Mbah’s 33.2% allocation to education attracts commendation

The All Progressives Congress (APC) and other stakeholders in Enugu State have hailed Gov. Peter Mbah for allocating 33.3 per cent of the 2026 budget proposal to the Education Sector.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the governor presented the 2026 appropriation bill of N1.62 trillion to the Enugu State House of Assembly on Tuesday in Enugu.

The budget is christened, “Budget of Renewed Momentum with Renewed Optimism”.

Reacting to the budget, the State Acting Chairman of APC, Dr Ben Nwoye, noted that the state never had such amount in its budget since its creation.

Nwoye commended Mbah for investing not only on infrastructure but also on human capital development.

“About 33.27 per cent is budgeted in education and when we talk about the biggest asset being the brain, hands and legs, we are talking about changing the entire landscape of Enugu.

“The governor promised to make Enugu State the number one in terms of tourism and in order to facilitate that, he is bringing in more aircraft.

“For the first time, we are going to be having from three aircraft to 20 aircraft,” Nwoye said.

The acting chairman added that Mbah was also transforming the health sector by building and revitalising existing ones by putting ingenuity of Igboman into leadership as well as strengthening the security of the state by launching drones on Monday.

“You can’t have all these without security. So we are happy. Everyone is happy, the women, youth, Judiciary and even the Legislature are happy because we have seen a new Enugu in the next one year,” he said.

He commended President Bola Tinubu for increasing state allocation, saying “Without the amount of money they are receiving now, all these will not be possible”.

The Chairman, Nsukka Council Area of Enugu State, Mr Jude Asogwa, on his part, extolled Mbah’s proactiveness, stressing that the budget was realisable.

He said, “If you listen to his excellency, when he was presenting the budget, it is very practical and realisable. He will tell you what he intends to do and how he intends to do it.

“He presented last budget without provision for borrowing and this year budget again, he presented 1.62 trillion and there is no provision for borrowing as you could see that he itemised all the sources where the funds will be coming from.

Asogwa explained that Mbah flagged-off 181 roads in 2025 and pledged to launch 1,200 roads in 2026.

“And you also heard him say that every local government must have a major road. So this is a governor that is all-inclusive whose every part of the Enugu state is as important to him as any other part of the state,” he said.

Dr Eric Odoh, the Chairman of Igbo-Etiti Council Area of Enugu State, added that the governor had raised the bar of leadership in Enugu and Nigeria in general.

He said there was a connectivity and strong nexus between what Mbah was doing and what he was doing in the council area.

“Maybe one or two weeks, we will be having our appropriation before 2026 by making sure that Enugu State continues to have a sustained development across all sectors, agriculture, education, health, and infrastructure.

“We are the luckiest set of local government chairmen at this period and what you are witnessing in Enugu, by the end of his administration, it will be something that can barely be described as a miracle happening in Enugu State,” Odoh said.

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