From Promise to Performance: The Record that returned Mbah as Enugu APC candidate

Through the establishment of a state-of-the-art Command and Control Centre and the deployment of other modern security infrastructure, the government restored public confidence in the state’s capacity to protect citizens

Governor Peter Mbah was on Friday formally declared the All Progressives Congress, APC, gubernatorial candidate for the 2027 Enugu State governorship election. The declaration came after 397,370 accredited party faithful across the state’s 260 wards participated in the primary election conducted on Thursday.

At the International Conference Centre, Enugu, where results were collated, the Mr Danmalikin Hausa-led Enugu State APC Governorship Primary Election Committee described the process as peaceful, credible, and a model for internal democracy.

Mr Hausa called the Enugu APC a “well-coordinated chapter where internal democracy, consensus-building, discipline, synergy and peace reign supreme” and said the entire exercise was rancour-free and indeed a carnival of sorts. For many delegates, the outcome was less a political contest than a referendum on the governor’s first-term stewardship.

In his acceptance speech, Mr Mbah said the moment was not one he took for granted. “There was never a sense of entitlement,” he told the gathering. “I accept this nomination with full awareness of the expectations that come with it, buoyed by the knowledge that it’s not an unfamiliar path for me.” That path has been defined by a deliberate shift from political rhetoric to measurable delivery.

The administration’s “Tomorrow is Here” philosophy, once campaign language, now shows up in the routines of daily life across the state. According to the governor, “What once felt distant is no longer abstract. It is visible in how people travel, how they work, and how they now access services that were once unreliable or out of reach.” He maintained that his government has “smashed the notion that promises matter more than performance” and that “every naira spent has been made to give the people of Enugu a return on their investment of trust and faith.”

Security was the first major test of the administration. Before 2023, Mondays were largely lost to enforced sit-at-home orders that crippled commerce and schooling. That cycle has been broken. Through the establishment of a state-of-the-art Command and Control Centre and the deployment of other modern security infrastructure, the government restored public confidence in the state’s capacity to protect citizens.

“Today, events are scheduled on Mondays without the least apprehension,” Governor Mbah said. The impact has been both economic and psychological. Markets open, buses run, and students return to class, restoring a full work week to a state that had normalized disruption. For traders, transporters, and families, Monday is no longer a day of fear but of productivity.

The administration’s education reform is anchored on ward-based Smart Green Schools designed to prepare Enugu children for a technology-driven economy. The model integrates digital tools, modern teaching methods, and practical curricula into public schools at the ward level.

The objective, in the governor’s words, is to ensure that “learning has become fit-for-purpose, offering our children education that guarantees them a place in a fast-changing world.” By taking the intervention to all 260 wards, the policy narrows the urban-rural learning gap and makes quality education a function of citizenship rather than location. A child in a remote community now accesses the same digital and practical training as one in the capital.

Healthcare delivery has followed the same decentralization principle. The government has built and operationalized at least one Type-2 Primary Healthcare Centre in each of Enugu’s 260 wards. The result is that “location is no longer a hindrance to quality healthcare.” Maternal care, immunization, treatment of common ailments, and basic diagnostics are now available within walking distance for millions of residents. The ward-based PHC network is a deliberate attempt to move care from tertiary hospitals back to the community, reducing travel costs and emergency response time while improving health outcomes across the state.

In rural communities, the administration is replacing manual drudgery with mechanization. The governor noted that “the rev of tractors increasingly replaces backbreaking tasks like ridging and tilling once done with hoes and cutlasses.” The shift has contributed to rising crop yields and higher farm incomes. Beyond tractors, moribund agro-assets have been revived. The Songhai Heneke Farm in Ezeagu, described by Mbah as a “desolate project” only months ago, has been restored to productivity. These interventions are aimed at making agriculture commercially viable for young people and positioning Enugu as a food-producing state with modern value chains.

The state’s industrial strategy has focused on recovering failed assets and attracting new manufacturing. United Palm Products Limited, long moribund, “has risen from its moribund past to become a viable venture offering job opportunities to the youth.” On the new investment side, the Enugu Haier Factory stands out.

The $20 million facility manufactures digital appliances and electronics and signals growing investor confidence in the state’s policy environment. According to Mbah, “across our towns and cities, opportunities are emerging as decades-long moribund industries roar back to life.” The combination of asset recovery and fresh capital is expanding the state’s industrial base and creating formal jobs.

Connectivity is another pillar of the administration’s economic plan. The launch of Enugu Air is set to open international routes from the state. “Our sons and daughters will soon be able to fly to major cities of the world from here,” the governor said, framing the airline as both an economic and social investment that puts global opportunities within reach of Enugu youths. On land, the state has delivered over 1,500 kilometres of roads since 2023, improving access to markets, schools, and hospitals.

To modernise public transport, five world-class Transport Terminals have been launched alongside a fleet of CNG buses designed to ensure “our people commute in dignity and comfort.” The terminals integrate security, sanitation, and digital ticketing to upgrade the commuter experience and reduce travel time.

Mr Mbah has consistently tied his projects to fiscal responsibility. He also acknowledged the role of federal policy in expanding state capacity. President Bola Tinubu’s bold reforms, he noted, contributed “immensely to the successes by making more resources available to states to invest in development.” The alignment between state priorities and federal resource flows has allowed Enugu to scale interventions without abandoning fiscal prudence. The governor insists that prudence and impact are not mutually exclusive, and the spread of projects across all 260 wards reflects a deliberate equity model.

Three attributes run through the governor’s record and explain the scale of his primary victory. The first is a preference for performance over rhetoric. The administration has focused on completion and functionality rather than announcements. The second is equity in distribution. Smart Green Schools, Type-2 PHCs, roads, and other infrastructure are spread across all wards, ensuring that development is not limited to urban centres. The third is economic pragmatism. By reviving dead assets, courting private capital like the Haier investment, and building enabling infrastructure such as transport terminals and Enugu Air, the government is expanding the state’s productive base and creating pathways for youth employment.

Hon. Hausa commended President Tinubu and the Nentawe Yilwatda-led national executive of the party “for providing the exemplary leadership that midwifed the peaceful and credible primaries at the subnational level.” Within Enugu, the rancour-free process itself became a talking point, reinforcing the perception of stability under Mbah’s leadership.

The governor argues that the state is becoming a reference point for others. “Beyond the state, Enugu is becoming the standard bearer for sustainable governance, innovative development, and quality of life,” he said. Whether in security, education, healthcare, agriculture, industry, or transport, the model is consistent: design ward-level solutions, insist on measurable outcomes, and fund projects that yield economic returns.

As the 2027 election cycle begins, Mbah’s campaign is unlikely to rest on new slogans. His acceptance speech returned to the theme of responsibility rather than entitlement. For the 397,370 party members who voted, the facts on the ground were the campaign. Mondays have returned. Children are in Smart Green Schools. Healthcare is in the ward. Tractors are in the farms.

Dead industries are working again. Planes will soon leave Enugu for global destinations. Roads are paved, terminals are open, and CNG buses are running. In Enugu today, trust is no longer an appeal. It is an audit. And on that audit, Governor Peter Mbah’s first term has presented 397,370 reasons for a second.

*Dr Collins Ogbu, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Enugu State on Strategic Communications wrote from Enugu