Usman Dan Fodio Week 1446AH/2024 grand finale holds today
The grand finale of Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio Week for the year 1446AH/2024 holds in Sokoto today Saturday November 2, 2024 at the International Conference Centre, Kasarawa, Sokoto.
Topic of the lecture for today’s all-important event titled, “Unity As A panacea To Insecurity And Poverty: Lessons From The Sokoto Jihad Leaders”, will be delivered by immediate past Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, as the Chief Guest Lecturer.
The 11th edition this year coincides with the 18th anniversary of His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, CFR, mni, on his Usmaniyyah Throne as the 20th Sultan of Sokoto Caliphate.
The DEFENDER recalls that 10th edition of the Week held in 1445 AH/2023 ended with showers of prizes on Etsu Nupe, His Royal Highness Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, Registrar of Joint Admissions and Matriculation (JAMB), Professor Is-haq Oloyede, former Head of Service of the Federation, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed and three others.
The grand finale held on Thursday November 2, 2023, a fixed date for the annual event coincided with 17th Anniversary of His Eminence Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar on the Usmaniyyah Throne of the Sultan of Sokoto.
This globalised online newspaper reports that grand finale of the 10th edition last year was held with His Royal Highness Ambassador Ahmad Nuhu Bamalli, the Emir of Zazzau, as Chairman of the occasion.
The event, which featured presentation of awards to winners of school quiz competitions earlier conducted during activities in the build-up to the main day, saw very many prominent personalities in attendance including Governors of states of the old Sokoto province namely Dr Ahmed Aliyu (Sokoto), Alhaji Nasir Idris (Kebbi) and Alhaji Dauda Lawal (Zamfara) who were either physically present or were ably represented at the event.
The Etsu Nupe and Chairman of the Niger State Emirate Council, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, and the Emir of Kaura-Namoda, Alhaji Sanusi Muhammad, were conspicuously noticed among traditional rulers who graced the occasion as an indication of respect to the ancestral headquarters that Sokoto Caliphate religiously and traditionally represents.
Renowned international Islamic scholar, Dr. Zakir Naik, was chief guest speaker at this year’s event where he spoke on the topic, “Al Qur’an The Global Necessity.”
Year before the last, that is 2022, it was America-born Dr. Abdullah Hakim Quick, who flew in from his base in Ontario, Canada, to deliver the Ninth Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio Week grand finale lecture. Asides Dr. Quick, a renowned scholar and PhD holder in ‘Aspects of Islamic Social Intellectual History in 19th Century Hausa Land: Uthman Ibn Fodio’, other scholars who featured in the success of the 1444/2022 edition of the Usman Dan Fodio Week included Professor Mohammad Taofeek Ibrahim, a former Vice Chancellor of Al-Hikmah University, Iloriin, Professor S. O. Raibiu of the Factulty of Law, Usmanu Dan Fadio University, Sokoto, and Professor Chika Umar Aliyu of the Department of Economics Usman Dan Fodio University Sokoto and Dr. Salisu Bakori of the Centre for Islamic Propagation, Katsina State and many more.
