By Reuben Onyishi
(Ugoachataberu)
The former governor of Enugu State, Dr Chimaroke Nnamani, once did say that governance is a serious business. And indeed a serious business it is. It follows that governance has to be thrust on him who knows the tortuous path to the Aristocratic palace of good governance. The path is slippery, snaky and strewn with twists and turns. They who would govern have to be cooked to boiling satiety and poured out into the path to be able to withstand the bend.
In our clime, minors are often enthroned as a result of the imperfection of democracy, especially when the majority is foolish. Minors are persons who lack the needed character, competence and capacity to govern. It is not even a function of age, as you get minors across all age brackets. It is either an ‘idiot’ is foisted or a tribesman is enthroned. Oftentimes, citizens do not find a space in the route to our own brand of leadership. The Greek identified three types of people on earth:: the idiots (centred on self) the tribesmen (centred on their tribe) and the citizens (disinterestedly committed to the state – the patriots, the transcedental leaders). It is believed that about 10% of Africans are citizens. The rest are idiots and tribesmen.
We saw the enthronement of minors play out in the just concluded 2023 elections in Nigeria when a primitive mob of sorts sheepishly voted ‘ikaka” and “igbechi” into elective positions they had no capacity to occupy. The mob, acting on the influence of some religious baptismal emotions and spurious narratives, exchanged the eagle for the vulture. No one gets it right when this kind of scenario plays out. Foolish majority is a disaster, and it saw to the disastrous outcome of the polls.
The people of Enugu State became wiser after the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections which churned out in algebraic quantum the lame, blind and deaf brands of laboured nothings. And these defective elements people many elective positions all over the country. Ndi Enugu leaped the wall of prejudicial three-in-one deceit, and reinvented themselves. They would get sobber after the inebriation of the electoral hemlock they had quaffed to inordinate quantity.
The election of Barr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah the Governor of Enugu State was one of the wisest electoral decisions ever made in history by the people of Enugu State. It is a thing for which Ndi Enugu shall be eternally thankful to God Almighty who made the the gift of this transcedental leader- Barr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah – to Enugu State. It was a departure from what obtained during the Presidential and National Assembly elections. Ndi Enugu became wiser, and did away with such emotions as had two weeks before misled the electorate. They prudently and massively voted Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, the PDP candidate, who had prior to the polls demonstrated uncommon knowledge, much elan, panache and bravura for leadership, having done wonders in the private sector.
Governor Mbah is a quintessential leader in the order of world-class leaders that have made enormous impacts and indelible marks in their horizons. Mbah is eclectic. A good leader must know something about everything. There is no aspect of governance of which Mbah does not have indepth knowledge. You just needed to sit before him, and you would be convinced, and your doubts healed whole and complete. There is no known field of which Mbah does not have reasonable smattering. He would delve so deeply with confidence into these spheres so much that those for whom the field is their profession would feel inadequate. I had sat before the governor address issues, and I would shudder at his near omniscient demonstration of knowledge on fields quite other than his profession. It appears to me and rightly so that Mbah besides his innate qualities, took care to expose himself to knowledge, trainings and preparation for leadership.
Shakespeare in his Twelfth Night holds that “some are born great; some achieve greatness and others have greatness thrust upon them.” Those who had known Peter at his early stage in life said he had always been exceptional. He was precocious, smart, wise and intelligent while growing up.
Someone did tell the story of an incident that happened while Peter and his siblings grew up. Their parents had bought them each a bicycle. While the other two youngsters rode their bicycles for fun, Peter thought outside the box, and commercialized his. He would hire it out to his peers for a ride. At the end of the year, while his siblings had one bicycle, he had increased his to two and still hired them out. He had at such age thought business. So, he had begun early enough to think like an entrepreneur who was given to creativity, value optimization, wealth creation and maximization. Peter had set out for business early in life. From a shop attendant at Alaba International Market, Lagos, he grew to one of the major feeders of the electronic market. Between 1992 and 1993, Peter Mbah was already a millionaire, and had built his mansion at Ikoyi in Lagos. Peter’s net worth as at that time when it took about N3 million to float a bank was about N50 million. The rest is history as Peter would sit on the board of many companies, playing in various sectors locally and internationally. His signature project- Pinnacle Oil and Gas Limited- the market leader in the downstream oil and gas sector, is a product of his inventive genius.
So, it was wise of Ndi Enugu to have chosen Peter from the horde of servile herds that lumbered into the political space with no iota of what governance entails. They had nothing to offer; they had no manifesto; all they had was the sentiment of where-I-come-from, and the emotional narratives of some primitive irredentism. Who in the 21st Century digital age would pander to such sentiments, and help to power some nitwits? Not in Enugu State!
Ndi Enugu have tasted the sweet flagon. Would they ask for bitter loquatinda? Shall anyone accept to move back to darkness, having seen bright light illuminate their path? What has anybody got to offer Enugu by shrilling at the court in incoherent theatrics full of igodomigo prayers and comedy of error, when the people already luxuriate in the balmy state of affairs Mbah has wrought? The vast cornucopia of deliverables the eclectic governor of Enugu State, Barr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, has begun to unleash cannot be exchanged for anything else.
Our tomorrow indeed is here. God bless the Lion, Barr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, the quintessence of good leadership, seamlessly navigating his way beyond the labyrinth of epistemological gap in governance.
