The Enugu State governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, has said his administration is currently executing over 1,000 landmark projects across the state which would be completed in record time, in addition to the ongoing recruitment of 15,000 smart school teachers and skilled workers into the state’s workforce.
Governor Mbah, who disclosed this on Wednesday in Enugu during a brief chat with some select youths and media practitioners drawn from across the Southeast zone who paid a courtesy visit to his office, also stressed that 11,000 new smart school teachers were undergoing recruitment and training process at the Centre for Experiential Learning and Innovation in the state.
While fielding questions from the curious youths on why his administration was in a haste to develop the state, the governor said his leadership approach was borne out of a well-researched disruptive and innovative model that would radically change the trajectory of governance in the state.
He said the ongoing 260 Smart Green Schools in the state would redefine the way students learn and acquire knowledge that would help them compete with their peers in advanced countries, adding that the cut-off programme designed into the curriculum would introduce children at the age of 3 to new technologies and migrate them to digital learning process.
According to him, new smart teachers that would impact knowledge at the smart schools were undergoing training that would professionalise their career in the teaching service as well as equip them with the requisite knowledge to navigate the new curriculum where students would be taught artificial intelligence, mechatronics, robotics, creativity and innovation.
On the administration’s efforts in the health sector, the governor said 260 Type-2 Primary Health Centres across the electoral wards were under construction with some of them already completed, adding that the state had recruited hundreds of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers to provide services across the board.
While underscoring the significant renovation and re-equipment efforts the state has made on existing hospitals to meet the needs of the people, Mbah pointed at the recent contract awarding the construction and completion of a 300-bed world-class hospital at Rangers Avenue, Enugu, aimed at making Enugu the hub of medical tourism in Nigeria.
He further stressed that the completion of the ongoing International Conference Centre, 5-Star Hotel, Presidential Hotel, operationalization of the international wing of Akanu Ibiam International Airport, and the transport infrastructure terminals at the Market Road, Ogbete, Gariki, Abakpa and Nsukka, which will all be delivered within specified timeline, will make the state the tourist and investor’s destination of choice.
Governor Mbah equally seized the opportunity to refute the misinformation that his administration had increased taxes in the state, explaining that the state government does not have the power to increase tax arbitrarily without a legal backing from the federal government.
Clarifying the state’s policy on taxation, Mbah said what the administration did was to merely expand the tax net to capture those at the informal sector who were hitherto not paying or had been evading tax but were captured under the existing laws.
“We have not increased tax in the state. In fact, we don’t have the power to arbitrarily increase tax. It is a matter of law. Any increment in tax must come from the federal government. We have only expanded the tax net, strengthened the procedure and plugged leakages in the process of revenue generation through the use of technology,” he said.
The governor also revealed that his administration was presently empowering thousands of traders and smallholder farmers, particularly in rural areas, with seed and start-up capital and other technical supports as a way of lifting them out of the pit of poverty, investing in human capital development and increasing production.
