Prof Zulum: The burden of an intellectual leader, BY TERHEMBA SHIJA

Governor Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno State

  •   These are not the best of times for the intellectual in leadership, particularly one with the title of Professor. Nigerians have gradually developed a deep contempt for knowledge and intellectual leaders are often too eager to know the basic cause of problems and to proffer solutions. They are fundamentalists or busy bodies who are often  too meticulous, too analytical or even too iconoclastic for the Nigerian society that is largely impatient with people thinking about their tomorrow instead of the their today.   
  • Professor Babagana Zulum, the present governor of Borno state is one of such rare intellectuals trusted with elective leadership in the Nigeria. This Agricultural Science expert is the third professor in Nigeria’s political history to become a governor of a state, the first and second  being Prof Ambrose Ali of the defunct Bendel state and Prof Osunbor coming later in Edo state.    
  • An intellectual might not necessarily be of the rank of Professor to be regarded as one or be hated in Nigeria. We have learnt  faster ways of making money so we do not necessarily  subject ourselves to rigors of proper  schooling and character moulding to emerge as elected governors,  ministers and other political VIP positions.
  • Our federal constitution itself glosses over the question of higher education as a basic criteria for holding public offices. Nigerians imagine governance to be a simplistic enterprise of making money for which smart street boys, con-men, money doublers,  prophets and spiritual miracle workers are better at it than those who appear inhibited by morality and integrity garnered from education. 
  • However, the one and a half years reign of Prof Zulum in Borno have proved that Nigerians at all levels need intellectuals of high integrity to handle their affairs. In fact, God must have brought a professor as governor to Borno state particularly at this time  to demonstrate  that the worst of Nigeria can be confronted by the best of us. The indices of Borno are frightening. It’s insecurity is extreme,  being the epicenter of the dreaded Boko Haram insurgency. Borno is a very poor state with a monthly federal allocation averaging N3b a month, witj over 70% of the population living below poverty line of one dollar per day. It’s main natural resource, the lake Chad is in the custody of insurgents. Many of Borno’s primary and secondary schools were destroyed, their students kidnapped, their women raped and the psyche of residents traumatized. It is from this very dark sky that an intellectual star, Zulum, has chosen to shine brilliantly.  
  •   Prof Zulum has fought insecurity in the area by providing vehicles, material aid and moral support with his regular presence in the the frontline with security agencies fighting the Boko Haram. He has massively  reconstructed primary and secondary schools destroyed by the insurgents,  giving them a touch of modernity and taste. Borno hospitals under Zulum have assumed a modernized facelift, acquired rare digital  equipment for diagnosis and a surfeit of drugs and hospital beds.
  • The staff of Borno state are well motivated through many incentives other than the regular payment of their salaries and allowances.       Prof Zulum is a miracle worker. He has built houses in thousands within a year and rehabilitated most of his citizens he met living in IDP camps. The intellectual in him perpetually puts him in harm’s way as he seeks to know why the war against insurgency in the region seems not to end. He stands sturdily like the rock of Gibraltar  for his people and would not commit class suicide. 
  •    Such is the burden of an intellectual leader, a man of conscience and empathy who should not compromise his principles.  Prof Zulum epitomizes the best values in leadership. He brings grace and honour to the office of governor, not the usual excuses of paucity of funds as reason for inertia.  He elevates the status of Nigerian professors and intellectuals once  associated with quackery and exhibitionism. This is the legitimate  alta ego  of the teaming illiterate population of Borno state who appears ready to sacrifice the last drop his bloodfor them.      
  • The burden of an intellectual in leadership is not easy. Nobody who handles it thinks about his security and that of his family in and out of government, neither does he bother for  the thoughts of Swiss accounts or the cosy apartments of Dubai or New York. It is certainly not a load to be carried by those whose minds have not been disciplined by the highest values of enlightenment.  
  •   My family and I  owe Prof Babagana Zulum our prayers for God’s guidance and protection.

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