By Yusuf Adamu
May Almighty Allah, SWT, continue to bestow wisdom and direction on Your Excellency, Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum, the servant of the people and the reformer of the desert; and may you walk and never stumble.
Thanks to your commissioning of the Borno State Vocational Training Enterprise, a new era has begun in Biu Local Government Area. This is a promise that has been made and kept. This will further solidify the residents of Biu’s pledge of allegiance to your administration and bring them together, regardless of their political affiliation.
The vocational center is an edifice that is made up of 15 workshops that include tailoring and fashion design, hairdressing and cosmetology, welding, plumbing and pipe-fitting, carpentry and joinery, building technology, electrical works, solar panel installation, automobile and mechatronics, agricultural technology, knitting and crocheting, aluminum fabrication, and ICT training facilities.
This was timely, particularly at a time when youth restiveness and thuggery, among other things, have become important concerns, not only to the citizenry, but also governments at every tier.
The center will help to develop and empower these unemployed people so that they may become self-sufficient and employers of labor because, following the training, the beneficiaries will receive certificates and start-up capital in the form of money or working tools. This is a call to action for Biu stakeholders to support and send their children – both male and female – to enroll in this center if we are to truly assist the government in re-modeling Biu.
By having more youths at this center, it will boast SMSEs, which are considered engines of growth, employment creators, etc., as captured theoretically and tested empirically. Therefore, Biu Town will not be an exception, as countries like Brazil, China, and India, among others, are on the same path, which is why they are where they are today.
Consequently, if we want to have a sustainable and thriving Biu economy, we, as the people of Biu, both within and outside the state, must make sure we maintain and support the enterprise directly or indirectly, or, in other words, take ownership of the center.
Once again, thank you, His Excellency, for this wonderful gesture.
•Hon. Adamu writes from Biu Local Government of Borno State.
