By Prince Ejeh Josh
…Our philosophy is driven by zeal to give our youths a new future – Mbah
The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Peter Mbah, has received resounding assurances from thousands of Enugu State youths and students drawn from across different institutions of higher learning, vowing to come out in large numbers on election day and deliver massive votes to him.
The youths registered their assurances on Friday at an interactive town-hall meeting organised by the Kwado Peter Mbah, a frontline support group in Enugu tagged, “A Day with Peter Mbah: Dissecting the Philosophy of Tomorrow is Here” stressing Mbah had connected with the youths through his laudable and excellent manifesto geared towards the empowerment of the citizens, especially the young ones.
According to the jubilant youths, the PDP gubernatorial flagbearer had been able to show, through his robust programmes designed to turn the state into a technological, entrepreneurial and industrial hub, that the youths were at the forefront of his ideology and governance philosophy.
In his welcome address, the convener of the support group, Hon. Monday Diamond, said they resolved to rally youths across the state for the Mbah’s project because of their strong desire to see a new Enugu State which was only possible with the PDP candidate because of his antecedent and excellent manifesto.
“We choose to support Dr. Peter Mbah because of his competence, humility and what he has to offer the youths when he comes to power. Our gathering here today is to show that the youths of our state love him and that they need him at a time Ike this to pilot the affairs of our state,” he said.
Diamond, who commended Mbah’s entrepreneurial exploits in the private sector, added that the youths would leave no stone unturned in giving him victory in the March 11 polls.
Responding to the unending cheers from the mammoth youths, Mbah described them as the heroes and heroines of the tomorrow which he had been preaching, saying that his motivation was to create an enabling environment where the youths could fulfill their potentials, discover their hidden talents and compete creatively within the emerging global order.
“You are the tomorrow that is here, literally speaking. How do we build that tomorrow? First, we have to adopt the can-do spirit, and second, create an enabling environment where you can thrive. Tomorrow is here represents the compelling vision of the innate can-do spirit to better the lots of our people,” the governorship hopeful noted.
While espousing his sector-by-sector programmes for the state, which he called integrated development programmes, Mbah maintained that the youths were at the core of his governance philosophy and how to surmount the plethora of challenges facing them by providing the facilities for their training, education, upskill, human capital development and empowerment, even as he assured of turning them into productive assets.
The entrepreneur further stated that as a way of making the youths productive by transforming them from job seekers to wealth creators and employment generators, his administration, when elected, had already proposed to build a tier-4 hyper scale cloud neutral data centre and incubation centres with high speed internet, unrestrained access to data, uninterrupted power supply and workstations to enable them operate in the cybernetics space.
He pointed out that the world is migrating from traditional economic market to digital economy which requires the youths to adjust their mindset and behaviour, through training, in pursuit of the modern reality facing them.
Mbah also explained that, with the policies and programmes that would be set up by his administration, the youths can easily fit into the world of robotic science, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, mechatronics, e-commerce and Fintech that would give them an edge over others.
While fielding further questions from the youths, the business mogul assured that his policies will displace the traditional models of doing things with modern, technologically inclined models which would give the young ones an environment often associated with the developed climes.
He stressed that his government would prioritize science, technology, engineering and mathematics even as technical and vocational training centres would be made available to impart new skills in the youths in order to meet up with the demands of investors in the state.
He said: “Our duty is to ensure you’re skillfully equipped so that you can be digitally transformed to play in those emerging features and get you prepared as competent workforce for investors when they come in to invest”.
The frontline governorship standard bearer further promised to establish agro-allied processing industries that will hasten industrial revolution and lead to the “Made in Enugu” products for export, attract investors by derisking investment flow and providing the attractive environment through ease of business doing, massive infrastructure and security.
While encouraging the youths to see his candidacy as the best, Mbah said he would run inclusive governance, integrate people with disabilities through robust policies, ensure universal health coverage, arrest brain drain among young people and provide a conducive environment for business, living, tourism and leisure.
