“I had opportunity of learning the Qu'ran and other Islamic knowledge when I was very young.”
“I came out with flying colous, all arrangements were made for me to get married and as fate would have it, I again protected, as I wanted to continue my education”
“I actually wanted to do Islamic Studies, but it is always fate that determines what you do. I was doing both Islamic Studies and Hausa and this lecturer who went to my secondary school to give us forms to get admission to university was a Hausa lecturer, so he influenced my decision in which area I should go. He was saying ‘ we don’t have students in Hausa, please try and take that course.”
“When I went to London, I was happy to see that even European professors in Hausa would give practical lessons in language, and they would tell you that you are wrong in pronouncing this or that. It made me stronger in learning the language.”
“My first book was on Mu’azu, the poet in Jigawa. It was my PhD project and I selected him as a poet, because he impacted on my life. There was a particular poem he wrote on obedience to parents and my sister used to recite it while cooking and I picked from there. There’s another, also, about the flag- bearers of the Caliphate.”