Borno’s new kid on the block

Every new government comes with a peculiar bravura that defines it. In our kind of clime and democracy, the first few days in office of any governor are critical in the way he or she is perceived and judged by the people. In less than a week, almost all the newly elected governors have already […]

Every new government comes with a peculiar bravura that defines it. In our kind of clime and democracy, the first few days in office of any governor are critical in the way he or she is perceived and judged by the people. In less than a week, almost all the newly elected governors have already been profiled for good or for bad by the people of their respective states. Cartoonists in many Newspaper outfits have had a field day making hilarious illustrations of how some Governors have fared in the first few days of assumption.

In one of them, one Governor was, side-splittingly illustrated to have pulled down a structure erected by his predecessor; another was picking a third wife while one was tinkering with the idea of building an Airport in a state that apparently needed more soldiers. In Borno State, the Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum has hit the ground running from day one and has since then, been in the limelight breaking grounds and proving to the world that, indeed, former governor (now Senator) Kashim Shettima was on point in his choice of a successor.

Although Professor Zulum had the advantage of taking over from a highly respected and action packed predecessor who has succeeded in placing the state on the front burner of national discourse, his own pedigree as a revered intellectual who had distinguished himself as an achiever in all the places he had served, his performance as Rector of the Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri and as a Commissioner in charge of the very important Ministry of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, all under the Kashim Shettima regime was the icing on the cake on the profile of a man who drove a taxi and sold firewood to fund his education. Again, Professor Zulum’s contour as an active player in the process of rebuilding a state plagued by a mindless bloody terror campaign that had been on for a decade as well as the intellectualism and rationality he brought to the table of strategic thinking of waltzing the state out of a future fraught with uncertainties have helped greatly to give him the edge required to confront the myriad of hair splitting challenges of security and development head on.

It was therefore not surprising that in his first seven days in office, he emerged as Nigeria’s newest kid on the block and a darling of the nation’s critical press. Every day, he brings out of his bag something that captures the imagination of not just the people of Borno state, but of all Nigerians. His first act of directing that pensions and gratuities owed civil servants be promptly paid as well as his decision to put a biometric exercise on hold in order to effect payment of salaries to some civil servants adversely effected, gave out a hint that the erudite scholar had no qualms to take action needed to provide the desired leadership for all manner of people of the state.

He had, a day earlier played host to the executive council leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress who demanded immediate payment of pensions and salaries to some civil servants. At the meeting, the Professor had pledged to effect the payment. A day after the meeting, he paid an unscheduled visit to the Musa Usman Secretariat housing 12,000 civil servants of various ministries. There, he met only three civil servants who reported for duty as at 8.30am. An hour after, less than 150 workers reported. The Governor, who ordered the immediate payment to those in the complex, questioned the rationale behind demand for salaries by the same workers who are habitually absent from their duty posts. Since then, the Secretariat has become a beehive where action and work have happily returned to.

It was also within his first two days in office that he announced his government’s plan to construct flyovers in densely vehicular and human traffic locations in the state capital that had made movement around the city a herculean task for both motorists and commuters. Again, in a bid to restore ease of commuting between Borno and Adamawa states through the hitherto very popular Maiduguri-Bama-Gwoza-Michika-Yola short route, the Governor rushed to Gwoza to inspect, in readiness to commence work on the Limankara link-bridge which was bombed and rendered impassable by the Boko Haram insurgents. He was also in the news promising to re-kit, re-energize and review the remuneration of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) whose members have provided the missing link in the fight against insurgency. In fact, hours after, Governor Zulum announced an immediate upward review of their salaries – an action which resonated well with all the security apparatus in the state.

It is noteworthy to recollect that a security meeting involving all heads of the security architecture in the state alongside traditional and natural rulers was simultaneously held at the government house to change the narrative of the effort to nip into the bud, the cowardly hit and run strategy which the insurgency has been reduced to. In less than a week, the new governor has visited 15 of the 27 local government areas of Borno state including the Kalabalge/Ngala/Dikwa axis where the insurgency has been active and had posed its own security challenges, seriously restricting even VIP movements.

The high level action-packed first few days in office of Professor Zulum has important significance and can be used to gauge what the future holds for a state that is sprouting out of one of Nigeria’s deadliest and bloodiest terror acts. His audacity, mental aptitude, physical fitness, intellectual prowess and superior leadership qualities, in the face of glaring leadership deficits exhibited so far by many governors, should provide justifiable reasons for Nigerians to invest hope that Nigeria can evolve out of the trouble waters of self-inflicted melancholy which has held it down and altered its match to greatness.

Ahmed-BK wrote from Gesse III, Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State.