Mai Mala Buni, Yobe state governor, has continued to elicit interests among different social strata in recent months for the manner he has comported himself as the leader of a comparatively small Northern state.

Buni has been governor of Yobe since May 29, 2019 and in a little over 5 years, he has imprinted a new vista of opportunities in the state. And this he has been able to do amid a halo of insecurity casting its ghoulish shadow in the northern part of the country and these days in some parts of southern Nigeria.

Yobe is noted for agriculture and fits as one of the food baskets of the country. Buni at inauguration did not promise to re-invent the wheel. He pledged to boost agriculture, agrarian and pastoral, in the state. He pledged improved healthcare, quality and accessible education, among others, including empowerment of the youths to enhance their productivity and creativity.

To make good his promise, he has modernised and changed the way the people practise agriculture. The state procured 7,500 metric tons (250 trucks) of NPK 15:15:15 fertiliser during the 2019/2020 cropping season and sold to farmers at highly subsidised price of N5,000.00 per bag.

To enhance production, the government placed emphasis on dry season cultivation of crops. Buni’s futuristic disposition also made his government to procure 1500 metric tons (50 Trucks) of NPK 20:10:10 fertiliser to support 2022/2023 irrigation farming in the state. These fertilisers were distributed and sold at a subsidised rate of N13,000.00 per bag through open market sales to the general public and allocation to LGAs, ministries, agencies, farmers’ cooperative societies, large scale farmers, among others. These efforts were complimented with the procurement of tractors to boost commercial farming. The endpoint of this has been the steady supply of farm produce from Yobe to the rest of the country despite the threat of insecurity.

Like a sculptor who has set out to carve a masterpiece, Buni has been chiseling the basics and fundamentals for the ultimate transformation of Yobe in the 21^st century. One of the latest strategies for the transformation of the state was consummated recently in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, after a meeting between officials of the state and officials of Arab Bank for Economic Development (BADEA). The mutual agreement between the state and the bank was intended to foster growth in energy and agriculture development.

Inking a partnership with BADEA was both strategic and smart and it indexes the governor’s strong desire to advance Yobe economically. BADEA, coined from its French initials (Banque Arabe pour le Développement Economique en Afrique) is a development bank owned by Arab League especially founded to provide development financing to African countries.

The bank was established following a resolution of the 6th Arab Summit Conference at Algiers on November 28, 1973, but commenced operations in 1975. Ever since, BADEA has played critical roles in fostering economic, financial and technical cooperation between the Arab world and African nations. It has morphed into a strong development bridge, cementing Arab-Africa relations.

The bank’s experience in helping to reflate economies of African nations will help to fire up Yobe economy. It’s a win-win partnership that would create jobs for the state’s teeming youths as well as    enhance security and infrastructure in Yobe.

The partnership will cover a wide spectrum of endeavours including agriculture, vocational training, infrastructural development, education, healthcare delivery, energy and security. Until the recent attack on Mafa by insurgents, Yobe has remained comparatively peaceful. That is not to say it has not suffered the scourge of insecurity as has its neighbouring states in the north east. The deal with BADEA will help Yobe recover from the ruins rendered by insurgency in some parts of the state especially the rural communities where the main preoccupation of the people, agriculture, has suffered bouts of disruptions.

Dr Sidi Tah, President of the bank made allusion to this when he said that with the efforts made by the state government in the reconstruction, rehabilitation and recovery efforts after decades of Boko Haram insurgency, BADEA is happy to partner with Yobe towards improving the lives of the people. “We are ready to partner with your state to improve on the achievements made,” he told Buni.

The step that Governor Buni has taken will not only impact Yobe, it will positively impact the nation’s food security ambition. It bears reaffirming that Yobe is a major supplier of pastoral products – meat, milk, hides and skin – to the national basket. It has the largest pastoral market in West Africa.

What Buni is doing in Yobe in agriculture fits into the Renewed Hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu; a vision to enhance Nigeria’s food security through local agricultural activities using technology and hybrid seeds to create swathes of flourishing agricultural estates which translates to available and affordable food on the tables in Nigerian homes.

Another strategic partnership by the Buni leadership is the collaboration with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), essentially to enhance job creation for unemployed graduates and by extension create real wealth in the state. Buni has been a strong advocate for youth empowerment through upskilling and provision of requisite capital to enable hitherto unemployed graduates and youths to transit into entrepreneurship and become job and wealth creators instead of job-seekers.

To reduce unemployment in the state, the government recently employed university graduates, Higher and Ordinary Diploma holders, and National Certificate of Education graduates across the 178 political wards in the state.

While hosting the Director-General of SMEDAN, Mr Charles Odii, in Damaturu recently, Buni said that youths trained by the state in various trades were not only gainfully employed but also became employers of labour.

Odii said the agency will stimulate and coordinate development of Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in the state to promote self-sufficiency by providing benefitting graduates with skills to accelerate self-employment for economic prosperity of individuals and the state.

Buni’s focus on SMEs as drivers of the economy is a throwback to the Asian model of bottom-up economic development. The impact is largely futuristic. The devotion of Yobe governor to agriculture and strengthening of MSMEs is the model Nigeria needs at the moment to replicate in every state to guarantee food security and build a solid primary sector that will cater for both domestic demands and for export.

Buni should sustain and see through the various partnerships and it’s only a matter of time, Yobe’s self-sustainability stature would be enhanced.

Dambatta, a pastoral entrepreneur, writes from Kano