Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has demonstrated deep knowledge of how political decisions influence economic outcomes at national and subnational levels. Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo examines how Mbah’s relationship with President Bola Tinubu has opened a new vista of economic opportunities for Southeast geo-political zone.
Not a few eyebrows were raised in askance in October, 2025 when Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, jettisoned the party on which he rode to the Lion Building. His critics and even his admirers were left wondering why a high performing Governor should jump ship.
Given the generally held belief that some opposition governors were crossing over to the ruling party in order to safeguard their second term bids, it was thought that Mbah was above such desperation.
Even with the huge fracture in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), it was still held that Mbah had no plausible reason to be afraid of the hegemonic influence of the ruling party. His admirers readily pointed to his record-setting achievements within the first three years of his four-year term. They strongly believed that the Enugu Governor would have his mandate revalidated without having to be a member of the ruling party.
Nonetheless, Mbah had his reasons for joining the ruling party, and he has been defending his decision at any given opportunity. He continues to insist that it was in the best interest of Enugu State and indeed the entire Southeast geo-political zone for him to connect to the centre. An Igbo adage has it that when a child is crying and keeps pointing to a particular direction, it is either his mother or his father is there. So, Mbah really knew what he was looking for at the centre of Nigeria’s political and economic power.
On Thursday, June 25, 2026 a major event with huge economic impact occurred in Enugu thereby crashing all the theories spinned around Mbah’s defection. They have turned out to be mere conjectures.
The Federal Government formally handed over the Akanu Ibiam International Airport(AIIA) to the concessionaires, Aero Alliance.
The role the Enugu Governor had played to make it happen was never known in the public space. Perhaps, only the members of his kitchen cabinet knew that Mbah had been frequenting the seat of power asking the federal government to make it possible for the Southeast to start reaping the full benefits of the international status of Enugu Airport.
Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, revealed Mbah’s deep involvement in the process leading up to the conclusion of the concessioning. The Federal Government was actually prodded by Mbah to actualise the concessioning of AIIA. It wasn’t just a happenstance that tumbled out from the seat of power.
Narrating the process of how the concessioning came about, Keyamo said that Mbah actually ignited the interest of federal government to kick-start the process of making Enugu Airport to become an international hub. He said: “Dr. Mbah went straight to Mr. President a few weeks after his inauguration and said, ‘This is my plan for the airport.’’
Keyamo noted that the Enugu governor had approached Mr President with a clear cut proposal, “explaining that the airport was not maximising its economic potential under standard bureaucratic structures, and requested to bring in private investors to run it”.
Keyamo said President Bola Tinubu was impressed with the proposal presented by the Enugu Governor hence “Mr President gave the green light” and minuted to him a directive that “we should give (Mbah) all the assistance he needs to turn Enugu into an aviation and investment hub”.
The Aviation Minister’s admiration of Mbah for his vision, purposeful leadership, tenacity, and go-getter disposition, was palpable. He lauded the Governor, saying, “Mbah started with Enugu Air, and now he has brought in capital, brought in investors for the airport. So, I just want to say that Dr. Peter Mbah came with a plan for Enugu.
“He did not come and begin to assess the situation. He is a governor who came into office with a plan. And today, we are glad that we have found in him the perfect partnership we need between the federal and the state governments,” Keyamo said while giving his impression of the Enugu Governor. It is an indication that more dividends of Mbah’s connection to the centre of power are on the way, not only for Enugu but for the entire Southeast, courtesy of the Mbah connection.
Mbah corroborated the Aviation Minister, noting that the outcome of his political decision to connect Enugu State to the centre has started to yield the expected dividends. His happiness was palpable as he thanked Mr. President profusely for granting his request to make AIIA live up to its status of an international airport. The successful concession agreement signified that the partnership has really solidified with visible outcome. Mbah highlighted the significant of the concession, noting that it marked the beginning of a new chapter in the journey to unlock the immense economic potential of the Southeast region.
According to him, the airport concessioning “is a dream come true as we herald the promise of a South East that will be more connected, more competitive, more prosperous, and more visible on the global stage”. Mbah listed the benefits of concessioning the AIIA to include opening “a new chapter of economic possibilities (as) businesses across our region have for long grappled with logistics constraints that increased costs, lengthened delivery timelines, and limited competitiveness”.
To Mbah, repositioning the Enugu Airport for international hub for air travels goes beyond passenger traffic. The real deaI is making it international hub for cargo flight. The federal government concurred without hesitation.
In fact, the Aviation Minister had prior to the official handover of Enugu Airport to the concessionaire disclosed that agreement for AIIA to be receiving direct cargo flights was already done and dusted.
On June 18, 2026 while speaking at the unveiling of two Boeing 737-800 aircraft acquired by United Nigeria Airlines, Keyamo disclosed that Nigeria was negotiating direct cargo flight operations between China and the Southeast through Enugu, with plans to begin operations before the end of the year. He stated that “the Enugu governor and I were actively negotiating the first direct cargo flight from Guangzhou, China, straight into Enugu”.
According to him, December has been chosen for the maiden flight. “This will allow our Southeast merchants and traders in China to consolidate their goods into unified cargo accounts twice a week, flying straight into Enugu for seamless delivery to hubs like Onitsha and Aba,” he said.
Before approaching the presidency, Mbah, whose private sector background is rubbing off on his governance style, had already envisioned his plan for Enugu Airport.
He wanted it to be fully privately owned and operated under the direction of the Enugu government, with the clear objective of turning it into a dedicated cargo hub for the entire Southeast. That is exactly what Keyamo said that AIIA has transformed into under a new operational framework that involves private-sector participation.
Though Mbah expressed his vision for the Enugu Airport at the early stage of his governorship, the realisation of this dream was, no doubt, accelerated by his defection to the ruling party. As a member of APC and one of its outstanding governors, Mbah was emboldened enough to press home his demand, which was not only granted but followed with expedited implementation.
He had also, on his own part, made Enugu attractive for investors, thereby making it easy, unlike in the past, for federal government to readily get a concessionaire that agreed to invest in AIIA. In fact, the Aviation Minister enthused that “one of our prides in the South is (now) the Enugu International Airport”. So, it is guaranteed that trade logistics would improve and commercial activities strengthened in the Southeast region, going forward.
That is the envisaged outcome that Mbah had conceptualised when he set out to partner government at the centre to open up a new vista of economic opportunities for the Southeast zone. At the handover ceremony of AIIA, Mbah was visibly pleased with the outcome of his visits to President Tinubu, pleading for the intervention of federal government. He lauded Mr. President for the successful concessioning of the Enugu Airport. The Enugu Governor noted that the concessioning marked the beginning of a new chapter in the journey to unlock the immense economic potentials of the Southeast region.
“So, today is a dream come true as we herald the promise of a South East that will be more connected, more competitive, more prosperous, and more visible on the global stage,” he said.
Mbah listed the benefits of concessioning the Enugu Airport, saying it has opened “a new chapter of economic possibilities.”
This, he pointed out, was “because businesses across our region have for long grappled with logistics constraints that increased costs, lengthened delivery timelines, and limited competitiveness”.
The repositioning of Enugu Airport has come in Mbah’s time as Governor but the demand for it had stretched back in time. The neglect of the Airport since its inauguration in 1960 forms one of the issues fueling the present separatist agitation in the Southeast. Southeast is renowned as the zone with preponderance of people enaged in commercial activities both at local and international level. Yet, the federal government had never deemed it fit to put the necessary facilities to promote commerce and industry in the zone. Along with the total absence of seaport in the zone, the stagnation of Enugu Airport was perceived as part of the well guarded policy of successive federal administrations, both military and civilian, to suppress the economic growth of the Southeast zone since after the civil war.
At a time during the Presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo the demand for Enugu Airport to be granted international status became overwhelming. But his answer was to challenge the then governors of the Southeast states to look for an airline that would be operating the international route to and from Enugu Airport. The cynical challenge was ignored apparently because of its political undertone.
However, at the last lap of Obasanjo’s eight-year rule, the Enugu Airport was officially designated as an international airport in 2007. It largely remained so in name as necessary infrastructures were not put in place to functionalise it. It took almost a decade for Enugu Airport to receive its first international flight. The historic moment came on August 24, 2013 when the first international commercial flight operated by Ethiopian Airlines touched down at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.
Despite the past drawbacks and political landmines that preceded Mbah’s administration, he has deftly navigated his way through to get federal government see the need to make Enugu Airport become an international hub for passengers and cargoes.
That this has happened under Tinubu’s Presidency is a demonstration of political will to draw the Southeast closer and erase every feeling of marginalisation of the zone. Mbah stressed the significance of the change in the fortunes of the Enugu Airport after decades of hoping against hope.
“We hope that future generations will look back to this day as the moment when Akanu Ibiam International Airport began its transformation into a truly world-class gateway serving the South East, connecting Nigeria to the world and opening new pathways to prosperity for millions of our people,” he said.
