Amidst loud ovation, Dr Kullima bows out as Borno SUBEB chair’

Having served out his six years constitutionally allowed tenure as the Executive Chairman Borno State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), the first to last that long, Dr Shettima Kullima has officially handed over the reins of authority at the board to a new helmsman.

Dr Kullima pleasantly confirmed his exit to The Humanitarian Times on Monday, October 25, 2021, at noon, in his office during an exclusive interview.

Hours later, Governor of Borno state, Babagana Zulum, supervised the inauguration of a new SUBEB to be headed by Professor Bulama Kagu, another seasoned educationist.

Governor Zulum in his thought-provoking inaugural speech acknowledged the incomparable achievements of Dr Kullima.

“The former board, led by Dr Shettima Bukar Kullima, made us proud for the commendable achievement recorded, and we wish him the best in his future endeavours,” Zulum said.

Indeed, Dr Kullima’s landmark of accomplishment at the Borno SUBEB has earned him an uncommon accolade as the best chief executive of the UBE programme across Nigeria.

The most recent icing on the cake of Dr Kullima’s achievement was the recent $60 million grant he attracted to the state from the World Bank under the Basic Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) program. Borno state was the last to join the league of 17 states that enrolled under the World Bank’s BESDA project which seeks to take away children from the streets to classrooms where they could at least acquire basic numeric and literacy.

When he was appointed six years ago, at the height of the Boko Haram insurgents attack on public schools and education personnel, Dr Kullima inherited a SUBEB that is panting to deal with 512 destroyed schools, 2,246 destroyed classrooms, over 500 teachers who were either killed or forced to flee the state.

Responding to a marching order handed to him by the Borno state government, Dr Kullima plunged into a chaotic workspace and began to magically fix things with the full support of reoriented and revitalized staffers and board members.

Today, as Dr Kullima closed his file as the outcome CEO at the SUBEB, he has left behind him a long list of achievements which consist 922 classrooms, toilets, stores and offices; 21 Administrative buildings in 21 schools; remodelled 257 classrooms in Borno central and North, while 57 was remodelled in southern Borno between 2015 and 2017.

Dr Kullima said his board has also built 58 blocks of 2-bedrooms; drilled 37 solar-powered second aquifer boreholes fitted with overhead tanks.

The outgone board had in the last 6 years seen to the building of 19 mega schools; built six states of the earth laboratories, and four ICT Centers, and four libraries in four mega schools.

Dr Kullima said his board had also succeeded in the renovation of the board headquarters; established the Education Management Information Systems (EMIS); built six bedroom guests within the board, two giant stores; a new conference hall; acquire seven utility vehicles for effective delivery of education services.

The board has also trained 16,000 teachers in various filed like pedagogy, school management, psychosocial support, disaster risk management and Quality Assurance.

Dr Kullima said his most exciting achievement was the sponsorship of 50 orphaned girls to the Zaria Academy.

With a robust relationship with international donor agencies like UNICEF, Dr Kullima said Borno SUBEB has received enormous supports in the area of providing a safer school environment for children.

* Watch out for the detailed interview series with Dr Shettima Kullima.