By Henry Akubuiro
The current president of the Nigerian Folklore Society and former permanent secretary in the Presidency, Abuja, Dr. Bukar Usman, has thrown his weight behind skills acquisition in the Northeast. Speaking recently at the Bura Day Celebration and the Launching of BUWDA Microfinance Bank and Furnishing of the Association’s Guest House at the Skills Acquisition Centre, Marama, Hawul Local Government, Borno State, organised by the Bura Women Development Association (BUWDA), at AGNL Park, Apo, Abuja, Usman said acquiring skills would create multiple strings of income for his Bura people whose mainstay had been agriculture.
The prolific author noted: “I should emphasise that skills of various kinds are badly needed by our people to supplement farming as a major traditional occupation of our people. Farming itself requires the introduction of modern farming methods and production at a higher scale to meet up with the growing population. We tend to leave naturally-endowed vast arable lands suitable for mechanisation uncultivated. It is time to minimise scratching the ground with inefficient hoe and labour intensive, the terrain permitting.”
Six years after BUWDA was inaugurated, the folklorist recalled that the elite women development association of Buraland established the Marama Skills Acquisition Centre in Hawul LGA of Borno in 2020. The Centre was formally commissioned by the Borno State Government on December 31, 2022, which corresponded with the day of the graduation of the first set of trainees.
Usman viewed the edifice as something to be proud of, nay be replicated in other parts of the country: “The Centre is our pride and a showpiece of self help in Buraland, Biu Emirate, Borno State, North-Eastern Nigeria, for others to emulate. It is also a lasting legacy to the goodwill and commitment of the initiators alive and of blessed memory. We should thank those of them alive immensely for their selfless contributions. For those who have passed on, we should continue to remember them with fond memories.”
Suggesting ways to improve agriculture in Buraland, the public intellectual said, “While our native plant species are worth conserving, we should find a way of doing so without jeopardising the dire need for increased crop production. Agricultural Shows should be revived and regularly staged to show improved crop and animal varieties and reward exemplary farmers with new and more efficient farm implements.”
Usman praised the new leadership of BUWDA for embarking on new initiatives to improve the facilities at the Marama Skill Acquisition Centre and accord more comfort to august visitors far and near. He also lauded the new microfinance initiative in Bura, which he said “will further open up our rural communities to modern financial transactions required for rapid socio-economic development.”
He, however, cautioned that “its take-off should be based on sound feasibility studies and assured financial management after its take-off.”