Sai Baba Buhari was a chant you heard from every Almajiri in northern Nigeria because they saw him as their champion. Our National Assembly should now pass a Muhammadu Buhari Almajiri Act to honour him

Ayo Akinfe

[1] We should create a Nigerian Border Guard and seek to recruit 2m of these Almajiri youths into it. Their first task would be to plant trees across Nigeria’s northern border all the way from Kebbi to Adamawa states. These trees, which shall be painted in Nigeria’s colour will mark our territorial borders. Ultimately, they will be tasked with building fences along our borders

[2] Throughout the year, this Border Guard will repaint these trees and will patrol these borders. It will be their job to monitor movement in and out of the country along Nigeria’s northern border

[3] According to the National Council for the Welfare of the Destitute, there are 7m Almajiris in northern Nigeria. We should then seek to soak up a further 3m with an unprecedented public works programme. Employ them to build a Sokoto to Maiduguri high speed railway line. This project will create at least another 2m ancillary jobs

[4] We should then designate Taraba State as a wildlife protection zone with about half of its territory ring-fenced. It will serve as an animal sanctuary and will be protected by an army of Nigerian Wildlife Rangers. We will recruit 500,000 of such rangers with a mandate to ensure there is zero poaching in Nigeria

[5] Every local government area in northern Nigeria will have at least one technical vocation college where youths are trained in a variety of skills from plumbing, to bricklaying to carpentry, etc. The idea will be that nobody is left without a skill that can earn them a living

[6] We will then open up youth camps for orphans and urchins who have no parents or guardians. It is clear that at the moment, such youths are falling into the hands of Boko Haram, Miyetti Allah and kidnappers. There will be technical colleges on all these their youth camps so these youths are trained

[7] We will then establish six mega cattle ranches in Niger, Kano, Borno, Taraba, Kaduna and Yobe states. They will have on site veterinary clinics, leather processing plants, meat abattoirs, animal feed compounding plants and meat packaging factories. We will look to employ about 2m youths in this industry as part of a plan to make Nigeria a major leather goods producer and exporter

[8] Our National Assembly should cost this cattle ranch programme and if it costs say $20bn, we should ask the northern elite to come up with a quarter of the costs, the 19 northern state governments with another quarter, the federal government should come up with a quarter of the funding too, while the rest of the finance should be sought from private investors

[9] Our Nothern States Governors Firum should also approach the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Conference for seed money to kickstart this operation. I believe the Arab world owes Nigeria big time as they brought their faith to us but nothing else. Nigeria is one of the biggest cash cows for the Saudi Arabian tourist industry given the number of pilgrims we send there every year. I believe it is payback time

[10] Each of Nigeria’s 19 northern states must be mandated by law to spend at least 30% of its annual budget on education. This is key to bridging the education gap between the north and south of the country.

ayoakinfe@gmail.com