Chukwunonye Okereke
When a government promises a leap into the future, citizens expect classrooms full of children, not courts full of complaints and markets full of empty stalls. Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah’s much-publicized “Smart Green Schools” programme — a headline-grabbing commitment to build 260 technologically equipped schools across all wards of Enugu State — was sold as a bold investment in human capital. But in practice the rollout has exposed a litany of badly thought-through decisions, opaque procurement, runaway costs and a policy architecture that is crushing local businesses and private schools instead of lifting them.
At the centre of the storm is a string of alarming revelations about how the project has been executed. The state government has acknowledged that it paid about ₦5.7 billion in tranches to a single contractor — Sujimoto Luxury Construction Limited — for the construction of 22 of the 260 Smart-Green schools; those contracts are now the subject of public outrage, investigations and demands for recovery of funds, with agencies and pressure groups insisting on accountability.
The arithmetic alone should force pause. Official budget documents and government briefings show education received an unusually large share of the 2025 budget: figures in public circulation range into the hundreds of billions, with some line items specifically earmarking tens of billions for construction and equipping the Smart-Green Schools. State officials have touted a 33% allocation of recurring budget lines to education — a headline-friendly number — but the dissonance between big budget promises and incomplete sites, collapsed structures and contractors paid in advance has turned that claim into a public scandal.
The Enugu state government policy by spectacle, and not by plan is the biggest challenge it has.
Good policy begins with feasibility. Proper procurement, staged pilots, community consultation and fiscal prudence are the normal sequence. What unfolded in Enugu looks more like policy by spectacle: grand pronouncements, speedy contract awards, large upfront payments and an insistence on rapid implementation without parallel strengthening of monitoring institutions or transparent procurement. The result: classroom of promise that may remain unfinished, and a citizenry that is left to bear the economic fallout.
Questions of value and delivery have become urgent. Reports of advanced mobilisation payments of tens or hundreds of millions to contractors who later failed to complete work have surfaced; at least one smart-school contract has been reported as abandoned or structurally compromised, feeding a narrative of cost inflation and shoddy delivery. With each alleged failure,the credibility of the programme and of the officials who fast-tracked it erodes.
The collateral damage of this policy of spectacle are squeezed businesses, shuttered schools and
the human and economic costs of this scramble are already visible.
Private school owners, many of whom operate on razor-thin margins, have been hit from multiple directions: punitive increases in regulatory renewal fees, rising utility and supply costs in a punishing macroeconomic environment, and sudden policy moves that redirect public school pupils and change in enrollment patterns. In Enugu, private school owners have publicly lamented massive increases in annual registration and renewal levies in recent months —policy moves that many proprietors say amount to a death-blow for small and medium education entrepreneurs.
Beyond formal education, businesses, traders, market women and informal transport operators report being squeezed with fresh levies, opaque valuations, and the indirect effects of disrupted local demand. Civil society groups and community leaders have drawn a direct line between the state’s spending priorities and a growing climate of hostility to the small businesses that form the backbone of Enugu’s towns and villages. While palatial headlines celebrate “smart” campuses, the everyday economy that feeds those children is being hollowed out. Even lawyers are required to pay different amount of taxes depending on their years of practice.It ranges from #100,000 to #800,000 per annum.
An education policy that ignores local ownership is doomed.
This is one of the predictable failures of top-down reform approach that lacks community buy-in. Local leaders report being sidelined in decisions that affect land, school governance and local procurement where governments strip community stakeholders of meaningful voice,.Projects that once promised jobs and local sourcing become rent-seeking opportunities for apex contractors and their backers. This new dynamic creates not only poor accountability but also the political toxicity that follows when communities lose both voice and benefit.
The state’s public relations machine which has been outsourced to media and advertising firms in Lagos produce glossy launches, high-profile speeches and staging of a “transition” to Smart Green Schools in an effort to bridge the credibility gap that has not happened.
The rollout ceremony on September 22, 2025 for the take off of the smart school for the 2025/26 academic session and continuing upbeat coverage have done little to dampen calls for forensic audits and legal redress; citizens increasingly ask whether the transition is to cover up misprocurement rather than to deliver meaningful learning spaces.
Investigations by civic groups ,have tried to reconcile unit costs and totals but it has been irreconcilabe.One widely circulated calculation places the unit cost of a “smart school” at about ₦1.3 billion; multiplying that across 260 wards the headline figure becomes enormous, raising legitimate questions about whether value for money has been sought or sacrificed. If the unit costs are accurate, the state is committing resources on a scale that demands the highest standards of transparency, independent technical verification and phased implementation — none of which appears to have been robustly in place.
What is happening in Enugu state is a governance crisis and not only an infrastructure issue.
This is not merely a tale of over-ambition; it is a governance crisis. When procurement is opaque, when advance payments precede deliverables, and when budgetary allocations are trumpeted without parallel accountability measures, corruption risk is inherent. That risk is exacerbated when enforcement institutions like the procurement bureau, legislative oversight committees, and anti-corruption agencies are sidelined or given limited access. Calls for recovery of public funds and EFCC interest in some contracts reflect not only public anger but also the legal and fiduciary implications of current practice.
A policy that should have bolstered businesses has shut them out
There is an irony here that is hard to ignore. A policy ostensibly designed to produce future human capital and a thriving local economy has, in the short term, weakened precisely the small and medium businesses that create jobs .Private schools, builders and suppliers, market traders and transport operators. Many of these players report abrupt cash-flow shocks, higher state levies and an unpredictable business environment that discourages local investment. The policy, as implemented, is cannibalising the ecosystem it should have strengthened.
Enugu state government under Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah has a choice between legacy and liability
There is nothing inherently wrong with dreaming big for education. Enugu’s children deserve modern classrooms, digital resources, and teachers equipped for the 21st century. But ambition without discipline is vanity. When political theatre substitutes for sound policy, the result is a legacy at risk of becoming a liability: empty classrooms, indebted budgets and shattered local businesses.
Smart schools could be a generational gift. To become one, the programme must undergo an immediate course correction — one guided by audit, community ownership, phased delivery and a rigorous insistence on value for money. If those corrections are not made, the Smart Green Schools risk turning into the state’s most expensive monument to misgovernance — and the businesses and families of Enugu will pay the price.
*Chukwunonye Okereke, a public affairs Analyst and social commentator
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