The Pathfinder Clocks 56

Zulum’s age showcases life in years, not years in life

By Dauda Iliya

What matters in the life of a man is not the number of years in his life but the quality of life in those years. This should even be more applicable to leaders than to the led in all aspects of human affairs.

Every person entrusted with the responsibility of political cum public office should be rich in the capacity to uphold the trust reposed in him by his people, and discharge the concomitant duties and responsibilities to them according to their needs and aspirations.

As he ages on in life, counting the number of years he has lived on Earth, should savour satisfaction from, and build his inner peace with, his accomplishments that purposefully and qualitatively impact the life of the people whose affairs he, by sheer divine providence, has been entrusted with the management of.

How rich is he in the capacity required for the discharge of his political cum public office duties and responsibilities to the people? How much has he accomplished in the discharge of those duties and responsibilities on the scale of the resources made available for the purpose, surmounting all towering challenges, and how has he converted challenges to opportunities, obstacles to stepping stones, in the course of service to the people?

How has he towered above board in the conduct of public service? How much enviable value has he added to the service of the society according to the needs and aspirations of its people? How well has he performed in building and sustaining his personality as a compass in the search for guidance towards purposeful and qualitative public service?

How high and remarkably does he stand out among all other leaders, in person and personae, before and after him in the history of purposeful and prosperous service to the humanity?

All these considerations factor vitally in determining the quality of life in the years he has lived on Earth, not merely the number of years he has lived in life.

It is pertinent to weigh the present Governor of Borno State, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, on the scale of these vital factors in determining the quality of leadership and public service to his beleaguered Borno State and its peoples, as he attains the age of 56 in life on Earth, Monday, August 25.

As a pacesetter, Zulum is the first Professor to govern the state in its history. To some, this historic educational attainment may not be striking enough to warrant any spectacular recognition that should enviably stand him out of all other personalities that governed the state before him.

However, to others, this educational attainment is remarkably striking, because it serves as the most-desired foundation for him to conceive, craft and efficiently coordinate the deployment of the most-relevant, most-potent and, indeed, cutting age programmes and projects desired for the rescue of an entity out of its epochal humanitarian crisis which, hitherto threatened to crush it out of existence.

Gifted with rare foresight and proactivity, Zulum has governed a Borno ravaged in all sectors by a global-scale terror and its attendant humanitarian crisis over the last fifteen years, steering it out of the global-scale turbulence it has been floundering in, and repositioning it for comprehensive rehabilitation and reconstruction for a prosperity that fast restores its pre-Boko Haram/ISWAP terror glory.

The pathfinding Zulum has purposefully and efficiently deployed his intellectual prowess to craft and drive sustainable reforms for the rapid resuscitation of Borno. The Borno Model of societal recovery he crafted earned him dazzling praises from the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.

Most-spectacular of such reforms are the 25-year Development Plan, Borno State Strategy for Durable Solutions to Internal Displacement, the Borno Model for Peace, Reconciliation and Development, Transitional Justice Framework, under which he has closed all IDP camps that has littered Maiduguri over the last fifteen years, and returning the IDPs to their ancestral lands to rebuild their lives, with the prime purpose of fast-tracking the reconstruction and rapid growth of the state economy.

Faced with the stark reality that there is certainly no shortcut to the desired comprehensive restoration of the state in all sectors from the crisis, and such restoration cannot be achieved with hundreds of thousands of IDPs surviving on handouts from international donors and food palliatives by government, the Professor of Agricultural Engineering carefully coordinated the relocation of the entire IDP population to their ancestral communities to resume their farming, fishing and trading activities that built and sustained an enviable economy for Borno over the ages.

His foresight and vision led him to invest in the health sector, building quality healthcare delivery institutions, most notably the Borno State University Teaching Hospital, Orthopaedic Hospital, Dental and Eye Hospitals, and scholarship for hundreds of the state indigenes to train as medical doctors and other health related personnel.

Zulum’s six years as Borno State Governor are six years of purposeful leadership that reshaped state’s economic, social, and infrastructural landscape from the epicentre of insurgency to a hub for viable economic investments. Consequently, Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) ranks Borno among the top 10 ranking states in the federation on ease of doing business.

This remark is contained in a presentation on ” Sub national ease of doing business report” by the project manager SABER secretariat Abuja Ms Aimeya Okpebholo.

His humility, generosity, perseverance, simplicity, resilience and, uncommon commitment to justice and fairness in the distribution of development across Borno State and, above all, his impeccable passion for good governance to rescue the state from the sticky humanitarian crisis breathe bubbling life to the years he has lived on Earth.

His exemplary passion for service to humanity has enabled him to write his name in gold in the pages of history with regard to leadership and good governance in Nigeria.

At 56, Governor Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno State proudly exhibits that what should matter in one’s age is the quality of life he has lived on Earth in his given capacity, rather than the mere number of years he has lived.

Happy birthday, Your Excellency

The Pathfinder Clocks 56

Army troops repel ISWAP attack inflict casualties on the terrorists in Borno

By: Zagazola Makama

Nigerian Army troops of Operation HADIN KAI ihave repelled an attack by suspected ISWAP terrorists on Gajigana town in Magumeri Local Government Area.

Sources said the terrorists launched the attack on the town at about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, targeting a Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) duty post.

“There was a fierce exchange of gunfire between the terrorists and a combined team of the troops who responded promptly to reinforce the defence of the town.

“The attack was successfully repelled, with terrorists suffering unspecified casualties as blood was observed in their withdrawal routes while normalcy has since been restored,” he said.

Sources said one CJTF operative, identified as Mr. Bulama Ngala, aged 45, sustained gunshot injuries from flying bullets during the confrontation.

The sources added that the injured operative was evacuated to General Hospital, Gajigana, where he is receiving medical treatment and responding positively.

Army troops repel ISWAP attack inflict casualties on the terrorists in Borno

One killed, another injured in mob action in Taraba

By: Zagazola Makama

Atleast one persons killed while another injured following a mob attack in Kunini market, Lau Local Government Area of the state.

Sources told Zagazola Makama that the incident occurred on Saturday at about 2:30 p.m.

The sources said that information received from the Officer-in-Charge of Kunini outpost indicated that two persons were attacked by a mob in the market.

“One of the victims was confirmed dead, while the other was rushed to hospital for treatment,” he said.

Security operatives from Lau Division were promptly mobilised to the scene and took charge of the situation.

The sources assured that investigation was ongoing to ascertain the circumstances that led to the mob action and to identify those responsible.

One killed, another injured in mob action in Taraba