By Reuben Onyishi
(Ugoachataberu)
Part of the otherness of the administration of Governor Mbah of Enugu State is his predilection for a e-governance consisting in augmented reality, cyber security, e-commerce, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and robotics, leveraging digitalized technologies. Besides his inimitable leadership skills, Dr Mbah has a knack for internet technology-driven cost-effective and speedy optimization of outputs.
Coming from the private sector as a top-notch CEO in the oil and gas downstream sector, Gov. Mbah is in tune with the economy of scales accruing from the 21st Century digitalized economy, and has come to sidle the state into the platform, delinking it from debilitating pipelines whole and complete.
Digitalized governance is the heartbeat of Governor Mbah and he has always reiterated the need to migrate all sectors of the state’s economy, especially the integrated productive sector, from pipeline to platform.
A good example is the Agricultural Sector. Governor Mbah is passionate about eliminating food insecurity in Enugu State. The objective of his agricultural programmes is meant to feed Enugu State and turn it into a food-basket for Nigeria and a hub for export of cash crops. He would do massive investments in Technologies for Agricultural Systems Transformation in the state, what he calls TASTE. Plans are in place to implement the agric programmes on technology-enabled platforms such as productivity enhancing farm machinery sharing platforms, e-wallet, technology-enabled extension services and agric value chain development. Agriculture is just one; the technologies shall be linked to other development programmes in productive infrastructure and human capital formation.
Governor Mbah would want all sectors of the state to migrate to platforms. During the swearing in of the Enugu State Head of Service, Mr. Kenneth Ugwu, and the Principal Secretary to the Governor, Mr Ken Egbo on 21st June, 2023, Governor Mbah in his speech made to the appointees reiterated the determination of his administration to migrate the Enugu State Civil Service to e-platforms- away from manual paperwork -by means of training the workforce on digital transformation and other innovative technologies. By implication, the Mbah Administration would chart a pathway for a new civil service that would be driven by technology and automation in order to ensure speed, efficiency, economy, effectiveness and productivity.
Today, during the swearing in and oath taking of the Chief of Staff, Barr. Victor Udeh, and six Special Advisers at the Governor’s Conference Hall, Lion Building, Government House, Enugu, Mbah reiterated his administration’s disposition to technology-enabled innovation and productivity. It is clear that the Mbah Administration is prepared and poised to unleash digital transformation on the governance of the state. Little wonder he appointed Osita Onuma, a US-based digital wizard, the Senior Advisor on Digital Transformation, Technology, Innovation, Industries of the Future and Industrial Strategy.
Governor Mbah by all this is meant to bring about technological innovation in his governance of Enugu State by moving the entire operation of the state to e-platforms. Indeed our tomorrow is here.