BORNO STATE
“The Home of Peace” the acronym fits Borno State well as the State is known for its peaceful and hospitable nature despite its diverse differences in terms of history, religion, culture and languages amongst others.

THE HISTORY
People have been living in the Chad Basin Area even before the empire of Kanem Borno was founded in the 8th century.  The Basin, which stretches from tibesti Mountain in the north, the Mandara Mountains in the south, from the ancient town of Air in the west to the Ennedi in the eash, has an area ofd open water, which had once covered its wider parts.  Although, the shorelines still varies, it has been relatively confined to its present size for over 4,000 years.  According to oral traditions, the Teda (TIbesti), Kanuri and Kanembu who lived around the lake and rivers were called Sao.  Legends described them not only as giants and famous hunters but also as people who have founded towns.

Archeological evidences shows that the early societies around the Lake were farmers and fisher men and the occurrence of cattle and sheep bones at settlement sites indicate that animal husbandry was another economic activity.  The Presence of huge clay vessels in and around Borno towns of Ngala and Ndufu in Ngala Local Government Area proved great skills in Ceramic technology of the settlers.  Some historical sites in Borno and outside have also revealed a great wealth in artifacts.

The people known as Sao were in the 15th and 16th centuries displaced by the Sefawa when they settled in Borno.  This would have been the time when the corpuses of oral traditions were formed.  The ancient Sefawa dynasty is said to be Second only to the Ming Dynasty as the longest ruling dynasty in man’s history.

Borno State was created out of the defunct North-Eastern State in 1976 and further subdivided into two in 1991 when Yobe State was carved out of it to form the present State.

GEOGRAPHY
Lying within latitude 100N to 130N and longitude 11.040E and 14.040E.  Borno State which has an area of 69,435 SQ KM and is the largest State in the Federation in terms of land mass.  Located in the North Eastern corner of Nigeria, the State occupies the greatest part of the Chad Basin and shares borders with the Republics of Niger to the North, Chad to the North-East and Cameroun to the East.  Within the country, its neighbours are Adamawa to the South, Yobe to the West and Gombe to the Southwest.  Based on the 2006 provisional census figures.  Borno State has a population of 4,151,193 and population density of approximately 60 inhabitants per square kilometer.  Borno State has a climate, which hot and dry for a greater part of the year although the Southern part is slightly milder.  The period of wet season varies from place to place due to the influence of the various climatic factors such as the direction of the rain bearing winds and topography but generally the rainy season is normally from June to September in the North and may to October in the South with relative humidity of about 49% and evaporation rate of 203 mm per year.  The State has two major vegetation zones viz; Sahel in the North with severe desert encroachment covering most of the Chad Basin areas and Sudan Savannah in the South, which consists of scrubby vegetation, interspersed with tall tree woodlands.