Gov Mbah, French Ambassador Bolster Franco-Nigerian Ties, Eye Water, Aviation, Agric Sectors
• As envoy hails governor’s transformative leadership
The governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, and the Ambassador of France to Nigeria, Marc Fonbaustier, on Wednesday, reinforced the commitment of both governments to stronger bilateral relations for the mutual benefits of their people with immediate focus on urban water, aviation, food agriculture, and culture, among others.
The French Ambassador expressed delight at the tremendous progress Enugu State has made under Mbah’s leadership, describing him as a man of clear vision and impact.
He expressed the French Government’s readiness to support him in actualising his huge vision for his people.
His words: “I commend you for who you are and what you have achieved to date. I am impressed by your profile, but also your result-oriented action.
“You are a man obsessed with time, timelines, roadmaps, and measures of impact. You want to transform Enugu State. You are a transformer and an entrepreneur. And this has been detected in various areas: railways, roads, airlines. I mean, how did you do that?
“To shape and build up an airline, which is already certified, with a concession for the Enugu airport in a short spell of time, is completely amazing and out of the usual standards in Nigeria.
“Let us be honest, you are obsessed with supplying basic services to your people.”
He pledged strong cooperation with the Enugu State Government in speeding up the ongoing process of having the SUEZ Group, a global leader in the water and waste management sectors operating for over 160 years in over 40 countries, to manage the state’s downstream water subsector.
According to him, partnerships between Enugu State and France in the water sector would bring together expertise from both countries, ensuring high-quality infrastructure, management, knowledge transfer, and local capacity building.
The envoy also extended an invitation to Mbah to Airbus in Toulouse in line with his administration’s quest to expand the fleet of the state-owned airline, Enugu Air.
He reminded that France was strong on agriculture and ready for collaboration with Enugu State in that respect.
The ambassador commended the growth of French Language, culture, and cultural diversity in Enugu State and thanked the administration for support in regard.
“The Alliance Francais has experienced in particular a rise in enrollment both across Nigeria, but particularly here in your state. And that demonstrates, I think, the growing enthusiasm of young Nigerians for the French language. So, we will continue to support Enugu through teacher training, certification and strategic development,” he added.
Receiving the French Ambassador, Governor Mbah thanked the French Government for all its support, including through the French Development Agency, AFD.
He said his administration had significantly addressed the upstream challenges by meaningfully increasing water generation, noting that the major challenge was still in the downstream where his administration was expanding reticulation and also laying ductile iron pipes in place of old, asbestos pipes that continued to burst under increased water pressure.
He said the consummation of the downstream management with SUEZ Group would speed up effort to get water to the last mile.
“We are never interested in inundating our people with excuses. We are rather determined to get water to the last mile.
“If you tell them you are generating 80m liters or 120m liters, but they turn their taps and nothing flows, it will not work. When they turn their tap and get water, that is the only time you will make sense to them.
“So, for the upstream, we will continue to generate the water. But we need a private sector participation in the downstream. That is the area we truly want action,” Mbah noted.
On the aviation sector interest, Mbah he said, “Your invitation to Airbus is music to my ear. We plan to launch our international flights this year. We have approval to start regional flights.
“By next month, we will start to fly to Ghana, maybe South Africa. But by the end of the year, we want to do Europe and the United States, China straight from this state Enugu. It’s be our pleasure to work with an aircraft manufacturer such as Airbus,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the visit culminated in the flag-off of 14.5km high-capacity transmission pipelines from Nsude to the Terminal Reservoir at Miliken Hill to significantly strengthen water supply to Enugu city by the Ambassador and Governor Mbah, represented by the Secretary by the State Government, Professor Chidi Onyia.
