Challenges Ahead of Peter Mba of Enugu State

Barr Peter Mba is the candidate and governor- elect on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 governorship election in Enugu State. The election that saw him winning was keenly contested and the Labour Party’s candidate, Hon. Chijioke Edeoga almost abruptly quenched the fire of the PDP’s reign in Enugu State since 1999. Out of the 24 state assembly constituencies of Enugu State, Labour Party won in 16, while PDP managed to get 8. It was such a fierce electioneering outing. The margin Mba defeated Edeoga with is not much; just something around three thousand votes. The events that preceeded his declaration were somehow fiery and stoked desperate competitive demonstrations. It was a narrow escape for the PDP over the Labour Party.

Suffice it to say that the elections have come and gone, though the Labour Party’s candidate has gone to court to seek redress over what he described as brazen stealing of his gubernatorial mandate by the PDP, the challenges that are there waiting for the new administration of PDP are quite enormous. Being a governor of a state the opposition controls the House of Assembly overwhelmingly and has 90% of the National Assembly members is a herculean task. It requires a lot of commitment and wisdom to survive, surmount and curry the support of the masses against the opposition structure. Out of the 8 House of Representatives seats in Enugu State, the Labour Party has 7. Out of the 3 Senatorial seats, the Labour Party has 2. This is more than opposition. In the implied sense of it, the PDP is almost the opposition political party in Enugu State presently should the LP maximise and put into prudential use its numerical advantage over the PDP.

That notwithstanding, if Peter Mba is actually smart and wise as we presume of him, it’ll not take him biennial years of brainstorming to outsmart the Labour Party and reduce it to a more obvious opposition structure in the state. Doing this is not a rocket science. It’s a very simple task if he’ll surround himself with potent politicians, technocrats and smart thinkers who can assist him in propelling the arduous wheels of the governance of Enugu State. And if Mba must have to deliver half of his campaign blueprints to the people of Enugu and residents, he must be ready to excise himself from the circumference of the league of political hyenas whose influence and presence couldn’t deliver PDP to a majority structure in the 2023 elections, moreover the one of state: governorship and House of Assembly. He must be seen to be in firm control of the system he superintends as Governor. Enugu State is plagued by a plethora of infrastructural and environmental deficits. The outgoing Ugwuanyi administration which he wasn’t a player in seems to have performed below the belt. The issues of urban internal roads, rural security, unemployment and water scarcity seem to have quadrupled in the past 7 year reign of Mr Ugwuanyi without any meaningful attempt at arresting the circumstances. Peter Mbam can’t feign ignorance of these, hence his jumping into the ring with a promise of restoring into firm posturing the tremulous glory of the Enugu everyone admired and longed to visit and dwell in. Mba must be seen swinging into action almost immediately after his inauguration into office on the 29th of May, 2023 as the fourth elected Governor of Enugu State.

To achieve these, like what I pointed out earlier, he must be ready to give meaningful miles away from the political antelopes circumventing him now. These men and women were with Gov. Ugwuanyi, but they couldn’t influence him positively. Praise singing was what appeared more fruitful in the political firmament of Enugu State in the past 7 years. Billboards defaced the nooks and cranny of the state. It was as if political praise singing had become a public and well funded institution in the state. Peter Mba should not spearhead such a dastardly orientation. To impact on Enugu veritable dividends of good performance, and then harvest the confidence of the people, he has got to drop some of these men and women to wit:

1. The Nwodo family
2. The Onyia family
3. Chimaroke Nnamani
4. The Nnaji family of Nike
5. Dr Festus Uzo who’s the current Chief of Staff to Gov. Ugwuanyi
6. Hon. Ogbuefi Ozomgbachi
7. Most of the outgoing Commissioners
8. Retired National Assembly members including Hon. Offor Chukwuegbo
9. State Assembly outgoing members including Hon. Barr Chima Obieze
10. Other malevolent members of the outgoing administration and the putrefacient other political elements enjoying their inglorious retirement, etc.

He should however not disown them completely, but he should not allow them control and influence his administration. If they were as great as they make themselves to appear, they wouldn’t have lost elections to newbies. It was a massive vote of no confidence unflinchingly passed on them by the voting population. Their influence in the victory of Barr Mba was minimal. Anyway, they couldn’t have given what they don’t have.
Enugu people as well as other junior or aspiring politicians did the magic, though not undermining the influence of the quality of the person of the candidate, Peter Mba which contributed in the narrow escape from the fangs of the Chijioke Edeoga’s led Labour Party in Enugu State!

▪︎Nwoba Chika Nwoba,
Publicity Secretary of PDP in Ebonyi State and Public Affairs Discussant.