Enugu Teachers Endorse Mbah And Tinubu For Re-election, Cite Welfare And Increased Education Funding

Teachers in Enugu State have endorsed Governor Peter Mbah for a second term and President Bola Tinubu for re-election in 2027, citing improved welfare, increased education funding, and massive investments in the sector.

The endorsement was made at a rally organised by the Teachers for Grassroots Movement (TGM) at Okpara Square, Enugu, on Saturday, with more than 12,000 teachers marching through parts of the metropolis before converging on the venue.

The Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Enugu State chapter, Comrade Theophilus Odo, praised Mbah for prioritising teachers’ welfare and addressing longstanding challenges in the education sector.

“On behalf of the NUT, I want to say that we are happy today because God has given us a caring governor, Peter Mbah,” Odo said.

Odo noted that Mbah was instrumental to the domestication of harmonised retirement benefits for teachers even before he became governor. He also commended the construction of over 260 Smart Green Schools, the recruitment of thousands of teachers, and the prompt payment of salaries with no outstanding promotions.

“So, we, the teachers, are endorsing our governor for a second term in office. The votes of our teachers are only for Governor Mbah,” he stated.

The Chairman of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) in Enugu State, Nelson Agu, said private school teachers were joining such a rally for the first time ever to acknowledge what he described as Mbah’s revolution in the education sector.

“When you came and started the idea of over 260 Smart Green Schools, we thought we were out of service. But we went and upgraded our schools to meet the required standards,” Agu said.

Agu also praised the administration’s allocation of 33 per cent of the state budget to education for three consecutive years, describing it as something to laud.

The Director-General of TGM, Dr Nwakaego Aja, said the movement represented over 30,000 teachers across the state and pledged to take the governor’s message to communities, staff rooms, markets, and polling units.

“We, the teachers, are not ingrates. We see what you are doing. You promised disruptive innovation, and you have delivered disruptive innovation. That is why we are here,” Aja stated.

She declared that the teachers’ votes would go to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from bottom to top.

The Commissioner for Education and patron of TGM, Prof. Ndubueze Mbah, described the endorsement as a tip of the iceberg of the support coming for the governor and the President ahead of the 2027 general election.

Responding, Governor Mbah said the endorsement carried particular significance because the future his administration wanted to build depended on education and the teachers.

“Today’s endorsement carries a particular significance, and that is because everything we do, all the promises we have made, all the projections we have made — growing Enugu’s economy, becoming one of the top three states in terms of GDP, making Enugu State the number one state in terms of investment, business, living and tourism — are in the hands of our teachers,” Mbah said.

The governor highlighted his administration’s investments in education, including the construction of over 7,000 classrooms, the provision of 464,000 furniture items, 25,000 desktop computers, and over 5,000 tablets, as well as free feeding and uniforms.

He explained that the government was allocating 33 per cent of its total budget to education, warning that failure to invest adequately in the sector would lead to significantly higher costs in tackling poverty, insecurity, and unemployment in the future.

The event attracted senior government officials, political and community leaders, and other stakeholders.