Borno Almajiri Who Fabricated ‘Hand Tractor’ Gets N5m

Governor of Borno State, Babagana Umara Zulum has given the sum of N5million to support a talented almajiri in Borno State, who fabricated a farming plough machine, manually pushed for the tilling of farmlands. Ploughs are usually attached to tractors, other means of transport, or manually dragged in farms.

Zulum, a professor of irrigation farming, was impressed that Laminu Mohammed, a 25-year-old from Gubio local government area in northern Borno State, who had never attended any formal school except traditional Islamic education called Tsangaya in Borno, could develop such a machine.

Laminu used components of a lister engine which is originally made for water pump, to construct a plough which works like a tractor that is pushed by hand.
Zulum was informed of Laminu’s talent by a government official.
The governor who is an engineer, invited Laminu, and during technical interaction, the almajiri proved his skills for the invention after which he was rewarded with N5million.
He said the amount is to inspire the ‘unschooled engineer’ to produce more ploughs and possibly, other agricultural machineries that can serve farmers in Borno State.
Zulum’s support for Laminu came barely two weeks after the governor approved over N5million for a 13-year-old primary school boy who used mud to copy-design Borno’s first flyover located along the Maiduguri – Gamboru Ngala Highway.
In another instance, Zulum had presented five mini buses and N20 million cash to a young Borno man who specialises in converting buses with petrol engines to solar-powered electric vehicles. The support was passed to Phoenix Renewable Energy Group owned by the beneficiary.