Our Making Nigeria Better series moves on to Borno State today, where we examine its huge potential. This is another state that is sitting on billions of dollars worth of dead capital

Ayo Akinfe

[1] First of all, do you know that Borno State gets more sunshine than any other in Nigeria as its huge landmass of almost 71,000 square kilometres is in the Sudan and Sahel Savannah. Why does Borno not have one of the largest solar farms on the planet?

[2] Also, inadvertently, Boko Haram has helped us in Borno State as about half of its 6m population now lives in the capital Maiduguri. This means we have this huge swathe of unoccupied countryside that is begging to be converted into huge US-style farming prairies, taking commercial agriculture to new heights

[3] What we need in Borno State are huge cassava, sorghum, millet, gum arabic, neem, maize, date, sugarcane, etc plantations, with processing plants in Maiduguri. We then need a rail network linking all 27 local government areas to the capital so farm goods can be processed immediately

[4] Borno is also one of the few states in Nigeria where there is still a lot of African wildlife remaining. You can still find elephants, giraffe, hyenas, etc roaming wildly in Borno. Why on Earth Sambisa Forest has not been converted into a wildlife reserve similar to Kruge Park is beyond me

[5] Under a United Nations programme, the Borno State government then needs to get the Lake Chad Basin Authority to create 30,000 jobs. This can be achieved by turning the lake into a major tourist attraction similar to say Niagra Falls

[6] I am also perplexed as to why Borno State is not home to the world’s largest cattle ranch. Just imagine the number of jobs that would create. We could build a new city from scratch with veterinary clinics, training schools, police stations, hospitals, etc. Sambisa Forest is crying out for this

[7] Borno should also be home to about six specialist prisons for Boko Haram and Iswap fighters where they can be trained and equipped with vocational skills. These prisons will be similar to technical colleges, training them up to at least City and Guild level. Again, this will create thousands of jobs

[8] Borno State should also be home to specialised military units. Nigeria needs to ask its military partners like the US, UK, Germany, France, Russia, etc to help her establish a special paramilitary force which will be trained in rescue missions to deal with matters like the Chibok girls. We need a battalion similar to the US Navy Seals or the British SAS stationed in Borno State

[9] I look at Borno cities such as Dikwa, Gworza, Chibok, Monguno, Marama, etc and ask why they are not all huge industrial estates. They should all be manufacturing sites for agricultural equipment, solar panels, military hardware, etc. I wonder if Nigerians know that during World War Two, the Soviet Union built a city from scratch called Tankograd, where battle tanks were manufactured in their thousands

[10] Somewhere like Bama in southern Borno State for instance, that borders Sambisa Forest, should be dubbed Dairy City. If we are going to turn Sambisa Forest into the world’s largest cattle ranch, Bama should be the centre where all the dairy produce is processed. Abattoirs, milk plants, cheese factories, meat plants, etc, should define Bama