Moribund Assets Revamp Galore: Mbah's Masterstroke Unleashed

                 By Reuben Onyishi

                  (Ugoachataberu)

Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah of Enugu State has pulled much strut in the revamping of moribund assets of the state. Mbah is intentionally bringing every bit of dead state assets to life. This is also one way to raise revenue. Incidentally, the IGR of the state has risen astronomically to over N500 billion per annum. This is a product of Mbah's creative genius. To put it the way of Bambulu in James Ene Henshaw's play, "This is Our Chance," it is "the child of my brain, the product of my endeavour, and the matetialisation of my inventive genius." As a matter of fact, Mbah thinks. What any other person of his education and experience would ordinarily neglect, Mbah brings to thoughts and creatively makes something out of the seeming nothing. This is what we are practically witnessing in Enugu State.

United Palm Product Limited had died. The company that saw to the abundant production of palm produce in the state had fizzled away, owing to lack of leadership, mismanagement, corruption, and neglect. There was no hope of revival until Mbah came on board and injected N100 billion into it via Private Public Partnership (PPP). With this inflow into UPPL, Mbah infused life into it, and today, UPPL is thrivingly hale and hearty. The job creating implications of the revamped UPPL is astronomical, and the revenue yielding capacity quite humongous. 

Hotel Presidential was another. Founded in 1963, the hotel symbolises the dignity of the Igboman. It is a cultural heritage in which the igboman takes much pride. For the past 15 years, the hotel had gone comatose. It was overgrown with weeds and became the hideout to miscreants and criminals. The hotel was utterly cannibalised, and its appurtenances plundered and pillaged. It became a monumental heap of rueful ruination. It wasn't until Mbah came on board that the hotel experienced a breath of fresh air as Mbah cleaned it up and got it revamped. Today, the hotel stands out a re-engineered heritage, an edifice standing tall, taking its pride of place as one of the best hotels in Enugu. Besides the revenue implications of the Hotel Presidential, it also creates a lot of jobs besides its value chain in supplies, maintenance and other related endeavours.

Just yesterday, Mbah also commissioned the revamped Nigergas, which had gone comatose for about  three decades. Nigergas is billed to create 100 direct jobs and about 5000 more jobs in its value chain. Nigergas Company Limited was established in 1962 by Dr M. I. Okpara, but was run down and abandoned for over three decades until Mbah came on board. Today, history is made in the revitalised Nigergas as Mbah brings it to life in line with his administration’s quest to rev up the GDP of the state to &30 billion. The new plant has the capacity to produce 100 cubic metres of oxygen per hour and 45 cubic metres of acetylene per hour. Besides this, it will also bring on stream such products as nitrogen, argon gas, carbon dioxide and CNG stations. It also affords the teeming youths of Enugu State the opportunity to embark on training and acquisition of skills capable of honing their potentials for engagement in science-related concerns. 

But the governor is not yet done. Already, the process of revamping Sunrise Flour Mills has begun, and the plant will not just produce flours but also process cassava flours at commercial quantity.

Niger Steel adjacent Nigergas is also receiving the revitalisation spirit of the Mbah administration as plans are underway to get it revamped. The aluminium smelting company at Ohebedim in Igbo-Etiti Local Government has also received a call to life as the Mbah Adminstration in the new spirit of revival will give it the revitalisation touch, even as Nigercem is also in the offing.

Need we talk about the International Conference Centre that is already in use, having been completed after many years of its abandonment, or the Enugu International Hospital that is being built to international standard? What shall we say to all this? It is nothing but the spirit of revival Mbah has brought to bear on governance. Politics has been played, but governance has taken shape in utter transformation of the coal city, the new Enugu State, from coal to code. Kudos to the people 's governor.

What the Mbah Adminsitration is set out to do in the area of the revamping of moribund assets of the state is telling. It is a case of revamp galore, and this is hugely paying off in the area of revenue mobilisation evident in the huge IGR profile of the state. One of the indices of measuring a thriving economy is employment. The Mbah administration since it began the process of revitalising moribund assets and setting up such  concerns as the tractor assemblage plant, the asphalt producing plant, the Enugu Air, the Interchange Terminals, the International Conference Centre, to menton no more, has created over 100,000 job directly and uncountable jobs in the value chains.

The objectives of the administration consist in shoring up the state Gross Domestic Product(GDP) to &30 billion, make Enugu the first choice of investment destination, living and tourism and eradicate poverty to zero per cent headcount index. It follows that Mbah is intentional about what he does. It is a deliberate endeavour to make the economy of Enugu State thrive for the people. The people are at the heart of the administration, and Mbah does it with puritanical commitment.