By Samson Ezea
It is not surprising that in just one year in office, Enugu State Governor, Barr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah has been conferred with numerous meritorious and well deserved awards, laurels and honours by different organizations, groups, agencies and institutions for disrupting the status quo, breaking the barriers and expanding the frontiers of development and good governance in the state in such a short time.
It would be recalled that his courageous and bold approach to the issue of security, particularly, the IPOB induced Monday sit-at-home and the attendant violent reprisals, and other security hitches, infrastructural and service challenges in the state, Governor Mbah was honoured with different awards by three reputable national dailies namely The Sun, Vanguard and Telegraph.
This was after rigorous and painstaking appraisal of his government’s performance and trajectory by the editorial team of these newspapers. This is unprecedented in the annals of state governors and media awards in Nigeria. Also, during the celebration of Gov. Mbah’s one year in office anniversary, past governors of the state and leaders of the state, who are better positioned and experienced in the art of leadership and governance, poured accolades and encomiums on Gov. Mbah for his outstanding performance and being on the track to achieve greatness in the state.
All these are clear testaments of Governor Mbah’s visionary, focused and development-oriented leadership and governance model that have placed Enugu State on the clear path of rapid economics development, human empowerments and investment destination within a very short time of Gov.Mbah’s stay in office. This is not a mirage or hoax, but real and verifiable.
In affirmation of Gov. Mbah’s leadership style, exploits, and performance, he was recently conferred with two prestigious awards successively and almost simultaneously in Abuja to the commendations and admiration of the President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his Vice, Alhaji Kashim Shettima and to the shock and anger of his well known social media traducers recruited by the opposition Labour Party members from Enugu North Senatorial zone.
The awards include the Distinguished Award for Infrastructure at the Nigeria Excellence in Public Service Awards, NEAPS, for his impactful road infrastructural interventions in the state and award for his contributions to Micro, Small, and Medium Scale Enterprises, MSMEs, at the 2024 National MSMEs Awards by the Office of the Vice President.
Since these avalanche of meritorious awards and honours were conferred on Gov. Mbah and just like they did before, during and since after 2023 elections with no success or breakthrough, except continous lamentations and propaganda on social media, the opposition Labour Party’s social media urchins, apologists and montebanks from Enugu North Senatorial zone, who have not recovered from the shock of Gov. Mbah’s defeat of their governorship candidate, Barr. Chijioke Edeoga and can not comprehend Gov. Mbah’s development programmes, policies and agenda for the state for political and selfish reasons, have been as usual on social media platforms with Psuedo and fake accounts misyarning, running riot and rantings in the name or guise of phantom constructive criticisms against Gov. Mbah and the numerous meritorious awards conferred on him as if they know better or are well informed, positioned, experienced, exposed thorough, altrustic, intelligent, educated and upright than the givers and organisers of the awards that found Gov. Mbah worthy of such recognition and honour.
They are not. Almost all of them have no leadership or public service record or experience. Few that have at all, left behind questionable and criminal records. Not even the paymasters of these social media hirelings can rub shoulders with Gov. Mbah, in any aspect or withstand him in anything outside politics, they see as a profession, before Governor Mbah assumed office and disrupted the status quo for the good of the state.
Meanwhile, it is clear that the grudges of the defeated Labour Party governorship candidate and his social media hirelings against Governor Mbah are borne out of sheer envy and narcissism that Gov. Mbah is doing well, and he is being honoured and recognized by different organizations and institutions quickly and simultaneously. Another is their paymaster’s painful loss of the governorship election to Governor Mbah in the poll and court.
This is considering the fact that the Labour Party’s candidate and his cohorts had before the election seen the exercise as their last hope for survival and relevance and had even hurriedly shared juicy positions and appointments before the elections, hence the desperation for victory in the election and court by all means and the incessant fixations, mudslingings and campaign of calumny against Governor Mbah and his government since after the election.
One clear thing is that the Enugu North Labour Party’s social media traducers, who have been dismissive and critical of Governor Mbah’s sterling performance and the awards conferred on him, have not provided superior facts or incontrovertible evidence to buttress or substantiate their claims, rather they have remained more emotional, malicious, and mischievous than factual, patriotic and altruistic.
They have not been able to dispute the fact that Gov. Mbah is an infrastructural and developmental Governor, looking at the numerous and massive infrastructural and developmental projects his administration is carrying out across the state, which include reconstruction of 71 roads, rehabilitation of the abandoned International Conference, Presidential Hotel and other critical infrastructure.
They have not been able to prove why Gov. Mbah doesn’t deserve the National MSMEs award, when Enugu State under his watch has done extremely well in the areas in the last one year plus. Well, instead of continuing to dissipate energies, times and resources on social media platforms, fabricating and purveying lies and falsehoods against Governor Mbah’s government without any positive result or evidence, it is time for Enugu North Senatorial zone Labour Party’s social media hirelings to channel their times, resources and energies to something meaningful and beneficial to them, their dependants and co-travellers. Enough of these social media mudslingings, rantings and misyarnings against the workaholic and performing Governor by sore and serial losers of 2023 elections, who have refused to grow and failed to realize that elections are over and this is time for governance.
On Enugu North Zone Labour Party’s social media liars and their paymaster’s palpable and disturbing paranoid, fuss, and anger over the avalanche of well deserved awards and honours earned and conferred on Gov. Mbah so far, they should be prepared to witness and endure more awards on him, considering that the way his administration is performing in all sectors of the state economy, more local, national and international awards and honours will be earned by him and be conferred on him by merit in the days, weeks, months and years ahead.
