Peter Mbah: Another Lee Kuan Yew Remaking Enugu
Nnamani Arinze Darlington
When Dr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah took the oath of office as Governor of Enugu State on May 29, 2023, the state carried a well-known reputation: a civil service state. For decades, Enugu’s economy had revolved around government jobs, federal allocations, and modest industrial activity. Water scarcity was chronic, “sit-at-home” orders paralyzed commerce, infrastructure lagged, and young people migrated in search of opportunities elsewhere. The state’s GDP stood at approximately $4.4 billion, with limited private-sector dynamism.
Today, barely three years later, that narrative has been dramatically rewritten. Enugu is rapidly emerging as a destination of choice for business, investment, tourism, and high-quality living. Under Mbah’s leadership, the state is shifting from consumption and bureaucracy to productivity, innovation, and private-sector-led growth. Thus, many now hail him as our own Lee Kuan Yew. Lee Kuan Yew was the visionary statesman, who lifted Singapore from a Third World backwater in 1965 to a First World economic powerhouse within a generation through discipline, meritocracy, infrastructure, education, and relentless investment attraction.
Pre-2023, Enugu State exemplified the classic post-colonial African state model with a heavy reliance on civil service salaries, limited diversification, and governance that prioritized politics and patronage. Roads, healthcare facilities, schools and other social infrastructure earnestly sought a revamp and fresh air. Tourism potential lay dormant despite natural assets like the Nsude Pyramids, Ngwo Pine Forest, and Awhum Waterfalls.
Meanwhile, Mbah was a successful private-sector entrepreneur before his initial stints with the public sector as Chief of Staff and subsequently a former Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development. After that stint, he returned fully to the private sector where he built the Pinnacle Oil and Gas, a firm, which he founded and built from ground zero to a multi-billion-dollar leader of the petroleum downstream subsector at the time he returned to lead the current economic revolution in Enugu State. Thus, he entered office with a technocratic blueprint to grow the state’s GDP sevenfold to $30 billion by 2031, eradicate poverty, and reposition Enugu as Nigeria’s premier hub for investment, tourism, and livability.
His administration has increased the state budget from N166 billion he inherited in 2023 to a record N521.5 billion in 2024, N971 billion in 2025, and a historic N1.62 trillion in 2026. Importantly, he reversed the prevalent national culture of recurrent expenditure-heavy budgets. The least capital expenditure for each of the aforementioned budgets under him has been 80 percent. In fact, capital expenditure got 86 percent in 2025, while recurrent expenditure got 14 percent. This underscores how bullish he has been in cutting cost of governance and wastefulness to build infrastructure and other enablers that support investment and economic growth.
Again, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) has surged in unprecedented scales. By reforms such as the introduction of technology, plugging of leakages, and revival and optimization of moribund assets, he raised the state’s IGR from N26.8 billion in 2022 to N37 billion between June and December 2023, N188.5 billion in 2025 and N406.7 billion in 2025.
Over 1,000km of roads have either been constructed or reconstructed. And this includes rural roads and bridges as well as dual carriageways like the Enugu-Ugwogo Nike-Opi-Nsukka Road, the Owo-Ubahu-Amankanu-Neke-Ikem Road, in addition to several other rural farm-to-market links. Mbah has raised water production from occasional 2 million liters to over 120 million liters, even as he battles frontally the reticulation challenges. This is a massive step towards totally ending decades of scarcity in Enugu capital city.
In one fell swoop, he constructed five ultra-modern transport terminals and rolled out 100 CNG buses (while another 100 buses are underway). 2,000 environment-friendly city taxis are on the way too. He launched Enugu Air with three aircraft in July 2025 and the airline has grown to six planes already. And he plans to grow it yet again to 20 aircraft as part of his plans to make Enugu an aviation hub for West and Central Africa, with routes stretching to Asia, America, and Europe., etc.
The flagship New Enugu City covers 10,000 hecters with 26km² currently being developed. The smart city features residential zones, an industrial park, medical centres, sports arenas, and dedicated power. These are not mere promises; they signal a deliberate move toward a livable, investment-ready metropolis.
Mbah’s administration has delivered over 265 Smart Green Schools, which are solar-powered, digitally equipped facilities with STEM-focused curricula across all 260 wards. These will take between 800 to 1,000 students each, who will receive one nutritious meals meal daily. The school is totally free – uniform, free tuition, free tablets, and more. Importantly, whereas UNESCO benchmark for budgetary allocation to education is 15 to 20 percent, the Mbah Administration has consistently allocated 32 to 33 percent of the state’s annual budget to the sector.
In healthcare, 260 Type-2 primary facilities have been delivered in virtually all the 260 wards alongside the recruitment of 2,500 health workers. The nearly completed 300-bed Enugu International Hospital aims to capture a slice of Nigeria’s $1 billion annual outbound medical tourism spend, positioning Enugu as a medical tourism destination. Perhaps the shift from civil service state status to a diversified economy is most evident here. Mbah is building the youths digital capacity in a scale never before witnessed. Another name for Enugu State today is tech and ICT. Initiatives include the Enugu Tech Festival (“Coal to Code”), training thousands of youths in digital skills as well as the $20 million technology investment for local manufacturing – the Enugu Haier Factory, a partnership between his administration and Haier Group, the world’s largest manufacturer of appliances, with global revenue exceeding $60 billion in 2025. Haier Group portfolio of international brands include GE Appliances, Mabe, Candy, Sanyo Aqua, Hoover, and Fisher & Paykel.
To facilitate investment, Mbah has taken radical steps such as laws, policies, and regulations, to reposition land administration in the state. Land administration has been digitized via the Enugu Geographic Information System (ENGIS), slashing bureaucracy and improving ease of doing business. There are also the Enugu State Properties Protection Law to checkmate the activities of land grabbers. He equally signed a new Land Use Regulation into law in 2025.
Tourism is a cornerstone of the $30 billion vision. The historic Presidential Hotel has been renovated to five-star standards, the International Conference Centre revived, and iconic sites upgraded: Nigeria’s first commercial zipline at Ngwo Pine Forest, a 600-metre canopy walkway at Nsude Pyramids, enhanced Awhum Waterfalls, and Nike Lake Resort as a luxury eco-destination. The goal is to attract two million visitors annually, with tourism projected to drive significant IGR through hospitality, events, and cultural festivals.
=Agriculture has seen tractor assembly plants, 260 Smart Farm Estates, and digital registration of over 67,000 farmers, creating agro-industrial value chains. There is equally the the Enugu State Public Ranch Management Law, the Enugu State Sports Development Fund Law, and the Enugu State Environmental and Climate Protection Law.
The Mbah administration takes the credit of confronting and ending the illegal sit-at-home upon assumption of office in 2023. Security has tremendously improved with the construction and and installation of AI-enabled Command and Control Centres which has all the surveillance systems installed by Mbah in the state. he equally set up over 150 AI-embedded patrol vehicles manned by a special police unit, the DRS (Distress Response Squad).
Lee Kuan Yew inherited a broken system riddled with corruption and bigotry in 1965. What did he do? He radically enforced meritocracy, anti-corruption, world-class education, infrastructure, and pro-business policies, irrespective of whose ox was gored. In a generation, he turned Singapore into a global financial and logistics powerhouse with one of the highest GDP per capita figures on earth.
In Enugu State, Mbah has moved governance from share patronage to meritocracy, irrespective of where you come from. He hired the best from around the country and beyond, imposed performance targets on appointees and civil servants.
Want to be his friend? Perform or bring ideas that would help build Enugu State into a $30bn economy. Simple. He is so focused and serious-minded that he does not entertain idle talks and gossips. He has not merely governed Enugu State in the past 34 months; he has reimagined and rengineered Enugu’s destiny.
As Africa grapples with governance challenges, Mbah’s Enugu experiment offers a replicable blueprint: visionary leadership rooted in private-sector efficiency, data-driven targets, and people-centred development. If sustained, Enugu may well become the Singapore of Africa and Governor Mbah its Lee Kuan Yew.
Tomorrow, as the governor often says, is not coming. In Enugu, it is already here.
· Darlington Is the Special Assistant to Governor Mbah on Media
