Governor Peter Mbah’s green quest
Recently, the Enugu State government has been in the news for some cheering reasons. The most recent is the infographic extract with the educational budget of all Nigerian state governments for 2025. The analysis shows that Enugu State has the biggest education budget with a whopping N320.61bn. The second on the list is Lagos State with N223.27bn budgeted for its 2025 spending for the education sector. Considering the per capita spread – Enugu’s population is approximately 5 billion and Lagos’s approximately 16 billion – it is easy to see that Enugu is head and shoulders above the rest.
My observation is that this high budgetary allocation may not be unconnected to the ongoing project of the state Governor, Barrister Peter Mbah, known as Enugu State Smart Green Schools. The government says the green schools are dedicated to providing high-quality, innovative education that “blends academic excellence with environmental sustainability”. As part of a broader educational reform strategy, they are planned to be established one in each of the 260 wards of the state. Currently, 30 have already been completed and fully equipped.
Indeed, Enugu State is undergoing a gradual but palpable transformation. I witnessed it during my Christmas visit to my hometown, Awha. I was pleasantly surprised to see signs of development in a rural area that ordinarily has nothing to attract the government or its projects. As you drive through the rugged untarred road, veering off to the left, there is a manicured avenue under construction. And when you ask, you are told, “Peter Mbah is building.” It was a smart school under construction. It is the same in all the other wards of the state. This is what development is supposed to be because I believe in the Chinese model of lifting the citizens in the towns and villages. It is the only, and true, way to end poverty.
However, as an environmentalist, I also wonder whether the governor and his team understand the implication of stating that the project is green. I would be really glad that it remains on the sustainable path because the average Nigerian governor is so powerful that each of their decisions has the potential to change the developmental trajectory of the entire state in the twinkling of an eye. The fact is that ambitious political leadership is vital for action at the speed and scale needed to reverse nature’s decline and protect against climate change. Only politicians can make the major system reforms required at this moment that climate change is going off track while balancing competing objectives.
Therefore, I suggest that the Enugu State Government use the upcoming 260 smart and green schools as a birthing and training ground for green champions. I cannot but imagine the advantage we would reap if we could catch them young and release them to the world as climate action ambassadors.
Greening activities can be integrated into existing curricula in science, art, humanities, math, language arts, or electives. Using the school as a hands-on laboratory offers opportunities for real-world problem-solving. Students can undertake studies of themes such as energy, water, forests, toxic pollution, and waste. The whole school should be involved in practical initiatives – for example, saving water, recycling materials and saving energy. Outdoor education, and time spent in nature locally – whether the schoolyard, a park, or a field trip – is a critical component of a hands-on, place-based, experiential education.
Where environmental education is not part of the regular curriculum, recommendations can be made by a proposed Green Team as to how these themes can be incorporated. This is how the government can also integrate some other development initiatives into the smart school project. For instance, tackling out-of-school children and the informal sector players known as scavengers.
Professionally, scavengers are the ones who collect waste products from dumpsites and landfills for onward conversion into useful products. As key players in the waste management value chain, they are very crucial in the environmental sector. But over here, they are seen as waste pickers, street pilfers and people with only general nuisance value. This is not supposed to be so.
There has been nationwide attention on the ongoing Enugu Nike-Opi Nsukka Road dualisation in Enugu, where the government is carrying on demolitions of buildings obstructing the highway to give enough space to create the dual carriage expressway. There was one in which people said demolitions were effected while residents were still inside their marked homes. The government denied this and explained that what played out was that some scavengers milled around the sites seeking what to cart away. So, as demolition proceeded, some of them dashed into the buildings, grabbing what they could as scraps and ‘pantaker’ wares.
It is only for some of us who have witnessed this type of incident that could actually relate. Towards the end of last year in Abuja, I was a witness to a similar occurrence. The FCT government under Nyesom Wike as minister, was demolishing some structures (legally or illegally) constructed in some green areas in the city centre. So, while pulling down buildings at the recreation park situated at the Fumilayo Ransome-Kuti Road, Garki, a police squad was on hand to secure the demolition team as they worked.
Scavengers, wielding various types of tools of their trade, ranging from scrap sacks to improvised diggers, were appearing out of the blue, one by one. They gathered in their hundreds in the perimeter of the demolition site. The next thing, the police began to disperse them. But they refused to go, like a locust army. Stubbornly, they converged together on a phalanx to impose themselves on the demolition team. They wanted to enter the site to strip the buildings of valuables – i.e. iron rods, plastic wares, wood, bottles, name them. But the police refused them access. That was when things got out of hand.
The police began to fire anti-riot tear gas canisters at the scavengers. But instead of scampering away to escape the enveloping smoke as other people around the vicinity were doing, the scavengers just retreated a few yards, regrouped, and matched forward in defiance. There was instant panic in the entire area. The filling station across the site, where I came to buy petrol, hurriedly shut down. Vehicles that were heading in the direction of the riot were turning back in fright. It was unbelievable. Scavengers – who were persona non grata in the city centre – were now exchanging fire with the nation’s security forces.
The squad commander called for reinforcement. The only saving grace was that the ‘fight’ was inside the city, just a few kilometres away from the Force Headquarters. Hence, in a matter of minutes, reinforcement arrived. A well-kitted riot squad sped to the scene and began a hot pursuit of the scavengers. That ended the siege, and residents heaved a sigh of relief.
Hence, the Enugu spectacle I saw via social media was nothing compared to what went down in Abuja, and what usually happens when demolitions are ongoing. When scavengers are stripping up buildings, nothing can make them come out unless the building collapses on them.
On the other hand, the Enugu State government stands a chance to turn the state into a green enclave by ensuring that the proposed New Enugu (town) project stays true to its blueprint complete with all green and smart amenities, like a fire station, waste recycling hub, parks and gardens, environmentally safe market spaces, pedestrian curbs, etc. This is the only way the word green can be justified, and then the current governor will find a place in the Green Hall of Fame of the universe.
