The Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, has said the increased financial support to subnational governments under President Bola Tinubu’s administration is largely responsible for the scale of infrastructure development currently taking place in the state.
Mbah stated this when he received members of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors, who were in the state as part of a media tour of the South-East.
The delegation was jointly led by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, and the Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare.
Naija News reports that a statement issued on Wednesday by the Director of Media and Publicity of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors, Tunde Rahman, said the tour was designed to showcase key federal and state government projects across the South-East geopolitical zone.
According to the statement, the initiative is being coordinated by the National Coordinator of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors and Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodimma.
Mbah commended President Tinubu’s interventions in security, education, healthcare, agriculture and road infrastructure, describing them as critical to the state’s development agenda.
The governor said the reforms introduced by the Tinubu administration had freed up more resources for states and enabled them to undertake projects that would have been difficult under previous fiscal conditions.
He said, “It would have been impossible, to say the least, for us as a state to have done things at a scale we did without some of the bold and courageous policies of Mr President. First of all, what the policies of Mr President did for subnationals is largely to free up resources.
“So, I think there is a clear intention. I think Mr President has been very intentional about how this trillion-dollar economy is to be achieved. He strongly believes this won’t come from the top down; it’ll come from the periphery. To achieve that, you have to strengthen the periphery both in terms of responsibility and in terms of providing them with the finances.
“I think if you just cast your mind back, even having a conversation with my predecessor, he would tell you what they went through. Sometimes, they struggled from the moment they returned from FAAC to pay salaries; immediately after salaries were paid, nothing was left for capital expenditure.
“So, what we are seeing in Enugu today and at the scale these things are happening is only possible because we now have more funds coming from the Federation Account and there is quite a lot of support from the centre to the subnationals and for us is to make good use of that opportunity and that’s essentially what we’re doing.”
Mbah said the improved fiscal environment created by the Federal Government had enabled Enugu State to speed up the execution of major projects aimed at improving living standards and stimulating economic growth.
He noted that reforms such as subsidy removal, exchange rate unification, tax reforms and other federal initiatives had changed the financial position of states.
The governor also praised the Nigerian Education Loan Fund policy, saying it had reduced pressure on state scholarship funding and created room for the government to deploy resources to other development priorities.
“So, whether you want to look at it from the removal of the subsidies, the unification of the exchange rates, the forex, if you look at the reform, the tax sector, and you know, quite a whole lot of great initiatives. If you look at the NELFund policy, this is something we’re excited about because, typically, the list of scholarships you get, the applications, and the applicants you get every year to fund are almost unimaginable.
“But today we encourage them, our students, to access NELFund, and that again frees up funds for us to do other things. So the impact is invaluable, and we thank Mr President for all that,” he said.
Speaking on security, Mbah said his administration had made major investments in the state’s security architecture to improve intelligence gathering, surveillance and rapid response across urban and rural communities.
He said the improved security framework had helped create a safer environment for businesses and investments to thrive in the state.
The governor also showcased the ongoing construction of the Enugu International Specialist Hospital, which he said would provide advanced medical services, reduce medical tourism and strengthen healthcare delivery in the state and beyond.
According to him, the hospital is part of his administration’s plan to make Enugu a destination for quality healthcare and economic expansion.
Speaking after inspecting several ongoing and completed federal and state government projects in Enugu, Onanuga commended Mbah for what he described as visible developmental strides.
He said the collaboration between the Federal Government and state governments was already producing results that directly affect the lives of Nigerians.
“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has not ignored any section of Nigeria. Everywhere has been taken care of. And as the engineer from the project site just explained to us, people are going to feel the impact of the road work going on in many parts of the country,” Onanuga said.
He noted that the projects inspected by the team showed the importance of partnership between the centre and the states in driving national development.
The projects inspected by the delegation included the ongoing construction of the Flyover Interchange Bridge at Abakpa Junction in Enugu and the reconstruction of the 38.6-kilometre Enugu-Onitsha-Port Harcourt concrete pavement road.
The team also inspected the dualisation of the 21.5-kilometre Enugu International Airport Road extending to the Ebonyi State border.
Other projects visited included the ongoing dualisation of the 40-kilometre Owo-Ubahu-Amankanu-Umualo-Ekem road and the Enugu State Tractors Assembling Plant.
The visit formed part of efforts by the Renewed Hope Ambassadors to highlight federal and state projects across the South-East and showcase what the group described as the impact of President Tinubu’s policies in the region.
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