Media aides to Governor Babagana Umara Zulum of Borno State have released the “5th Verdict” to showcase his achievements and commemorate his 55th birthday, which is celebrated every August 25th.
The Secretary to the Borno State Government, Alhaji Bukar Tijani, who represented Governor Zulum, unveiled the compendium.
The ceremony was held Sunday, 25 August, 2024 at the Governor’s Office, Musa Usman State Secretariat, Maiduguri.
A statement from Abdurrahman Ahmed Bundi, Zulum’s Senior Special Assistant on New Media who is also the Compendium’s Deputy Editor, highlighted that the publication includes news reports, analyses, features, columns, commentaries, discourses, editorials, selected speeches, and scorecard on the fifth year of Professor Zulum’s tenure as Governor of Borno State, from May 29, 2023 to May 29, 2024.
The compendium series was initiated by Zulum’s late spokesperson, Malam Isa Gusau, who assembled a team to work all year round for the compilation. The team collates and compiles relevant news and media discourses that shaped decisions, policies, and programmes during the tenure of his principal in office to document history and the process of governance.
The latest compendium is the fifth in the series. It is a 307-page document with 22 sections, including a Scorecard on Zulum’s performance in his fifth year as Governor, as well as President Bola Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima’s visits to commission innovative people-oriented projects in Borno State.
Two newspaper editorials from different media organisations also eulogise the Governor’s legacies in the education sector and compassionate interventions to mitigate the high cost of living, resulting from the fuel subsidy removal.
The sectoral compilation in the “5th Verdict” comprise 25 stories on Zulum’s humanitarian engagements, 21 news articles and discourses on security, 7 stories on resettlement and reconstruction, 13 news and features on transport, infrastructure and energy, 27 on education, and 9 on healthcare.
The compendium has other publications on Agriculture, Water Resources and Environment; Religion, Culture and Festivities; Budget, Economic Planning, and Commerce; Civil Service, Vocations, and Appointments; and activities from the Deputy Governor’s Office.
The “5th Verdict” also documents issues from the Office of the First Lady and Women Affairs; Zulum’s ‘Unusual’ Approach to Governance and Witnesses to his Service Delivery. There are equally articles on Awards, Tributes and Special Occasions; Foreign, Inter-governmental and Development Partnerships, as well as engagements and discourses emanating from the North-East Governors’ Forum.
This year’s compendium, the fifth in the series, has equally documented special tributes and news on the death of the founding Editor-in-Chief and former spokesperson to Governor Zulum, Malam Isa Gusau, who died on January 11, 2024.
Since the public presentation of the “First Verdict”, Zulum’s media aides and associates have sustained the release of subsequent series to coincide with his birthday.
The “First Verdict” , a 300-page compilation of articles published by various media outlets during Zulum’s first year in office, from 2019 to 2020 was launched in August 2020 at a state event held at the Government House in Maiduguri. The publication includes 336 articles across 17 thematic sections, as well as transcripts from Governor Zulum’s First Anniversary media chat with journalists from prominent local, national, and international media organisations.
