Borno state Governor Babagana Zulum’s massive infrastructural projects will accelerate socio-economic growth of the state ravaged by decade-long Boko Haram insurgency, a project management consultant, Engr. Yusuf Bello, has said.
Engr Bello, a principal partner in Sanab International Links Limited, a project management consortium, disclosed this in a chat with journalists in his office in Abuja on Thursday.
He said it’s gladdening that despite the security challenges, Zulum is transforming the state into a model in terms of public centric- infrastructure and inclusive governance.
Engr Bello said, “Governor Zulum has transformed the state ravaged by decade-long lethal insurgency into a construction site. There is no sector that is left behind. He is building edifices that can compete anywhere in the world in terms of quality, functionality, ecstatic and above all impact on the public.”
The project management expert said the Asian Tigers and Middle Eastern countries have become international hubs “because of the infrastructural revolution undertaken by their leaders in the last decades. That is what Professor Zulum is currently doing in Borno state.”
He said Nigeria is suffering from infrastructure deficits which is grossly affecting its realization of its massive economic potentials. Governments at all levels, he said, must invest in quality infrastructure to speed up growth and development.
He said it is clear that Zulum has understood this need and hence his “turning Borno state into a construction site. Where areas such as health, education, security, empowerment, agriculture, transports, capital development, water resources, among others are given maximum attention.”
Bello said the Borno governor’s feat has dazzled even President Muhammadu Buhari, who marveled at the quality and ecstatic of Tijjani Bolori Memorial Day Secondary School in Maiduguri during its commissioning recently when he was told it was constructed by an indigenous company.
Tijjani Bolori college comprising 50 classrooms, admin block, e-library, five laboratories, sporting facilities, exams halls, toilets, was constructed by Sanab International Links Limited, and is one of the 17 mega schools built by Zulum’s administration across the state so far.
He said infrastructural development opens up countries and states, without which industrialization can’t take place. He said it amazes experts how the governor with scarce resources is “blending the provision of capital projects with other aspects of human development that involve revamping education, securing lives and property of the citizens, empowering and resettling IDPs, reinventing the public service, among others.”
