ZULUM: THE LOVE OF MANY AND THE HATE OF FEW 

ZULUM: THE LOVE OF MANY AND THE HATE OF FEW 

By: Inuwa Bwala

No matter how good a leader could be, it is not possible for him to satisfy everybody, just as it is not possible for everybody to love him or her. What is perhaps important is the rating of such a leader in the eyes of majority right thinking people.

Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum may not have the time to “throw stones at every dog that barks at him”, neither does he enjoy the comfort of replying every critic, but his fans are so many and can always tell the truth about things happening in Borno.

I am one of Professor Babagana Umara Zulums fans and I have never pretended about my position nor hidden my identity.

I am a stakeholder in the Borno project and  I am one of the people who know our Governor is doing well and he deserves our collective support. I am ready to defend my position on any issue I have written about Governor Zulum and matters affecting Borno generally any day. 

So, when a colleague forwarded a piece by one AB Asinamai,to me in which the author tried to denigrate the Governor, my initial reaction was to ignore it, knowing same to be a piece of mischief.

But this is politicking period and unless that rascally narrative is corrected, it may be elevated to issues of campaign.

Even at that, I will not discuss the messenger, knowing Asinamai is a pseudo name, which has no bearing with any tribe or culture in Borno State. Though ostensibly doing a hatchet job, his sponsors, who are well known may not have to be exposed just yet.

I will not re-echo the diatribes either, as every right thinking person knows same to be an agenda setting strategy. But in trying to stand facts on their heads, Asinamai seems to have endeared Zulum more to Nigerians and one will be unjustifiably helping the author or his sponsors promote their faulty  argument, if their views are re-echoed.

One of the finest brains in image making, the late Wada Maida  once told me that, the best media strategy is not to allow ones critics put one on the defensive. 

He was in lafia on a private visit while I was engaged as the image maker to then Governor Abdullahi Adamu, and while exchanging views with me on how to handle  threats by some members of the then House of Assembly in Nasarawa State to impeach the Governor, the veteran journalist opined that, to  avoid being on the defensive is to often ignore certain postulations that lack bite.

Indeed, that threat ended with the only  press release the disgruntled members issued, as the matter was never discussed again.

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Coming at a time when Nigerians could see through Governor Zulum as one of Nigerian future hope,  it sounds rather insulting that people could cook up stories portraying Zulum as a villain. 

It is consoling however that Nigerians could  see through the actions of the Governor and it is consensual  that Zulum is a good leader, who has made the difference in leadership and govetnance.

The posers for Asinamai at this juncture, is, when did innovations become the outcome of cluelessness, how did attending to the needs of helpless citizens became an act of corruption, how did building infrastructures amount to siphoning public funds and when did offsetting the arrears of public servants entitlements became an act of deprivation?

It is only in the logics of the Asinimais that cleanliness translates to dirts and dodged and pragmatic governance amount to dictatorship. It is also in the myopic world of the Asinimais that verified facts become fictions and acceptability amounts to rejection.

ZULUM: THE LOVE OF MANY AND THE HATE OF FEW