mass housing and a social-housing response to urban poverty and slum conditions. In the Tomorrow Is Here Housing Estate, 206 two-bedroom units were developed in the first phase to accommodate families from Aguowa and Ugbo Lawrence ahead of slum redevelopment. The government also approved free transportation for children of relocated families to the nearest Smart Green School.

That detail is worth remembering because it reveals something about the governing philosophy. Development is not simply demolition. It is supposed to include relocation, dignity and social protection.
Agriculture, meanwhile, is being repositioned from subsistence activity into an organised economic sector.

The “One Political Ward, One Farm Estate” initiative provides for farm estates across the state’s 260 wards. The programme is designed around mechanisation, extension services, aggregation, storage and processing, rather than merely distributing agricultural inputs and hoping for the best.

By 2026, the administration reported that the programme was underway, while tractor mechanisation was being expanded and agricultural inputs distributed to tens of thousands of farmers. The state has also pursued agro-processing initiatives and Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones.

This matters because food security cannot be achieved through speeches. It requires land, farmers, inputs, mechanisation, roads, storage, processing and markets. Mbah’s agricultural strategy is attempting to connect those pieces.
And there is another important dimension: the revival of rural economic life.

When a rural road is built, a farm estate established, a tractor supplied, an aggregation centre created and an agro-processing facility introduced, the objective is not simply agricultural output. It is rural industrialisation. It means a farmer can potentially produce more, sell more, process more and earn more without abandoning his community.

That is how a government begins attacking poverty structurally.

The same philosophy can be seen in the state’s treatment of workers.

In October 2024, Mbah approved an ₦80,000 minimum wage for Enugu workers, including local government employees, at a time when the national minimum wage was lower. Organised labour in the state described the decision as unprecedented and noted that the governor had also sustained wage awards while implementing improved remuneration for health professionals.

Workers later publicly described him as one of the most worker-friendly governors in the country.

There is a broader principle here. Mbah’s administration appears to understand that a state cannot demand productivity from its workforce while treating workers as an afterthought.

Fiscal reform, therefore, is not merely about government collecting money. It is about creating enough capacity to pay workers, fund infrastructure, invest in education, support healthcare and still have resources for development.

And that leads to the most consequential argument for continuity.