The emergence of Barr. Peter Ndubisi Mba, a calm, decorial and unassuming entrepreneurial authority with class and candour, as the gubernatorial candidate of the PDP is, from all objective evaluation, the idiomatic square peg that sits perfectly on a square hole. His emergence, as expected, has set curious minds and probing fingers at work, making inquest into the person, personage and being of Barr. Mba. The inquests have returned answers that are in the positive, answers that point to the fact that the new Enugu of our dreams is here.
A character check on Peter Mba revealed a man who is calm with words and actions. A man whose collegial mien and silences in the face of multitudes of talk reflect a deep-seated conversational intelligence. A vitally important attribute of Mba, connected to his many positive stories, is his interpersonal successes in listening to others.
In his silences, he’s the loudest; in the shutting of his lips, he speaks treasures. He is a confirmation of the saying that silent people have the largest of hearts for it is the heart that makes words alive. What’s more! Mba is visibly persuaded along the orientation of J. K. Rawlings who once sermonised that ‘we are only as strong as we are united but as weak as we are divided’. Days after the primaries that had him emerge the PDP gubernatorial candidate for 2023 election, Mba proved that the power of love could overcome the love for power. He immediately began to reach out to his fellow aspirants, assuaging feeling and assuring all that the Enugu he will superintend will be a home for all. Having ascended the pinnacle of existential accomplishments, the man behind the success story of Pinnacle Oil and Gas reads off to many as one who possesses managerial Midas touch.
As the commissioner of finance and later, chief of staff under governor Nnamani, Mba reflected a good and remarkable measure of excellence. He discharged his duties with great panache, verve and elegance. The awards from Rotary International District 9140, Certified Institute of Public Administration and Management, News watch Magazine and others give further credibility to the age-long saying that a golden fish has no hiding place.
Our places and times of birth could be products of circumstantial accidents but same cannot be conveniently said of what we become in life. It is in this understanding that three decades before, Tony Robbins mused that ‘the meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck’. Given his humble beginning, the emergence of Mba’s Pinnacle Oil and Gas as a leading brand in the downstream sector is an eloquent testimony to a life largely consummated on the altar of diligence, vision, pragmatism and industry.
That Mba is already occupied with the thoughts of moving Enugu’s GDP from 4.4 Billion naira to 30 billion naira points to one thing about the Oxford graduate of Strategy and Innovation: He must have fed to the brim from the world’s most influential business thinkers and leading experts on disruption, innovation, and growth strategy. There is no better definition of an innovative thinker and disruptive growth strategist than a man who adopted modern technologies to float a system that catalysed the movement of petroleum products from the high sea to onshore tank farms within a short time frame of 48 hours instead of 30 days. Barr. Peter Ndubisi Mba is the man!
To complement the managerial wizardry of Mba is the ebullient, incandescent and youthful Ifeanyi Ossai. Barr. Ossai is cut in Mba’s mould and design. He is an embodiment of learning, erudition and refinement. He radiates uncommon intelligence and peerless composure. The Mba-Ossai admixture is akin to a Ronaldo-Messi amalgam in a team.
It is, therefore, time to look beyond the events of yesteryears and focus on the promises of tomorrow. A time to look at the new possibilities, the enlarged horizon and the dawn of a new beginning. A time to galvanize support for the replication and reproduction of the Pinnacle magic in Enugu.
Freeman.
