Times of peace and prosperity hardly   provide the trenches for the true test of strength and wisdom. It the days of austerity and uncertainty that provide the drumbeats to which courage must dance without breaking for it to be found genuine.

It is certainly not an exciting time to be Governor of Borno State. Since Boko Haram went full-time into the business of death and destruction, their main theatre of   operations has been Borno State.

The State, blessed with ancient towns and proud traditions, has felt the full force of the sect`s savage fury. Lives have been cut short or irrevocably altered; infrastructure and innumerable means of livelihood have been wiped out. To put it mildly, Boko Haram`s cunningly relentless attack has turned Borno State upside down.

Reports indicate that the immediate past Governor of the State, Ibrahim Shettima worked wonders in the State even with the odds stacked against him. After eight years of Boko Haram’s fire and fury, he duly handed over to Governor Babagana Zulum. So it was the helm of this crucible of insecurity that Governor Zulum assumed. The sailing has been anything but smooth. It never promised to be.

Borno State has become a microcosm of Nigeria, a broken mirror that reflects its many disjointed parts and problems. BokoHaram commands large swathes of the State, launches frequent attacks on security forces, health workers and civilians alike, and spreads its tentacles of terror to neighbouring states and countries.

These days, Borno State is always at the centre of both local and international news as the epicenter of the terrorist activities, and the place where soldiers and health workers alike are caught down.

Governor Zulum is yet to be a year into his four-year tenure as Governor of Borno State but already he has a ringside view of the threat Boko Haram is posing to Nigeria. He is alarmed at the kid gloves with which the Nigerian government is treating the group. He has previously cried out   in frustration against some members of the Nigerian army and again he was recently in the news for gestures extended to a teacher in the State.

It is only reasonable that morale is low amongst the men of the Nigerian army. They have been at the forefront of defending Nigeria for years and in spite of the heroic courage they continue to demonstrate, their mortality is finally beginning to show.

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They are sometimes short of ammunition and left stranded to be shredded by Boko Haram’s superior artillery. They note how the families of fallen colleagues are treated with nothing more than the meager amounts of money and perfunctory gestures of gratitude and support.

However, more than all these, each life snuffed out, and each house razed, each village sacked registers in their psyche, peeling away layers of heart and humanity.

The blame for the crushing conditions under which men of the Nigerian army confront Boko Haram and Governor Zulum`s cries of frustration must be laid properly at the feet of those who operate the power levers of the country.

Many Nigerians have been left wondering what has hit them in the last five years. President Muhammadu Buhari came into office promising much hope. However, he wasted little time in eviscerating those hopes. Today, its last vestiges have brutally fallen victim to lethargy and outright ineptitude.

It is still early days but Professor Zulum is showing that he is the man for the moment. For some people far away from Borno State, time is running out to show that Nigerians did not make a historic mistake in handing over the care of a troubled giant to them.

Kene Obiezu,

Abuja