As I reflect on the political development in Enugu, I can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief that the maladministration of Peter Mbah is gradually coming to an abrupt end. His tenancy at the lion building has been marked by a plethora of scandals and misdeeds that tainted our once respected state. In fact, the manner of his departure will underscore the gravity of his transgressions.

Mbah represents the very embodiment of what is wrong with politics in Nigeria, lofty promises dressed in forged credentials, corruption tied with ribbons of deceit, and a brazen commitment to personal enrichment at the expense of a people yearning for genuine leadership. Mbah’s NYSC discharge certificate, submitted to INEC, bore the date January 6, 2003. A simple document, or so it seemed. NYSC disclaimed it publicly. “We never issued this,” their director declared in court affidavits, tendering records showing Mbah had mobilized for service in 2001 but vanished midway for law school and his chief-of-staff gig. No completion, no exemption letter just a forged slip of paper, allegedly backdated and stamped with a ghost’s approval. Mbah himself had once begged the Inspector General to probe the certificate’s authenticity, only for the force to conclude it was fake.

Mbah’s political career was built on a foundation of forgery and corruption. He rose to prominence alongside Senator Chimaroke Nnamani, with whom he formed a questionable partnership. Their bond was forged in the fires of graft, and Enugu suffered as a result. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had hounded Peter since his days as Commissioner of Finance under the iron-fisted Chimaroke Nnamani.

In 2007, Mbah’s name surfaced in a money laundering probe: N830 million siphoned from state contracts, funneled through his oil company, Pinnacle Oil and Gas. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) indicted him on 29 counts of forgery, money laundering, and obtaining money by false pretenses. He entered a plea bargain that saw charges dropped after he forfeited assets worth over ₦450 million.

But the looting didn’t stop with Nnamani’s exit. As governor, Mbah inherited the throne and crowned it with fresh scandals. The Enugu Smart Schools project, his flagship promise of “digital revolution” for the youth, became a monument to hubris. Launched with fanfare in 2024, the N5.7 billion initiative awarded to Sujimoto Luxury Construction, a flashy Lagos firm with ties to Abuja power brokers aimed to build tech havens across the 17 local governments. Solar panels, interactive boards, AI tutors: a Silicon Valley dream in the Coal City. Yet by mid-2025, the dream collapsed literally.

In Mpu Ward, a N1.3 billion structure, barely six months old, buckled under its own weight, walls cracking like eggshells, trapping a janitor who escaped with his life but lost his faith in government. Substandard materials, rushed contracts, kickbacks funneled back to Mbah’s allies: Chika uncovered emails from Sujimoto execs pleading for payment delays, only to be ghosted as funds vanished into “consultancy fees.”

Another site in Isi-Uzo was demolished by the state itself in July, the governor’s team blaming “sabotage” while locals whispered of embezzlement. In her story, Chika imagined the schools as hollow shells, ghosts of opportunity haunting empty classrooms, where children learned not code, but the bitter lesson of betrayal.

The smart school project that was loudly advertised as a leap into the digital future now stands as one of the most embarrassing failures of his tenure. Billions were trumpeted as investments into an educational revolution; yet, when one visits the so-called “smart schools,” what greets you is decay, incompletion, and in some cases, structures that exist only in PowerPoint presentations.

And then came the mother of all scandals: the looting and siphoning of Enugu State’s coffers to fatten his private oil business, Pinnacle Oil. This, more than any other revelation, tore the mask off Mbah’s pretenses. It was alleged that Peter Mbah brazenly moved ₦40 billion of the people’s money into his own business empire a staggering act of kleptocracy.

Under Peter Mbah’s watch, Enugu’s roads cracked under monsoon rains, fresh scandals erupted. billions of naira contract for the New Enugu City Mall went to Sujimoto, a Lagos firm whose CEO, Sujimoto Ogundele, admitted zero experience in such mega projects. No bidding, no transparency, just a handshake deal, whispers said, laced with kickbacks funneled back to Mbah’s inner circle.

“He conned us with fake water schemes,” fumed locals in Nsude, where a €45 million Paris Club water grant meant for reservoirs at Anugwu Amagu vanished into Bluetag Technologies’ coffers, leaving pipes dry and auditors indignant. Over ₦84 million unaccounted for, petitions flew to the Auditor-General, who indicted the state for “mismanagement and corrupt practices.”

Worse, the Enugu State College of Education Technical (ESCET) became a powder keg. Reports surfaced of ghost recruitments bloating payrolls, subventions ballooning from ₦200 million to ₦500 million monthly without justification. Mbah, cornered, struck a probe committee in October 2023, chaired by his education commissioner. “We will dig deep,” he vowed. But skeptics saw theater: the committee’s report, buried in bureaucracy, recommended “appropriate measures” that never materialized. Hotel Presidential’s ₦50 billion “renovation” followed suit uncompleted wings commissioned amid fanfare, funds allegedly siphoned to overseas accounts.

His legacy is not a legacy of roads, schools, or hospitals. It is a legacy of petitions, court cases, and growing distrust of government in Enugu. Whenever I think of him, I do not see a governor; I see an interloper who schemed his way into office with forged papers, looted with reckless abandon, and then expected history to treat him kindly.

Nigeria is about the power blocs that sustain individuals. Mbah was never a freestanding leader, and now that his sponsors have largely deserted him, his nakedness has been exposed. The PDP, which once embraced him, now views him as damaged goods. The APC, equally wary, understands that associating with him would poison their platform in Enugu. The reality is simple: Peter Mbah cannot secure a second-term ticket from either PDP or APC because he is politically orphaned. Without his godfathers, he is like a man stranded in the desert, searching desperately for an oasis that does not exist.

As an indigene of Enugu, watching this charade unfold has been painful but also enlightening. Painful, because it has cost us precious years of progress, leaving our youths disillusioned and our infrastructure in tatters. The future of Enugu cannot and must not be wasted again on men like Mbah, who confuse governance with personal business expansion and mistake leadership for an opportunity to loot the commonwealth.

As we move forward, let us remember the lessons learned from this period of alleged misrule. Let us resolve to elect leaders who will serve with honor, integrity, and a genuine commitment to the welfare of Enugu. The time for excuses is over. The time for reckoning is now. We deserve better, and we must actively work to achieve it. Thank God he has gone to where he belongs. Good rediance to bad rubbish.

©️ Nwobodo Chukwudi Darlington