From Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
Borno State Governor Babagana Zulum says he is not satisfied with his performance in office two years into his administration.
Zulum in an address at an event organiser by Borno State government to commemorate Democracy Day and his two years in office held in Maiduguri on Saturday, shocked his audience when he made the declaration. He said while politicians were busy talking about 2023, his concerns were on the future of the state.
“We’ve built schools, yes, we’ve built health centres but where are the teachers? Where are the doctors and nurses? While we talk here about what we’ve done in the last two years in office, I’m rather concerned about quality teachers for the schools, qualified doctors and nurses for the hospitals,” he declared.
He said most students in the past studies under trees and not befitting classrooms but with very good teachers and standard. He said his major concern and worries now is how to recruit qualified teachers, doctors and nurses to provide services in schools and primary health care centre built by his administration in the last two years.
He promised to recruit 3,000 teachers before the end of his tenure, embark on training of medical doctors, nurses, marine engineers overseas. He said skill acquisition and capacity building for youths remain the focus of the government in the remaining two years.
He vowed not to sack any teacher but urged civil servants to eschew laziness, absenteeism and nepotism. He also pledged to establish an anti-corruption agency to sanitise the state system.
Zulum equally tasked the military and other security agencies to “tighten their belts” for the reopening of destroyed and deserted. He said the only way to defeat insurgency was through resilience by re-occupying liberated communities.
Earlier in a televised broadcast, he said the state and its people have witnessed continued turbulence amid shared hope, optimism, faith, resilience and communal determination to free people from over a decade of insurgency.
He said he has also visited 27 local governments to identify problems. He said the huge humanitarian challenge made him assumed the role of chief humanitarian officer even as a govenor, distributing relief to thousands of displaced persons.