NGScorecard

Promised at the start of his administration to prioritise ending the decade-long Boko Haram/ISWAP insurgency and reclaiming territory lost to the group.

Zulum has overseen major security gains, reopening highways and reclaiming numerous local government headquarters, and has personally survived four assassination attempts by insurgents while touring frontline communities. However, as of 2024 he publicly confirmed that two local government areas remained outside government control, and a November 2025 humanitarian report described a resurgence of Boko Haram/ISWAP activity complicating the state's IDP-return policy.

Promised to rebuild insurgency-damaged schools and drastically reduce Borno's massive out-of-school-children population.

The administration constructed 104 schools, restored 2,931 classrooms, recruited over 4,000 teachers, and reduced the number of out-of-school children from more than 2.2 million to roughly 700,000-800,000 by 2024-2025 — a large reduction, though hundreds of thousands remain out of school and a public petition later called for the state to declare a specific emergency on girl-child education.

Promised to end reliance on IDP camps, which he described as havens of drug abuse and exploitation, by resettling displaced persons back to secured communities of origin.

The administration closed numerous camps — including four in 2022 alone, returning some 11,000 households — and continued closures into 2026, including the state's largest camp at Bama. Human Rights Watch and other monitors documented that many closures proceeded with inadequate consultation and left returnees without sufficient food, water, healthcare, or schools in their home communities, and a 2025 report warned that renewed insurgent activity has put the safety of some returns in question.

Promised to stimulate the local economy and create jobs by promoting agriculture and small-scale industry, particularly for returning IDPs.

The administration has promoted agricultural and small-scale industrial activity as part of its economic recovery push, which it credits with boosting local productivity and employment; comprehensive independently verified job-creation figures were not identified for this entry.

Promised to invest in vocational and skills training to give young people, including former IDPs, an alternative to insurgency and unemployment.

The administration established five vocational enterprise institutes and two second-chance schools for women and girls, reactivated nine existing vocational training centres to train roughly 5,000 artisans annually, and approved over ₦4 billion in local and foreign scholarships for Borno indigenes.

Promised to reduce Borno's heavy dependence on federal allocations by improving internal revenue collection.

Borno's IGR has grown steadily since 2019, rising from about ₦6.52 billion before Zulum took office to ₦8.18 billion in his first year, and the Borno Internal Revenue Service reported collecting roughly ₦19.4 billion from MDAs and local councils in 2023, with a further ₦2.8 billion generated in just six weeks of early 2024.

Implicit obligation, given the scale of reconstruction and humanitarian funding flowing through the state, to maintain transparent stewardship of public resources.

Zulum's audits early in his tenure uncovered 22,556 ghost workers costing the state ₦420 million a month, and a health-sector review later found 91 more ghost staff and 21 workers with fake certificates — genuine anti-corruption wins. But in June 2026 the government was forced to publicly clarify a media allegation that ₦4 billion had been approved and falsely reported as a 100%-complete rail reconstruction project in Maiduguri and Jere that was never executed or paid for, which it blamed on an 'administrative error' in the 2025 budget implementation report rather than addressing whether the underlying allegation of diverted funds was investigated.

Implicit obligation to hold regular, credible local government elections rather than governing through appointed caretaker committees.

Borno held local government council elections in January 2024, which were reported as largely peaceful, but local media coverage described them as marred by voter apathy and open malpractice, raising questions about their credibility as a genuine democratic exercise.

Promised particular attention to closing gender gaps in education given the disproportionate impact of insurgency-era school closures on girls.

The administration opened second-chance schools for women and girls and expanded scholarship funding, but a public Change.org petition later specifically urged Zulum to declare a state of emergency on girl-child education in Borno, suggesting continued unmet demand for a more forceful, dedicated policy response.