*To recruit doctors, nurses and doctors from other parts of Nigeria to work in Borno

*Says he’s not afraid to sacrifice his comfort for Borno’s return to normalcy

Borno State Governor, Babagana Umara Zulum, a professor of Agricultural Engineering, has taken the state by storm since assuming office just over two years ago, providing key infrastructure, resettling displaced persons and communities and opening and re-opening areas hitherto deserted as a result of the menace posed by terrorists.

But in all that the governor has been doing, the building of state-of-the art schools, hospitals and skills acquisition centres top the agenda of his administration, thereby attracting thousands of out-of-school children from the streets to the classrooms and equipping more citizens of the state with appropriate skills to earn a living.

In this special interview to mark his investiture as Vanguard’s Personality of the Year 2020, Prof. Zulum explains why he is paying more attention to education, health and skills. Excerpts:

By Nnanna Ochereome, Soni Daniel and Ndahi Marama

AFTER going round the state and seeing what your administration has been able to accomplish in just two years, it is clear to all that your priority lies in Education, health and skills acquisition. Why is this so?

One of major causes of insurgency in Nigeria is illiteracy. So, we are trying to address the root causes and that is why we are trying to pay more attention to education. Moreover, the issue of northern Nigeria being backward in education is well known. So, we want to create an atmosphere conducive for our people to go to school and acquire functional education to be able to understand what is happening around them and to be able to work for themselves.

How did your administration manage to build many gigantic structures within two years in the midst of insurgency and funding challenges?

It is no magic but judicious application of scarce resources to achieve our set goals.

Across the state, the people have been displaced and thrown into despondency. How are you catering for these people?

Yea, we are doing our best to cater for them with the support of the Federal Government, development partners and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, the United Nations, the European Union, National Emergency Management Agency and others.

How are you able to get enough teachers, nurses and doctors to manage these large numbers of newly-built schools and hospitals spread across the state?

In our ten-point agency, education and health are among the top priorities.

Producing more teachers

That is why we are paying serious attention to manpower development. For this reason, we have recalled our retired nurses and midwives to assist us in providing health services to the citizens. We have given them two years contract subject to renewal. We are making effort to train more doctors and nurses to be able to run the health system in the state. We want to ensure that in the next five years we can produce more teachers, doctors and nurses to join the service and render services to our people.

We have recruited over 600 health personnel and over 800 teachers and we are planning to recruit more than 3000 teachers. We are ready to spread our hands to any part of Nigeria. If we cannot get competent hands from Borno, we want to reach out to other states in the country to recruit teachers, nurses and doctors to help us. We have no place for tribalism but what matters to us is competence. We have to choose between tribalism and competence in our recruitment drive. We will hire from anywhere we find competent persons to work with us.

One of the emerging problems affecting the public service in almost all the states of the federation is the arrears of pensions and gratuity leading to a situation where workers and pensioners are demoralised. What is the situation in Borno State?

We have paid about N20 billion since my assumption of office by way of gratuities, arrears of pensions and arrears to families of deceased pensioners. Again, looking at the ten-point agenda of my administration, the last one emphasises good governance and one of the ways to ensure good governance is prompt payment of salaries and pensions to workers. By so doing, corruption is minimised among those in the service.

READ ALSO: Eid El Kabir: Borno civil servants jubilate as Gov Zulum pays July salary

That is why this government has decided to clear the backlog of pensions and gratuity arrears. We borrowed N20 billion mainly to pay gratuity and we still have some outstanding but we will ensure that before the end of this administration, we will clear the outstanding.

How are you tackling the challenges of infrastructure in the state?

The provision of critical infrastructure is key in my administration. We need to do something about roads, electricity, water and urban renewal especially in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital with a huge population. That is why we decided to embark on mass construction of roads not only to beautify the town but to also decongest the city to ensure free flow of traffic to attract local and foreign investors to the state. Again, the issue of urbanisation is very important to us and that is why we have chosen nine local government areas for urbanisation – three in Borno Central, three in Borno North and three in Borno South. The main reason is that we want to reduce rural-urban migration to the barest minimum.

Water, housing provision and light are very essential and we are embarking on the provision of water and housing the state.  We have succeeded in providing many boreholes across the state just to be able to reduce health challenges associated with water scarcity. Our strategy is that if we succeed in providing infrastructure, we also will succeed in providing job opportunities for the people. We want to use one stone to kill many birds in the state.

Why do you appear to be in a hurry to go into highly risky LGAs and communities in the state in order to open them up despite latent security challenges? Aren’t you afraid for your life?

Well, let me tell you something. One of the things we promised Borno people when we were campaigning was that we would do everything humanly possible to ensure the restoration of peace to Borno State.  And, one way of ensuring stability is to ensure the presence of government across the nooks and crannies of the state and the establishment of civil authority. What we are doing by taking such risky steps is to ensure the presence of government and civil authority everywhere. We want to ensure that the traditional authority and the local government offices work and serve the people effectively.

The governor has to go to those places to ensure that there is governance in those places. I need to go to those places because it is the Almighty Allah who protects his creatures. There is nothing that can happen without the will of the Almighty Allah. So why should I not go to Gworza, Monguno, Baga and other places? Most importantly, the life I live is a covenant between me and my God and when the time comes that I should pass away, there is nothing anybody can do to stop it.

Having been the governor of Borno State at a time like this, what makes you happy and what makes you sad?

What makes me very happy and excited is rendering service to humanity, which we try to render at a time of national crisis that has affected the state more than any other place.  I am always happy whenever I see myself attracting meaningful development to the state and I am also very happy whenever the Government of Borno State is bringing people out of poverty and whenever the state is able to facilitate the return of displaced farmers people to their homes and communities so that they can stand on their own.

Adequate security

I am always happy whenever I see thousands of out-of-school children return to school to learn and chart a new path to life. I am always happy to work for the improvement of health facilities for the people. My greatest joy is my contributions to the wellbeing of the people of Borno State. Anything short of these doesn’t excite me.

What do you wish to accomplish at the end of your first term in office?

I would want the state to be free from insecurity and I don’t want to see IDP camps in the state. Thirdly, I would want to see that Maiduguri metropolis is urbanised and people engaging in their normal economic life and adequate security for everyone. Fourthly, I want to see functional and sustainable health care and educational and health system with adequate infrastructure and personnel to serve the state. The school system as a whole – primary, secondary and tertiary – should be strong enough to carry everyone and provide for all to achieve their education goals.

Given your investment in education, has that been able to take many children away from the street to the classroom?

We have a World Bank programme which shows that Borno State did very well in terms of students’ enrolment in terms of bringing down the number of out of school children. We have successfully taken over 100,000 children out of the streets. People do not really understand because of confusing the matter with the almajirai education system. We will, however, streamline it. Those who are captured in the almajirai system will be taught numeric, literacy, digital literacy and above all skills development. We are blending all for the interest of the people.

Vanguard News Nigeria